DEFERENCE AND ARTICULATION

Not since 2004 has `Sir` Alex Ferguson spoken on camera to the BBC. The golden silence that has lasted all that time began when the BBC screened a documentary which was critical of the dealings of Ferguson`s son, Jason, then a football agent. `Sir` Alex took offence at the intimation that his son was using his father`s position of influence to further his own career as a football agent and so, since then, all BBC post match interviews wth Manchester United have been conducted by a succession of Ferguson`s assistants such as Carlos Querios and more latterly by Mike Phelan.

Now all of that could be about to change, for the Premier League have introduced new rules for the 2010/11 season which requires club managers to personally give post match interviews themselves. Manchester United are away at Fulham this coming Sunday and the game is sure to be featured on Match of the Day 2 on BBC 2 on Sunday evening. It appears that one of the BBC`s football correspondents, Jonathan Pearce, will be given the task of commentating on the game and attempting to interview Ferguson afterwards, in line with the new Premier League dictat.

I wish him well and it should make for interesting viewing, given the marked contrast between Pearce`s infectious enthusiasm and Ferguson`s default Caledonian mumblings. I`ve given up watching Premier League football on television. I`m simply tired of all the hype, the excess and the tastelessness of it all. But I might just catch the end of Sunday night`s programme in the vain hope that Pearce might avoid unwarranted deference and Ferguson might show a measure of articulation becoming of a knight of the realm. But given the inevitability of plus ca change I might have wished that the Premier League had left their rules well alone.