Ferguson Shouldn’t Care About The Relegation Dogfight

By: Wayne Farry | May 19th, 2009

The upcoming weekend of Premier League football is of massive importance, not for the top of the table but for the bottom. One side is already down; West Brom. And there are four other sides who are in danger of going down; Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Hull City and Sunderland. For the first two, the situation is dire, neither ‘Boro or Toon have their own destiny in their hands, and are hoping for either Hull or Sunderland, or both to slip up. Sunderland, who’ve been teetering on the brink almost all season host Chelsea at home but will only go down if they lose, and Hull and Toon win. So now we get to Hull, who face us at the KC on Sunday.

They had a great start to the season but since the New Year have dropped almost as quick as you can say “relegation”! Hull need no more than a draw to stay up but that’s easier said than done against Man Utd. Or at least it would be against the usual Man Utd. For you see, this Sunday’s match is no less than four days before the Champions League Final in Rome. That’s right, the EPL season will end four days before the biggest game in European football. Ample preparation? Hardly! Typical Premier League planning? Definitely! So that’s why I say it may not be easier said than done for Hull to beat us; Sir Alex will have to rest players.

He’s going to rest a lot of players too, don’t expect any of the starters in the CL Final to feature against Hull, except perhaps Rio, for fitness purposes only. SAF will put out a squad made up of youngsters, hungry for competition and desperate for a spot on the bench in Rome and sadly, Darren Fletcher, who’s bound to feature given that it will be his last game this season. This will still be a strong side, but nowhere near the strength of our usual first XI. It could look something like this:

GK: Kuszczak
DF: Rafael-Neville-Evans-Fabio
MF: Nani-Fletcher-Gibson-Possebon
FW: Macheda-Welbeck

And this is what has got some people going, should Sir Alex play his strongest team for the sake of withholding the credibility of the EPL? I say, no way. Now Newcastle won’t be happy if we go to the KC and lose or even sneak a draw. They’ll say it’s showing a lack of respect for the situation down the bottom of the EPL. But it’s not. These sides are down there because they deserve to be, not because of anyone else. Do you think if Chelsea had played an under strength team against Toon in Alan Shearer’s first game in charge would he have complained about it? No way. These sides are down there for a reason, because they’re not very good.

Here’s why we’ll play a weakened side at the KC; the Champions League Final. Not because of Hull, or Newcastle or anyone else. Because because of the enormity of next Wednesday, and because we’ve earned that spot in Rome, we’ve earned the right to rest as many players as we want prior to it. Are Barcelona going to play a full strength side against Osasuna on Sunday? No. Are we going to against Hull? No. Should we guilty about it? No. But for all the people out there who think it shows a lack of respect, bear in mind that given their positions, and the lack of heart and pride they’ve shown recently, Hull, Newcastle, Middlesbrough and Sunderland will probably all lose come Sunday, and end up making this argument completely redundant.