Fergie and Arsene's Half Truths Make Press Conferences a Pointless Exercise

For years now the press have been as effective as a chocolate fire guard at Alex Ferguson's press conferences.

At best too scared of the man to ask anything approaching a searching question and at worst sickeningly sycophantic it means it may as well be an in-house Q and A for MUTV.

The Daily Mail are one of the prime candidates for doing what Fergie wants with their reporting an extension of the Manchester United PR department.

If you want to know how Fergie handles any member of the press who goes against the expected norm here is a peak of the man himself in action.

This is the moment we see how Fergie keeps that paper and its reporters in check "No more! You and your paper can **** off!" not exactly what you would expect from a knight of the realm now is it?

And let us not forget that Fergie has been in breach of Premier League rules for many years in simply refusing to speak to one if its senior broadcast partners, the BBC. Why? Because he didn't like what they said about his son.

Unlike Fergie Arsene Wenger is open to taking any questions but his choice of method for dealing with such things is to plainly not tell the truth, smirk and then repeat the untruth until people get bored and move on.

If you read the Twitter timelines for the journalists who attend Wenger's pressers it's clear they don't believe a word of it but that doubt rarely makes it into their copy. I wonder why?

Sam Wallace of the Independent on Twitter this morning: "Seen many performances like that from Weng over the years. Just doesn't feel need to open up. You can ask 10 times, makes no difference"

And Dan Road of the BBC, again via Twitter concerning Wenger's performance this morning:

"Frustratingly adept and typical evasion from Wenger this morning, but that's of little comfort to Arsenal fans who deserved more clarity." 

So even the journalists appreciate that what they achieve in these press conferences is far from what should be achieved why the not get tougher?

How would the press respond if Rupert Murdoch were to have answered in a similar fashion or if Boris Johnson had reacted to a press report in the manner of Fergie?

If either Fergie or Arsene continue to treat the press with such disdain, and by extension their own supporters and supporters of the Premier League worldwide, surely they need to be reported as doing so in plain and simple language?

How would the press lose out if they did after all there is little of importance gleaned from such events in any case.

Of course if the ladies and gentlemen of the press were to become more robust they may be refused a seat on the plush gravy train that travels around with Manchester United, Arsenal and any other Premier League club.

And I would suggest that is the reason we all have to put up with bland, pointless quotes from men who care not a jot what the press think.