United manager says he wasn't surprised to see his fellow Scot
get the chop at Liverpool after the way racism saga was
mishandled
Sir Alex Ferguson says Kenny Dalglish got
himself sacked by Liverpool with his mishandling of the Luis Suarez
racism row.
Dalglish was fired at the
end of last season and Manchester United opposite number
Ferguson said his fellow Scot's unstinting support of Kop star
Suarez ultimately cost him his job.
"I wasn't surprised at Kenny leaving," said Ferguson.
"I think John Henry [the Liverpool owner] has obviously looked at
the Suarez incident and felt it wasn't handled in the right
way.
"I think that must have been part of it. It certainly
wasn't a nice thing to happen, you know."
Suarez was banned for eight matches by the FA after an
independent commission found him guilty of racially abusing
United's Patrice Evra during a game last October.
Suarez re-opened the race row this week in an interview
in his native Uruguay
Dalglish continued to back his striker, even
after Suarez was found guilty, and claimed the player was the
victim of a conspiracy.
Among Dalglish's ill-advised actions during the saga
was his idea for the Liverpool squad to wear t-shirts in support of
Suarez before a Premier League game.
Suarez re-opened the race
row this week in an interview in his native Uruguay, during
which by claimed Manchester United's 'political power' had got him
banned.
He spoke out even though Dalglish's successor Brendan
Rodgers has said it is time for Suarez to move on and for the whole
issue to be consigned to the past.
"I've seen that Suarez has gone back and talked about
it," said Ferguson. "If Suarez keeps on making headlines out of it
then it's not going to go away."
Ferguson, speaking in Durban, South Africa on United's
pre-season tour, dismissed the idea Suarez was the victim of a
conspiracy orchestrated by Liverpool's arch-rivals.
"I don't think that was anything to do with Manchester
United," said Fergie.
I think that was to do with
Patrice Evra. But it wasn’t Evra’s contribution, it wasn’t Suarez’s
contribution, it was the expert they called in to explain the
cultural differences. He was the guy who killed Suarez.’
Ferguson also refuted Suarez’s
claims that Evra was at fault for their failure to shake hands
before the two teams met again at Old Trafford in
February.
He said: 'The handshake
was disappointing. He came out and said Evra’s hand was low. There
is no doubt Evra put his hand towards him. I think Evra expected
him not to shake hands. Evra actually said that to the
lads.
'He just felt that he wasn’t
going to shake his hand. He was sort of embarrassed to put his hand
there.
'It's Suarez, he’s the one who
should be making the effort to do something about it.'
Despite football being shown in a poor light by the Suarez/Evra
episode and John Terry's recent
trial, Ferguson said he did not envisage a return to the
dark days of discrimination.
"I don't think there's cause to worry about racism in
England," said Ferguson. "Since I've been down in England we've
made great strides forward. I don't see any problem with the game
in terms of race.
"Obviously, I don't know what he [Terry] said - there's
a lot of speculation about what he said and why he said it - but I
don't think it's a problem."
Flashpoints: Suarez and Evra clashed last season with
damaging effect