Letter: Bob Paisley's worth praising but Alex Ferguson is best of British

I HAVE great respect for the achievements of Bob Paisley and he is rightly considered one of Britain's greatest managers - equalled by Jock Stein and slightly in the shade of what Brian Clough achieved at Derby County and then Nottingham Forest - however the position of Britain's greatest manager must rest with Sir Alex Ferguson, and his failure to win the Champions League against the greatest team ever does not diminish this.

Paul Forsyth's suggestion (Scotland on Sunday, 29 May) that Ferguson is still chasing Bob Paisley is somewhat lazy journalism. In terms of European football's top prize, we must acknowledge that Paisley has three wins and Ferguson two, but that is where the comparison ends. Ferguson has won the Champions League twice - a far more demanding test of greatness than that of winning the European Cup (with no slight intended to the great achievement of Glasgow Celtic).

In winning the European Cup three times between 1977 and 1981, Paisley's achievement is worthy of the plaudits it receives, but it is worth noting that in doing this Liverpool overcame a total of 14 sides, with only Crusaders, FC Zurich, Benfica, Aberdeen and CSKA Sofia defeated both home and away.

An away-goals victory over Bayern Munich and the 1981 final victory over Real Madrid were the only successes against clubs with notable European track records - ironically two teams defeated by Fergie's victorious Aberdeen team en route to their European Cup-Winners' Cup triumph in 1983.

Bear in mind also that as Paisley never won the FA Cup, he is not even close to Sir Alex who has three doubles and one treble on his record.

So whilst I would always offer praise to Bob Paisley and his great Liverpool side, I believe that, with 12 English Premierships to his name and having won both league championships and European trophies with Aberdeen (and a First Division championship with St Mirren) on this side of the Border, Ferguson must be now declared indisputably the greatest-ever British football manager.

John Proctor

Majors Place, Falkirk

I ENJOYED your coverage of the golf at Wentworth very much until I got to the place where the leaderboard was displayed. I scanned down the list of the leading contenders and was disappointed to see the top Scot on the day (Saturday) Peter Whiteford, was described as an Englishman.

I'm sure he will be even more disappointed than I was to see himself so described. The headline of the article was 'Golf's young gun goes for it'. Whiteford (from Kirkcaldy) is one of the few young Scots who currently appears to be emerging to challenge for golf's top honours (along with the likes of Scott Jamieson and Richie Ramsay).

Surely the Scotland on Sunday sports section should be championing his efforts and at least getting his nationality correct.And why was Rory McIlroy (another of golf's young guns) referred to on the same leaderboard as representing Britain, in preference to Northern Ireland? I note all the English golfers on the leaderboard were all correctly nationalised.

Jim Smith

Clephanton, Inverness

AFTER reading the Scottish Cup final article by Moira Gordon (Scotland on Sunday, 22 May) can you please tell me why she has attacked and singled out Stephen Craigan? Steve Jennings was as much to blame as anyone (for Motherwell's cup final defeat by Celtic] but was not mentioned by her. To single out one individual in an assassination-style article is beyond me! I demand she apologises to "captain marvel" and the rest of the team and supporters.

Kenny Elliott

Angus Avenue, Motherwell

Write to the Sports Editor, Scotland on Sunday, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS or email [email protected] Letters may be edited. Please include name and address.