BT Sport's post-match show, Premier League Tonight is belatedly becoming really quite good. Having filled it with nonsense affectations of three-word match report tweets, annoyed fans barking into a phone camera and desultory b****r, last week they finally realised what they had on their hands. Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, and Frank Lampard have a wealth of football experience along with being articulate and far enough removed from their pasts and allegiances to talk openly about their careers. As a result, the show finally allowed them to just talk, and a fascinating ten-minute discussion on the internecine rivalries that scuppered the England national team followed.
Tonight, Martin Keown has replaced Gerrard and the lads are dedicating the show to chatting about the Arsenal/United rivalry in light of a clash between the sides for the ages.
Graham Poll was on hand too, to recall the Keane/Viera clash in the Highbury tunnel. Throughout the course of the conversation, Poll recalled how Ferguson would try to influence referees.
Martin Keown - never one to shirk a United/Arsenal clash - revealed that he deliberately took action to ensure Ferguson could not influence a referee during half-time.
To give you an idea as to Alex Ferguson's influence: with England, we would land back from away trips in Luton. Ferguson said no, he wanted us to land in Manchester, and we landed in Manchester, because he felt there were more players in the north-west.
That man had his foot in every camp.
So when it was my turn to play against him, I made sure after the semi-final of the FA Cup when he really got in the referee's face, I made sure that he would never get that comfort again.
So whenever we played them, at half-time I made sure I was first in the tunnel, looking for Alex Ferguson. Making sure that I could block his pathway to the referee.
I wasn't going to beat up an old man, I was just going to ferry him away from the referee.
I didn't necessarily have to ever do it...but I was keeping an eye on him.
The referee that day [in the Cup semi-final] had fear in his eyes, and I could not believe the fury with which he went after this referee. So I thought I couldn't let that happen again.
Outstanding.
