The happiest moment of Steve McClaren’s footballing career must have come during his time at Old Trafford, when winning trophies was second nature and worrying about making either Middlesbrough or England into trophy winners was merely a bad dream.
So it’s to be expected that McClaren’s boss and mentor at the time, Sir Alex Ferguson, would come to his defense,
Ferguson said:”Of course he will bounce back. He’s not the only person that’s been sacked. He’s young enough to come back.
“I cannot understand why they made the decision at 8.30 the next morning. They don’t have a match until February.
“I just think they should have waited a little bit.”
“He is on the young side and I told him that at the time,” said Ferguson.
“International management is difficult and I think it is hard trying to make yourself feel as though you are busy and using your energy wisely.”
Yes, it was 8:30 the next morning. Yes, there wasn’t a game to February. But this disaster wasn’t some one off amongst a run of wonderful performances or results. Qualification would have been a stay of execution for Stevie M and the only surprise here was that the FA bothered to wait till the next day.
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