Alex Ferguson looked like he’d walked up to a sink full of dirty dishes but it was just Brian Gleeson with an RTÉ microphone.
As you might do, if you’d seen a sink full of dirty dishes, he turned around and went about leaving them as they were. Can’t be bothered. Get someone else to do it.
But then along came Dessie Scahill and, like a demanding mother who wants to make the young lad useful, the legendary Irish horse-racing commentator told Sir Alex to turn around and he convinced him to face the music.
Whether he liked it or not, Ferguson was in it for the long haul by that stage because Brian Gleeson was already on a roll. He’s a highly charged and excitable interviewer is the Waterford man – sometimes you’d almost think he’s necked a can of Red Bull before coming on screen – but he’s also endearing and when it comes to horse-racing, he knows his stuff.
He warmed the boys into it with a few simple ones. He asked the un-fussed Ged Mason – a co-owner along with Alex Ferguson and the Barbers – about their horse Clan Des Obeaux and his chances in the Gold Cup, a race he eventually finished second in.
But Gleeson knew and Mason knew and we all knew that this wasn’t about Ged Mason. It was about Dessie Scahill, those iconic tones of his and it was, first and foremost, about the great Sir Alex Ferguson. The Manchester United legend seemed slightly stand-offish at first but, like the auctioneer that he is (Gleeson runs Brian Gleeson Property Limited) – he didn’t give up and, as much as anything else, he just kept talking.
So Fergie said why the hell not.
You wouldn’t have known he was 80 years of age when he gave Gleeson a little rub about trying to be the next Dessie Scahill and you certainly wouldn’t have known he’s had problems with his health by the way he sounded, and the way he looked.
Eventually Gleeson got the line he was looking for.
“I hope he does well,” Ferguson said about incoming United manager Erik Ten Hag.
“The club needs someone to get in control. So I hope he does well.”
Alex Ferguson, part-owner of Clan des Obeaux, speaks to @rteracing about his horse's prospects at Punchestown and briefly touches on the new Man United boss Erik Ten Hag – Commentary great Des Scahill offers his own thoughts #rteracing pic.twitter.com/cxFKmsKnVk
— RTÉ Racing (@RTEracing) April 27, 2022
And since it’s made its way into newspapers all over the world.
