I have no interest in the statistics. If I loved numbers I would have become a mathematician, or Carol Vorderman. I love football and I lament that on Saturday we did not see a great game of it. No matter, for only the fifth time in English football history a team has completed a hat-trick of national championships. This latest team of Alex Ferguson’s, despite its lack of consistent flair, must now be placed alongside the greatest the nation has produced.
Many of you will see the numerical reality of matching Liverpool’s championship vitories as a reason to gloat and stoke fires that already burn brightly. That would be wrong. We have endured terrible abuse from our Liverpudlian cousins, in the case of many of us – for the duration of lives. Certainly, after their victory at Old Trafford the vitirol was as horrendous as I can remember.
Two wrong don’t make a right guys. Now, and in the future, we must rise above that kind of behaviour. I did not become a football fan to exchange insults over Munich and Hillsborough. I did not become a football fan to increase the miseries of others. I became a fan of this game because of the connections it helps me share with my family and friends and because I derive inexplicable pleasure from the ungovernable beauty this game can produce.
United’s star is flying high now, perhaps the highest it has in our history, but eventually all empires will crumble. There will be lean times in the future and displaying grace in victory now, will bode well for the times to come.
Enjoy this for what it is. A tremendous title victory by a good team with some great players. Despite the ramblings of Benitez, a team that can swat aside every opposition attack for fourteen fixtures and win twenty seven games in a season categorically deserves to be champions.
The game on Saturday, as I expected, was a far nervier affair than desirable. We were more than fortunate to get three points from Wigan and Arsenal, in fairness, outplayed us for large parts of the game. It is the last thing he would want, but Wenger has my sympathy. He has been booed by his own fans this term despite being the most successful manager in their history. I am not at all surprised to read this morning that he is tempted by the advances of Real Madrid.
Attention now shifts to the final against Barcelona in Rome after this most arduous of league campaigns. I am terribly sorry Mr. Shearer, but we will not be fielding our strongest team against Hull next week. See you on the sofa again next season.
Barcelona have been massively underrated by the British press this term and the game will be a gauntlet of danger. I shall post my expected line-up this week, in the meantime please e-mail me your thoughts on team selection.
United are Champions of England once more. We have a duty as fans to behave with a bit of class over the next few months. Enjoy the victory, but not at the expense of others.
Cheers.
That post my friends… was in a class of its own….I do however find our liverpudlian counterparts still unable to accept the fact that we’ve won it…. Ive accepted the fact that drubbing we took at Old Trafford against them was because we played bad football. Ive accepted it a long time ago. Telling them liverpool played a good strong attacking game and took the game to us…. yet once we won the title the first thing rafa does is rain on our parade. Ive always tried to be one of those classy fans…. who congratulates chelsea for their wins…. even admitting that Jose is one hell of a manager…. but its different for us mate…. we’ll always get stick regardless of whether we win or lose….
Good stuff, Marcus. Being a good winner as well as a good loser is a tough act. We may have the opportunity to display both this week.
It is a pity that Rafa won’t be reading this.