Only Sir Alex Ferguson could do it. As a football writers'
lunch in the north west came to an end yesterday, the
Manchester United manager rose from his seat, thanked the
sponsors for their largesse and headed for the door.
Then, as the assembled journalists sipped their coffee, they
absent-mindedly reached for their mobiles to check for
messages. It was then Ferguson served dessert - and it
wasn't creme brulee.
On the phones of carefully-selected hacks there was a curt
message from the club informing them they had been "banned".
The 'crime' of the journalists concerned was to recount
Ferguson's blast at a radio reporter last week, when a man
with a microphone foolishly blurted out the words 'David'
and 'Beckham'.