Sir Alex Ferguson has been left red-faced and fuming after deciding to end his self-imposed 7 year ban in speaking to BBC. The fiery Scot was told that the corporation will be happy to speak to him any time he cares to appear on the network, but added that it would be necessary to subtitle him whenever he does give interviews.
Media insiders are speculating that the broadcaster is getting its own back and thumbing its nose at the Manchester United supremo. Head of Sport, David Coleman, denies this is the case and has issued this statement.
We are delighted here at the BBC that Sir Alex Ferguson is prepared to speak to us again and we welcome whatever contributions he cares to make. However his strong regional accent and clarity of speech can sometimes leave a lot to be desired, and so as to avoid any further misunderstandings between us we feel that captions are in his case a good idea.
In the light of this development it remains to be seen if Sir Alex will honour his commitment or now reimpose his ban. Close friend and family entertainer, Russ Abbott, has made it known that he thinks the Beeb's decision may just get the sporting knight's back up. "See me, see you, see me Jimmy. Hoots mon, but Sir Alex willny be impressed if I know him. Och aye the noo," he quipped to the press. Nobody laughed.
Match of the Day presenter, (the boy) Gary Line-aker, was unavailable for comment as he was shooting yet another lucrative television commercial for Walkers Crisps. And co-host, Mark Lawernson, was also unavailable to give a view, as his agent announced that he was "feeling down and having a bit of a bad day."