Sir Alex Ferguson calls Arsene Wenger a "disgrace" and the Frenchman demands that the Football Association charge the Scot with "bringing the game into disrepute".

But don't tell us he hasn't dreamed of tougher punishment for the Manchester United boss.

Not a day goes by it seems without a salvo of verbal mortar shells detonating around the offices of British football's most argumentative managers.

To some it's the grit in the oyster which makes football the most popular and passionate game on the planet. To others the confrontation and angst are more depressing aspects of a sport which dominates the culture.

Perish the thought that any media man should get too sanctimonious. Ferguson and Wenger have sparked more headlines, destroyed more acres of Brazilian rainforest, filled more column inches in the nation's sports pages than any football character since George Best in his drinking, womanising, goal-scoring pomp.

Straight-talkers

In a sport riddled with bland, mindless cliche, newspapers and television love them for their straight-talking.

Indeed, there is a case for both men to be honoured for services to the industry. A Bafta for post-match drama perhaps?

Most of the time it amounts to little more than if Victor Meldrew were sounding off at Alf Garnett over the garden fence. Two grumpy old men set in their ways, sure they are in the right and to hell with anyone - Football Association, League Managers' Association, you name it - who thinks they are wrong.

If that's where it remained then all well and good.

However, the latest ratcheting of their feud, again dragging up the aftermath of October's Old Trafford shenanigans so close to the next scheduled encounter between their respective clubs on February 1, makes it more than hot air.

Irresponsible

It makes it irresponsible. You don't light a cigarette while filling the car with petrol.

But in effect that's what Ferguson and Wenger are doing, a drip-drip of volatile statements giving the next match potential for combustion, even though it no longer has an immediate bearing on the Premiership title considering Chelsea's runaway lead.

Ferguson last week raked up the alleged pizza-and-soup throwing in the Old Trafford tunnel and the allegation that Wenger had "raised his hands".

No surprise there. In 18 years at Old Trafford, Ferguson has confirmed his reputation as football's meanest streetfighter, rarely missing an opportunity to seize a psychological edge whatever the collateral damage.

Mind games are his preferred weapons and in utilising intimidation and invective Ferguson is merely following the instincts honed in the Govan shipyards of his youth.

It is Wenger whose reputation is being systematically eroded by this unseemly feud.

From a composed, reasoned and charming man with a professorial demeanour Wenger has become the great obsessive.

Rage

The television cameras have caught him trembling with rage, a man consumed by perceived injustices, who smells conspiracy at every turn and sees the `Red Devils' and their manager as just that.

The condition - some might describe it as paranoia - has become progressively worse since United inflicted the notorious defeat which ended Arsenal's 49-match unbeaten sequence and maybe Wenger's state of mind should be regarded as a factor in his side's loss of form and confidence.

No question it has been wonderful soap opera.

The whole affair has been a compelling study of how two men can be driven beyond reason by the pressures of sport.

Who gains? Chelsea and Jose Mourinho is the inevitable conclusion.

Who loses? Apart from the fans of Arsenal and Manchester United the answer has to be the image of English football and its two most famous clubs.

Nothing wrong with hard-hitting differences of opinion and pithy banter. But the Fergie-Wenger feud has gone past that.

It has gone past appeals for calm from the League Managers' Association. It has become personal and peevish. At times it has bordered on providing players with an excuse for rank-bad behaviour and inciting fans to hate.

It would be naive to think new FA chief executive Brian Barwick, who takes up his post only hours before the clubs meet next month, could solve such bitterness at a stroke.

But it must be top of his agenda. The slanging has to stop before a player or supporter gets seriously hurt by the fall-out. It has gone far enough.

Are only Chelsea benefiting from the feud? have your say

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