Fergie attacks ‘idiot’ writer over Man Utd youth stars

Sir Alex Ferguson launched a furious broadside yesterday against critics of the latest batch of youngsters coming through the ranks at Old Trafford, branding one journalist an "idiot" for suggesting that the likes of Darron Gibson, Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda had no future with the club. The Scot also confirmed that he would be sticking with the callow line-up for tonight's Carling Cup quarter-final with Tottenham, a decision which his opposite number Harry Redknapp is expected to replicate.

Talking to a press conference, Ferguson said: "It will be the same players who played on Wednesday, despite the criticism they got. Somebody wrote 'There's no future for these players, there's no tomorrow for them'. I couldn't believe that. I played six players - two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 20-year-old, a 21-year-old and a 22-year-old - in a European game and you say 'there's no future for them'. It is just unbelievable."

Warming to his task, Ferguson compared the current crop to that which came of age in the 1990s. "When Beckham, Butt, Scholes and all those lads made their debuts as a group in Europe, they were mostly in their early 20s, three years ahead of these players. It's amazing, isn't it? Of course they will grow from that experience. I was confident playing them, they had every right to be played and they will play on Tuesday, too. They are stacking up, these players. We have a lot of young players who need to be challenged. And I thought they did OK. I don't think they deserved that type of criticism."

On Wednesday last week Manchester United surrendered a four-year, 23-game unbeaten run at home in the Champions League when they were beaten 1-0 by Turkish side Besiktas. Although 'Fergie's fledglings' had shown a lot of skill during the game, they lacked penetration against a side who, after they had taken the lead after just 20 minutes, were happy to just park the bus in front of their goal and look to try and nick a second goal on the break. Ferguson feels that only the experience gained in such games can bring the youngsters on.

"The one thing we can't give them is that old head," he said. "What happened [against Besiktas] was that in the last third of the field they got anxious. They had good chances but hurried things, but that's not the biggest crime in the world. We are not talking about ability here; we are talking about just a bit of experience. That is why we have to play them."

And the acerbic Scot signed off with another attack on the 'idiot' journalist, comparing his remarks to Alan Hansen's famous 'you can't win anything with kids' statement about the Golden Generation of Beckham et al. "Wonderful. We live in a great world. The difference with that guy is it gets buried in the middle of a wee article in the newspaper whereas Alan Hansen did it in front of millions of people and got slaughtered for it. But this guy gets off it. He should be bloody sacked." ·