Spoony meets Sir Alex Ferguson

Presumably this is the first time the BBC have had a full length interview with Sir Alex since his boycott of the BBC. So why isn't it being conducted by a bone fide sports journalist?

Five Live has outstanding broadcasters like Ian Payne, Mark Pougatch, Eleanor Oldroyd and Mark Chapman and they've decided to give the interview the gravitas of an ex Radio 1 DJ.



I'll be listening though and hope I'm wrong!

I agree with @1. Pandering to Ferguson because he has deigned to permit the BBC audiences with him again leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. A multi-millionaire and like everyone else in football, never a word about how it feels to make so much money for not doing very much at all. One year's salary of any premiership manager or footballer would pay for 500 nurses.

You couldn't make it up really. How do Five Live get it so consistently wrong? Could have been worse if Tony Livesey had done but Spoony? Jusitify that on any grounds of journalism?

Fergie has given a full length interview to the BBC before, i think it was BBC Manchester who were the lucky ones, as for Spoony, why all the hate? He is a highly respected at 5live, indeed Fergie granted Spoony his long request for an interview, he is obviously well liked amongst Football Managers, which is more than can be said for Alan Green.



As for the Money argument, i am dont begrudge him his Money, yes they do get paid alot, but if someone offered me that amount of Money, i would not say no, not even the thought that my salary could pay for a Hundred Nurses would be enough for me to reject the mega bucks,i bet the same would apply to you, people are just being hyproctical because they are jealous that they do not earn as much.



Carrie, when Fergie was not talking to the BBC,MOTD used to regulary get hundreds of letters and Emails asking why, and venting their spleen as to why they could not hear thier idol on the BBC,so i think the only person with a nasty tase in the mouth after hearing Fegrie on 5live is you.

No I am most definitely not jealous! I just think the obscenity of football wages is something that needs to be aired and I am particularly sickened by some of the people who, earning £200,000 a week,have nothing to spend it on but booze, cars and girls. It seems that if you are uneducated but can play football, anything goes, but if you are an educated person who has earned lots of money somehow you are vilified. It would have been interesting to hear how Ferguson feels about the current wages system in view of the fact his career spans the two extremes. But please don't tell me Rooney is worth £250,000 a week, because no-one is in this game.

I am not sure how you know the BBC was receiving so many emails etc about Ferguson but the fact is of course he should be heard, like every other manager, it was his own stubbornness at not liking something the BBC said, but of course he was forced to start talking to them again because of requirements under the premiership agreements.

Carrie, player and managers salaries are justified by the number of people who dip their hand into their pocket and pay to see them, either by paying for tickets to the match or by paying for football channel subscriptions. This is how the football club gets the money to pay their salaries - from tickets sales and TV broadcast revenues. Fans pay this money because these players and managers have such rare skill that it is exciting to watch them do their job - there are only a few people in the world with the ability of Rooney / Messi / Drogba / Joe Hart / Sir Alex Ferguson... hence why they get paid so much.



This is the capitalist system - scarce ability will always pay more than other jobs that might be valued more for their contribution to society. Railing against football players and managers in particular is a bit silly - you really need to rail against society for not paying people according to the value they give society.



But that value to society system wouldn't work too well in reality, because who would determine a roles value to society? Also, as this system doesn't value rare skills (by paying them well) these rare skills might not be used well by society - think of surgeons who might get paid the same as nurses, so they just opt for an easier life and work as nurses rather than surgeons, so society is worse off through a lack of skill utilisation.

In response to message 4:

I certainly don't have any 'hate' for Spoony, as I always used to enjoy him on Radio 1 and his music career.

I was only questioning the editorial decision to choose him for a big interview over all the other quality sports broadcasters that Five Live has for something that was a 'landmark' interview.

I've no idea why his alleged popularity amongst football managers matters. The BBC shouldn't be picking on the basis of a popularity contest- it's not the X-Factor!

Alan Green's alleged unpopularity with managers is probably because of his controversial opinions- exactly the reason why he's my favourite commentator/presenter.

