Fergie’s book

THE release of Sir Alex Ferguson’s latest autobiography has overshadowed pretty much everything else in the sporting world this week.

Manchester United arrested their early-season slump with a win in Europe on Wednesday night – but still their ex-manager’s revelations continue to dominate the press and airwaves.

To be fair, the drip-feed in the papers has got me interested. I’m not a United fan but the book is certainly on my Christmas list.

In defence of Sir Alex, he’s done this at the right time. He’s just retired, so he’s still very relevant, but at the same time, he’s no longer active.

Of course, I’m sure not all of the book is as explosive as the extracts would make you think, but the sections involving David Beckham, Roy Keane and Arsene Wenger do sound especially juicy.

I was interested to hear Keane questioning his former boss’ loyalty on television the other night. I don’t remember the Irishman making the same complaint when Sir Alex stood by him in the wake of his book scandal.

Keane’s book got him banned for five games after he admitted to purposely injuring an opponent. I’m sure Sir Alex’s autobiography contains nothing that incendiary.

To be honest, I’m more interested in the parts of the book that won’t make the papers. The bits that describe how he came to know about certain players and what goes on behind the scenes.

Maybe I’m just a bit sad.

Racism rears its ugly head once more

FOOTBALL’S image took another blow on Wednesday as Yaya Toure was the victim of racist abuse during a Champions League game in Russia.

It’s well known that racism is a problem, especially in eastern Europe, but does anyone really expect anything to be done about this incident? I don’t.

I suspect UEFA will issue a strong rebuke and possibly a fine to CSKA Moscow, whose fans were responsible on this occasion – but to make an impact, they need to start handing out real punishments.

Forcing CSKA to play in front of an empty stadium would be a start, but even tougher measures, such as points deductions and disqualifications, are the only way to stop these bigoted idiots.

At the other end of the scale, we saw Roy Hodgson have to apologise for a joke that happened to contain the phrase “space monkey”.

No offence was meant and none of the England players present seemed to take issue with it. It’s worrying that the joke came to light outside the dressing room and I’m sure Hodgson will be keen to find out who told the press, but beyond that, it was all political correctness gone mad.