I AM not a fan of players and former players who get off badmouthing each other.
Equally, I don’t think much of those who retaliate publicly, only to get some mileage on social media.
The public spat between Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana and the club’s former midfielder Nemanja Matic – now at Lyon in France – would on another day have fallen into this category.
However, the situation is not as straightforward as it seems.
Onana was right to fire back at Matic, who “brutally” classified the Cameroon international as “the worst goalkeeper in Manchester United’s history”.
Onana’s choice to hit back might not have been the best of his options, but he had every right to have a go at the 36-year-old and put him in his place.
For want of a better way to get his message across, Onana chose to let Matic know that the France-based Serbian did not win anything in his time at Man United, and that he did – showing off the FA Cup that they won last season.
Why it was important for Onana to let Matic know that the goalkeeper was no pushover is the very reason why this whole saga started and why Man United find themselves languishing in 13th place in the Premier League.
Onana said they (Man United) were a better team than Lyon, ahead of their Europa League first leg quarter-final clash in Lyon on Thursday.
He was right to say that he believed they were – even if they did draw the game. That’s the mentality of winners.
No team that wins a European title or the Premier League talks about losing. You’ve got to believe that you are better than your opposition
if you want to beat them at anything.
The great Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley were famous for telling their Liverpool sides just that – and look where it got them. Those teams, and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, are probably the best ever in English football, and by a long way.
Shankly was known for writing it on paper and sticking it on the walls of their changing rooms – that they were better than their opposition and that they would defeat them.
Liverpool are probably still using the same tactic today, en route to the top of the standings and nearing the capture of this season’s league title.
Man United would do well to employ a similar sense of self-belief and follow Onana’s positive mindset when they clash with Newcastle at St James Park tomorrow.
The task awaiting Ruben Amorim is a tough one, more so with the Magpies having crept up into fifth place in the league, on the same number of points as fourth-placed Chelsea.
The incentive of a Champions League berth will no doubt help drive Newcastle’s desire to triumph, as they also bid for the double over the Red Devils, whom they swamped 2-0 in December in the reverse fixture.
With no match since their comfortable victory over Leicester City in the league on Monday night, Newcastle will also have benefitted from more time to recover ahead of tomorrow’s top-billing.
Nonetheless, Man United should know by now that with European commitments, things are taxing, so just deal with it.
They might want to consult Onana on this. Despite the blunders from the Old Trafford goalkeeper in midweek, he now seems to be exhibiting a greater sense of maturity and purpose.
These are excellent footballing traits that this sorry team has sorely lacked over the last decade or so. And to have a player with a spirit like him in the side is obviously needed and can only benefit the club.
Having said that, Onana will be hoping to put on a good showing of his own tomorrow. It would go some way towards silencing his detractors and helping lift the players around him, who have been poor across the length and breadth of the club.
And it would certainly win him a few more fans, even if not the writer.
