Letter to Piers Morgan

I thought I'd share with ya'll a little letter I wrote to Mr. Morgan in response to a decent piece he wrote in last week's Sport on Sunday in the Mail on Sunday, titled: ‘Football must put a cap on its money madness’. I intended on it being a swift 'I agree because...' sort of piece, with my ulterior motive being that he would put my comment up in next week’s column, thus getting my name (and blog) out to around 4million people. But, as with all my own posts on this site, I completely went off on one! So here it is. Comments of agreement/disagreement/complete bemusement welcome as always…

Dear Mr. Morgan,

Surprisingly for a United fan (...a Cockney one at that), I enjoyed your column last Sunday and honestly, I completely agreed with everything you had to say. A salary/transfer cap has got to be the only way.

The days of superior traditional-footballing methods (on the field: tactical prowess and a strong rapport; off the field: a good eye on the transfer market) giving you success are gone, to be replaced with the simple, yet effective method of money = success. I like to think that United, while despised by many, are respected by those sensible few - such as yourself (??) - who look at this current, escalating situation and think 'what is happening to our game?'. We, like a growing number of teams in England, are owned by rich owners who couldn't care less about the game and therefore, even though we are a poor, debt-ridden version of Citeh and Chelsea, can be classified under the same bracket as those teams. However it's worth remembering how we got there.

Manchester United came to being the team they are now by displaying and perfecting those very traditional-footballing methods that are a thing of a romanticised past. Fergie's fledglings, who combined magically with ridiculously inspired, under-priced signings (NB. Cantona and Schmeichel) was the formula Ferguson and United had always dreamed of. Was it all good timing? Of course. But would some managers not have rejected Eric Harisson's claims that 'these lot are alright' when he told Sir Alex about a certain Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham etc? Or ignored the news that an erratic Frenchman with a bad attitude was going for a lowly £1.2mill by Leeds? Whether you like it or not, Sir Alex Ferguson produced a Championship winning side - ignited by youth, ambition and talent and inspired by natural born leaders - that knocked you know who off their perch and regained United's appeal after 36 year in the wilderness. That revolution made us popular and loved (and hated) and famous once again, and THAT is how United were able to prosper and continue. Because of the benefits that being loved and being the best bring, and because of those traditions that Ferguson instilled; traditions that are ever-present in every United side he continues to build and continues to win with.

A transfer cap, so as to stop the madness and stop the greed inspired, non-footballing, destructive 'kamikaze' notions of money = success is unfortunately a necessity, as no other manager since Ferguson (not even your very own frugal manager, who's zero trophies in five years, as you rightly said, made you £56million...is that in any way a good thing?) has been able to emulate the the United way, and that is where success = money.

Thank you,

The Cockney Red