All this talk about Fergie abusing referees is getting old. Fast.
Neville has said multiple times that the experienced United players know not to berate the referee and that they simply stay in his vicinity and build a rapport with him. Different referees have different personalities and respond in different ways and the players would adapt to that. It's more conducive to stay in the referees ear, and have actual discussions with him rather than spit venom in his face at every given opportunity.
As for Fergie at the weekend, he was well within his rights to have a heated discussion with the referee at HT about what was a very controversial decision. He is able to question and query the decision. This is not a problem. If he starts verbally intimidating, insulting, or questioning the referees integrity then a problem arises. All the images I have seen are of Fergie shouting and discussing the OG incident. Again, this is relatively normal. Unless someone can lip read or had a fucking laser microphone on Fergie and Mike Dean and can tell us exactly what was said, then I'm going to assume that it was all above board since Dean didn't report the incident or discipline Ferguson.
Every week there are managers up and down England shouting at any official in sight and criticizing them after every game. What Fergie did at HT was not so extraordinary or so outrageous that it warrants calls from other managers to have him banned.
United are simply better at interacting with referees and Ferguson shouting and discussing an incident at HT with the referee is not so out of place in the modern game. Other managers sticking their nose in without even knowing what was said is fucking laughable.
If you want to criticize Fergie, then go ahead, I already said that his comments last week were embarrassing, and he's made many mistakes and been punished for his fair share, but to keep exhaustively moaning and bitching with weak (and incorrect) arguments is getting old. In any case, you (by which I mean the media and the other managers and professionals) just play right into his siege mentality.
What's more, I'm very sympathetic to referees. They have a difficult job, they face endless criticism and abuse from every corner (the players, the managers, the media) of the game, they have very little technology at their disposal like in other sports and their pay is shit for what they have to put up with. Different referees respond to different incidents on different days.
You can try and harmonize the referees performance on the pitch by having regular meetings and discussions, but each referee is an individual and will have different limits when it comes to arguing with managers at HT. Had Fergie done this in the middle of the game, then he almost certainly would have been banned.
What's the theory again? That Fergie influences the FA and gets managers he doesn't like demoted? Come on...