Presumably the BBC agree, as he's the current host of 606 and thankfully Spoony isn't any more.

The negative respone to Spoony's interview is just amazing. It just shows that even as brilliant an interview as he conducted, pleasing everybody is impossible. Firstly, Spoony should be the new Parkinson. Because he's not specifically a journalist, he was able to make Sir Alex behave relaxed, not feel that he was going to be misinterpretted or later misquoted, hence he gave an honest, frank, sometimes funny, honest insight into Britian's greatest manager. He would not have done that if someone (however talented) like Gary Richardson was prodding and trying top get a one off scoop. Secondly, the sanctimonius response to what he spends his money on is ridiculous. Its a sports channel, doing an honest chat/interview. If you want to listen to people lying about their good works, switch over to Desert Island Discs. Even if you were'nt a Man Utd fan, he was honest and frank, Spoony was unobtrusive and brought out the best of the interview. These people that are criticising are typical of the negatives in football fans. They'll criticise anything.

Carrie, i dont think it is any of our Business what Footballers spend their wages on, as long as its not illegal who are we to poke our noses in their private lives, and critisize them, quite a few Footballers give to Charity, as well as doing other social acts, but does it really matter? Just because a Footballer earns 80 grand a week does that mean he should be spending his money on nothing but Charity, Books,World Projects and other similar things?



Again the truth is whenever someone brings this argument up, and starts taking the high moral ground on footballers wages, and saying a footballers wages could pay for a hundred nurses, or a hundred doctors, and its disgusting how much they get paid, the only reason they have this reaction is because they are jealous, lets be honest Carrie if you were earning 80,90,100 Grand a week, would you be worrying about the lack of Nurses in this Country, or feeling guilty that you earn in a week, what most people earn in a lifetime, i think not!!

I do not dislike Spoony or his abilities and he made a better job of it than the likes of Lineker or Richardson would have done.



There was a Guardian survey of 4000 supporters about three years ago which showed that 8 out of 10 fans believe footballers' wages should be either cut or capped. The Virgin Money Football Fans' Inflation Index reported that 40% of match-day supporters advocated a wage cut for their own club's players while only 20% of those surveyed believe that footballers should be free to earn as much as they can. The introduction of a league-wide wage cap is supported by 41% of fans and most strongly backed by football's most loyal fans in the 30 to 34 year age group and season-ticket holders. I suspect this is as a direct result of the supporters having to pay so much to watch their 'stars', and seeing as how people such as Carroll cost so much and still hasn't really come good, you might wonder why the record transfer fee would have any relationship to what the player is actually worth!



Some chairmen advocated the introduction of a cap on players’ wages, which the Premiership chairmen believed was the root cause of the £3.3 billion total debt hanging over English clubs in 2010. Despite these record incomes, the 20 top clubs collectively lost nearly half a billion pounds. Premiership clubs revenue for 2009-10 was £2.1bn in total but large debts and interest rates meant 16 out of the 20 clubs recorded losses before tax (Arsenal, B'ham City, WBA and Wolves were in profit pre-tax). This includes the highest payers of managers and coaches - £79 million loss at MUFC, £78 million loss at Chelsea, MCFC £121 million loss and I could go on. In 2014-15 the UEFA Fair Play will come in to effect and finally hopefully this disgusting show of greed will end. I bet many of these supporters who fawn over Rooney and his mates are also the ones railing against cuts and private sector salaries.



The medical analogy does not work at all. I am simply saying they are all overpaid. If people are mugs enough to shell out a fortune for season tickets for this lot, moaning like mad on 606 by the way, if their team gets beaten, then obviously they are free to do it. Just saying that it is horrible to see.

"as for Spoony, why all the hate? He is a highly respected at 5live, indeed Fergie granted Spoony his long request for an interview."



Fed, you just don't get it do you? Spoony is a DJ; you would expect an interview of this nature to be undertaken by a time served journalist. 'Sir' must be laughing into his glass of decent red thankful he was asked nothing incisive.

