Oh the title race in England is heating up as both Manchester City and Manchester United have used the media this week to throw barbs at their rivals.
It started earlier this week when City football development executive Patrick Vieira said that United’s decision to bring back a retired Paul Scholes was a sign that there is “a little bit of weakness” in the Premier League leaders’ squad.
“Paul Scholes is a player that I really love and admire, one of the best English players of the last few years, and seeing him come back is good for him and for United,” Vieira said.
“But for him to come back just shows a little bit of weakness in United, because they had to bring a player back who was 37.
“I think it shows that, in the next few years, it will be really difficult for United to cope with other teams because, with all the respect I have for Scholes, him coming back shows that they don’t have talent in there to replace him.
“When you see United losing young players like Ravel Morrison and maybe Paul Pogba, they should be really worried because that wouldn’t have happened in the past.”
Well at his weekly press conference today, Sir Alex Ferguson first responded to Viera’s jibe by saying:
”If it’s desperation bringing the best midfielder in Britain back for the last 20 years then I think we can accept that,” said Ferguson. ”I think he (Vieira) was programmed for that.
And then landing his own shot at City for playing Carlos Tevez in mid-week against Chelsea:
”If you talk about desperation, they played a player the other night who refused to go on the pitch, the manager said he’d never play again and he takes a five-month holiday in Argentina. What is that? Could that come under the description of desperation?”
I expect these to be simply the first volley’s between these two sides as all signs point to a title decider at the Etihad stadium next month.