{"id":236067,"date":"2026-01-09T13:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236067\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T13:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:07:06","slug":"ferguson-hanging-on-like-a-bad-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236067\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson &#8216;hanging on like a bad smell&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Roy Keane accused Alex Ferguson of &#8220;hanging on like a bad smell&#8221; at Manchester United as the club set about replacing departed manager Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n<p>Following Amorim&#8217;s exit, Manchester United have commenced the search for their seventh permanent manager &#8211; excluding interim managers &#8211; since Ferguson retired in May 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Keane, who fell out with Ferguson in spectacular fashion in late 2005, called into question his former manager&#8217;s prominence at Old Trafford as he questioned who was making the decisions at the club regarding managerial appointments.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What happens in these job interviews? I&#8217;m intrigued,&#8221; Keane said on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why do they keep giving certain people a job? What happens in the interview that they sit there and go, and 12, 14 months later, &#8216;He&#8217;s not the guy for us\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you not suss that out when you speak to them? You look somebody in the eye and go\u2026<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You see who\u2019s making the decisions at Manchester United. You still have Ferguson and David Gill hanging on like a bad smell.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who\u2019s making the decisions? Ratcliffe, Wilcox?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Last season, it was reported that Ferguson would be leaving his ambassadorial role with the club. However, he remains a non-executive director and their latest interim manager Darren Fletcher disclosed that he had spoken to the legendary manager before taking on the role ahead of this week&#8217;s 2-2 draw with Burnley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got a really good relationship with Sir Alex, so I wanted to speak to him first and ultimately to get his blessing, to be perfectly honest with you. I think he deserves that respect,&#8221; Fletcher said.<\/p>\n<p>Keane subsequently backed Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe as his preferred candidate to take over at Old Trafford, suggesting his temperament made him the right fit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d go with Eddie Howe. I like him,&#8221; Keane said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I like what he&#8217;s done. He&#8217;s managed a lot of games. When his teams are at it, they&#8217;ll play good football. He has his critics, but I like what he&#8217;s done at Newcastle. He&#8217;s managed seven or 800 games. He&#8217;s still a young man. I love his calmness. Maybe Man Utd need a little bit of that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen with our previous [appointments], we like people with emotions, but he&#8217;s got that calmness. The job he&#8217;s done at Newcastle, Champions League and winning a cup, I&#8217;d be happy to see him go in there.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roy Keane accused Alex Ferguson of &#8220;hanging on like a bad smell&#8221; at Manchester United as the club&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-236067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}