Jackstumps I think you've missed the point about the interview. It was a fascinating, relaxed conversation where Fergie opened up and you saw the real personality discussing a range of interesting subjects. Who else would have got that? I don't think it was intended to be a 'hard hitting' interview, nor did it need to be. I think Spoony got more out of Fergie than any of the interviewers that fish for headline grabbing soundbites and more credit to him for it.

Well said Spoony.

Spoony mate well said,i thought the Interview was fantastic, and big up to you for securing it, ignore the doommongers on this Blog, are we going to be hearing more on 5live in the near future? it seems recently that you have disappeared from 5live, which is a shame, it will be good to hear from you on shows like 606, and generally across 5live Sport.

Despite the protestations of Spoony, I still think the choice of interviewer was well wrong.



Fedster; the nature of you replies consistently makes me think you are a Beeb stooge. Any more blinkers and you'll be a horse.

"Fedster; the nature of you replies consistently makes me think you are a Beeb stooge. Any more blinkers and you'll be a horse."



Oh dear you really are a stuck record, oh hang on you are of course an employee of talkSPORT,which sez alot!!

The days are well and truely in the past when a 5live journalist or presenter would actually adapt a hard edged and confrontational interviewing style or justifably ' grill ' a politician or a well known figure in the world of sport.Interviews now are mainly conducted and reduced to the equivalent of a cosy fireside chat.Thats about the best we can hope for on 5live ......we don't want all these ' big name charlies ' flouncing off again do we ?

Aye ... but I can spell

Jackstumps you've missed the point again! Spoony wasn't chosen to do the interview, he got it himself and it was broadcast on 5live. They didn't send him out to do it.

excellent interview, first time I have listened in but was told about it by a friend. Doesnt matter if its DJ or JJ doing the interview, good to see someone getting to know the man Ferguson rather than the manger Ferguson.......................well done Spoony, I will be listening again for sure.

I have to say when I heard Spoony was interviewing Sir Alex my initial reaction was to think a slightly odd choice to be interviewing such a legend of the game. However I am delighted to put on record any skepticism I had coming into the interview was totally misplaced and Spoony you did an excellent insightful interview all to rare nowadays.



So well done Spoony for both getting the interview and delivering an excellent piece of journalism!



Looking forward to a Series of Spoony meets .....

I gave up listening to 606 when 5live moved Spoony on.What was the thinking behind accommodating Robbie Savage, Mark Chapman or Jason Roberts ( if they still do it that is ? )in the job.606 isn't half has good without Spoony.Fantastic interview btw.Made me laugh when Fergie says his missus tells him to get out the house to his football and from under her feet.Hope Spoony gets his own interviewing programme as well.He's the best.

I didn't hear the interview, I have zero interest in sport. However what I cannot get over is the fact that a grown man calls himself Spoony. I would be put off anything presented by an adult who calls himself such a ridiculous name. Sorry.

Spoony,Greeny,Bacon,Sags,Chappers the list goes on, does it really matter, surely what matters is the quality of the respective shows, honestly people lighten up, stop being so miserable, honestly reading this Blog is enough to drive me up the wall.

Glad you raised the topic of driving people up the wall Fed .... nuf said.

OMG.. 5live is just so brilliant !! I just love it, me !! I'm going to start a Facebook campaign about Spoony getting his own interview show that would be similar to Danny Kellys on TS.After this interview with Sir Alex he has proven that he has exactly the right approach and credentials to get revelations and the best out of people.Well done mate you deserve it !! 5live don't realise what an asset Spoony is to the station !

Blimey Ginger, and I thought I was ironic. It wasn't very good though.

Good work Spoony. Not bad for a plastic scouser.

What? He's a plastic spoony?

I never miss the point HiggoJ ... it's always the others

Chappers on top form today, even though he was sworn at 3 times, i think he handled the situation well, as for Eddie Mitchell what a disgrace.