It’s not often I get my blogging inspiration from the back page of the Sun but today is an exception. There I was munching down a fry-up at the local cafe and catching up on the latest transfer gossip when I struck blog gold.

Following Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson’s comments in the press this week, where he voiced his opinion that Chelsea’s squad is too old to mount a serious challenge for the Premier League title next season, it appears he has evoked the wrath of charity Help The Aged.

Now either Help The Aged spokesperson Kate Jopling is a Chelsea fan or she doesn’t really know very much about football and the mind games the various managers like to play, as one of her quotes demonstrates:

“In 2008, age is no longer an acceptable yardstick to measure a person’s worth or potential. There’s a lot to be said for experience. But all too often when it comes to age, this is overlooked.” <I question whether or not Kate actually said this next part, or if the Sun writer got over excited, but if she did then… oh dear! > “People should never be written off because of their age. Ageist attitudes and comments such as this should always be handed a red card.”

This whole episode has left me with a dilemma that I can’t quite decide on. Part of me wants to applaud Kate and her PR team for their quick thinking, opportunism and pitching skills which has seen the charity expose its key messages to a large proportion of the Sun’s three million readers. The other part of me is annoyed at the shameless publicity and the fact that she is overreacting and talking absolute tripe in an area where Help The Aged really doesn’t belong. What do you think?

Either way, I’ll bet John Terry, Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba et al aren’t overly flattered that Help The Aged has decided to fight their corner.