Ferguson vs Calderon - Footbo

Real Madrid president Roman Calderon and Man Utd manager Sir Alex Ferguson shared a fierce battle of words this summer, over the signature of Cristiano Ronaldo. Many scathing comments were exchanged, and everybody involved in football seemed to have their say. Perhaps the most memorable, and most stupid, comment was made by Sepp Blatter, who made an incredible blunder when he compared Ronaldo's situation to modern slavery. A person who is earns millions of pounds in a single month can't be enslaved, surely? He signed the contract himself and should oblige to the terms and conditions that he has signed for. Anyway, the battle of words continues as Ferguson stated, in a recent issue of GQ magazine, that Gabriel Heinze (signed by Real Madrid from Manchester United in 2007) was only signed to eventually lure Ronaldo to the club. Real Madrid were apparently interested in the United number 7 then, and used Heinze's and Ronaldo's good relationship to try and lure Cristiano to Madrid. Ferguson also remarked that " What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain.”

These comments hit a bit of a sore spot in the Madrid camp, and the Madrid-biased newspaper Marca published a five-page spread of Alex Ferguson morphing into General Franco. They wrote that Fergie is going senile and Calderon told Marca that "I'm not going to waste any time answering him, I admire his record, but he is getting old."

However, I don't think Calderon would turn Fergie down, if he had knocked on Los Merengues door and asked for a managering position. Calderon is full of talk, and I'm disgusted by the way he uses Marca as a way to unsettle players like he did with Ronaldo. At the moment, Carlos Tevez seems to be receiving the same treatment as Madrid see an opportunity when Tevez loan deal is over. This sort of "transfer tactics" in football is simply despicable and shouldn't be allowed. Ferguson used the same tactics during his attempt to sign Berbatov, and I'm definitely not happy with it. Calderon's probably just bitter because he lost his Copa Del Rey against Real Union (!)