Trevor Sinclair has stuck by his stunning claims Manchester United should be docked points for fielding a weakened team in their defeat to Leicester City.
But Simon Jordan has accused the former City man of blind bias towards his former club, while Ally McCoist also strongly dismissed the claims on talkSPORT.
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer warned he would be forced into changes after the postponement of their Liverpool clash led to a fixture pile-up, which he claimed put ‘impossible’ physical demands on his players.
The boss made TEN changes for the Leicester game and ultimately lost 2-1.
Sinclair claims United’s move has ‘spat in the face’ of the Premier League and undermined the top-four race, with Leicester’s three points giving them an edge over Liverpool and West Ham, and the Red Devils should be deducted SIX POINTS as punishment.
He also claimed on Wednesday’s White and Jordan show that it is a situation purely of Man United’s own making, after their own fans caused their fixture congestion with their protests of the Glazers that got out of hand outside and inside Old Trafford last week.
And, asked again if Solskjaer’s squad selection brought the integrity of the top-four race into question, Sinclair said on talkSPORT: “I think so. I honestly do.
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“If you look at Man City, they make seven or eight changes from game to game, it’s normal practise for them because they’ve got the squad to handle that. They’ve got the quality of squad to still win games if they make changes, that’s why they are Premier League champions.
“But when you look at Manchester United last night, for me I think it spits in the face of the Premier League and the top-four fight.
“I think it’s disrespectful, I think they’re not respecting the top-four fight and it’s all come from a sequence of events that is self-inflicted by Manchester United.
“You’ve got an owners who has not had a relationship with the fans for 16 years, the fans are disgusted anyway but then the European Super League made it worse. The fan demonstration was a risk and the club didn’t do anything about it, they allowed the game to be called off against Liverpool by not safeguarding their stadium.
“Because of that, they’ve now been given a fixture pile-up where they’ve picked out the Leicester game where they’ve put out a weakened second-fiddle side.
“The top-four race was the last thing still going and up for grabs in the Premier League, and now it takes a bit of the excitement away for the latter stages of the season.
“Other teams have been fined for the same in the past, and this is Man United’s own fault.”
But Mr Jordan was not having that one bit, as the talkSPORT pundits went head-to-head on air on Wednesday’s show.
The former Crystal Palace owner said: “Is there a rule about utilising your squad? If so, Man City should be fined every week!
“You’ve just said Man City can do it as they please, but Manchester United can’t?
“We argued that City have played a weak team twice against Chelsea, but now that argument doesn’t suit you
“And Trevor, you cannot legislate for a bunch for 200 idiot fans who want to break into a stadium.
talkSPORT
“If we want to point the blame at Manchester United and say they are complicit in their own downfall, they are the architects of a bunch of thugs that wanted to run into the stadium, you should have known better and legislated for the worst in society…
“Your argument is that as a result of that, nothing to do with sporting integrity – which is a thing you will often champion – a game being abandoned not because of Man United’s lack of sporting prowess but because of a group of hooligans, that somehow sporting integrity should be compromised by points being taken away?
“You have to be objective and Trevor is not objective, he has one thing in his mind, which is Man City are right on every single front.
“You have to be balanced. I’m not bitter. The only team I care about is Palace and they were never going to win the Premier League, so why in God’s name would I be bitter? I do care about Palace but I’m still objective about it, you have to be objective about every club. That’s called a balanced point of view, i dont sit ther with red and blue tinted glasses.
“Trevor was born in Dulwich, what’s Man City got to do with him? He played the least amount of games for City he played for anybody in his career, the jumped on the bandwagon glory hunter!”
Rangers legend McCoist also backed Solskjaer, insisting the manager was purely protecting his players and was outraged by claims he is guilty of wrongdoing for giving game time to members of Man United’s registered Premier League squad.
“I totally back Solskjaer to the hilt,” he said on the talkSPORT Breakfast.
“His job is not to look after Liverpool, West Ham and Spurs, his responsibility is to look after the welfare of Manchester United. Nobody else.
“He has to pick a team he thinks can win the game and looks after his club going forward, that’s what he’s done and in my oipinion he is 100 per cent right in doing that.
“It makes sense to rest some of their bigger players, becasue thet’ve got big games coming up in this congested period.
“Man City did the same vs Chelsea, so they’re not helping anyone else either! You can’t have it both ways, the principle is exactly the same.”
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