Fergie: Kuszczak attack was a joke

Sir Alex Ferguson has played down talk of a rift between goalkeepers Tomasz Kuszczak and Edwin van der Sar, after Kuszczak reportedly hit out at the veteran Dutchman for not offering him enough support during his time at Old Trafford.

GettyImages

Tomasz Kuszczak and Edwin van der Sar: No problem.

• Injured Rio ruled out of Chelsea tie

As Kuszczak made his comments on United's in-house television station, MUTV, it seemed a strange grievance to make and Ferguson confirmed anyone trying to convince themselves of a row in the Red Devils' camp were misplaced.

''It is just not true,'' he said. ''Tomasz was cracking a joke. He was laughing when he said it. There is no problem between him and Edwin - maybe it is just that Polish humour doesn't translate to British humour.''

The Polish keeper had seemed to hit out at his rival for refusing to pass down advice despite his requests for help.

"To be honest, I must say this and Edwin doesn't like this too much for sure, but he doesn't help me too much,'' he said. ''I have told him a few times already to give me some more advice because he's got more experience and got many more games under his belt.

"I say, 'You have to give me something more' because I like to know what I do wrong and like to watch other people. Doing that I can take some good from the advice I get. But I don't know, maybe Edwin doesn't like me. You'll have to ask him.''

Addressing his status as one of two goalkeepers looking to challenge van der Sar for his place, former West Brom number one Kuszczak admitted he misses the exhilaration which comes with playing first-team football.

He said: "I've already waited three and a half years. I will wait longer but my ambition is so big and I want to have a nice feeling after games, be tired and go home and think, 'Oh, you did a good job'.''