LONDON — It was a line that was always going to come back to haunt him.
"We can't dispute referees' decisions," said Manchester United assistant manager Mike Phelan after referee Mark Clattenburg was just about the only person not to believe Wayne Rooney should have been sent off for elbowing Wigan's James McCarthy.
Sure enough, three days later Sir Alex Ferguson gave the hair dryer treatment to referee Martin Atkinson after United lost 2-1 at Chelsea.