There has been an elephant in the room all season. It was easy to ignore it while United were winning and throwing silver cups over their shoulders back onto the pile. Now we must face up to the reality. The team has not put in a really good performance all term and finally we have been shown up for it.
In truth I always hoped it would be just around the corner but it never arrived and, spectacularly, any hint of it vanished without trace on Wednesday evening. Barcelona fully deserved their victory and frankly made us look like stone-age mugs.
This was not the neo-tactically adept Fergie at work. The team looked like a series of doodles on a piece of paper followed by the words “that’ll doâ€Â. Who can blame him. We have won so much this season without hitting anything like top gear, why not think it could work one more time in Rome. It didn’t. At all.
I feel very much like I did after the spanking we received in the San Siro two years ago at the paddled hands of AC Milan. Without any positives to dwell on. But, you know what, I am wrong.
Much like in that game United faced a team of great players putting in the performances of their lives. We have won the league, which I think we would all have picked as the most important trophy at the start of the season, and, well, we have our health.
Barcelona were outrageously good and our players just didn’t turn up. I think we all still feel, despite the recent success, there is a Roy Keane/Bryan Robson shaped whole in the midfield. Hargreaves should be back next season and that will help things along enormously. He, maybe more than any other, is the player we really missed in Italy.
This is not the time to change jobs, leave the wife, sell all the players and start again. Simply, we have been beaten by a better team. In all honesty I felt our players were getting a little hubristic in the build up to this one so maybe this jolt will do them the world of good.
The season is over, we have done well, now it is time to start ignoring those Ronaldo headlines.
Losing was bad enough, but what concerns me is the aftermath – the two players most obviously likely to leave, Ronaldo and Tevez, have been mouthing off on how Ferguson’s tactics were poor, there wasn’t enough preparation, etc.
I wonder who we’ll bring in? The best that we could do would be to come roaring back and win our 4th EPL title on the trot. That would definitely make history, Champions League or not.
Absolutely gutted as well mate. Couldn’t sleep after.
Anyway, moving forwards, I’m writing to let you know about the FREE Unofficial Manchester United 2007/2008 UEFA Champion League Season E-Review that I just finished producing. The name itself is self-explanatory but the additional feature is that I’ve included links to Youtube videos to enable a richer experience in reigniting United’s triumphs in the road to Moscow.
I’m currently in the midst of producing the 08/09 e-review (was hoping for a happy ending) but I feel its still important to come up with a quality 08/09 season e-review even though we lost to Barca. We learned a lot from it.
I wish to personally give you a copy of the FREE Unofficial Manchester United 2007/2008 UEFA Champion League Season E-Review and maybe offer it to your readers as well. The editing is kinda sketchy but that just boils down to my incompetency in art.
The presentation will hopefully improve in this forthcoming edition.
Thanks for your time.
Warmest regards,
Ulrik Fredrik
we did our best. didnt show up on the day..
i say lets sell ronaldo for the 80 million pounds and lets buy the likes of karim benzema and get more depth.
no doubt ronaldo is good.. but im sick and tired of his sulking off the pitch… on the pitch i have the upmost respect for him but off it he is a total tool..
great season and now lets build on it next year
What’s this about talks of getting Huntelaar(sp)? I don’t think Benzema will get an offer from United as Fergie has his two front men. Whether or not Tevez leaves is still the mystery, and I think that once those feathers have calmed, United will be able to go from there. Honestly, I’m just tired of hearing about the Real-Ronaldo saga. Whatever happens will happen.
Regarding the UCL Final, I think that United were simply put in their place, bc as Mark said, we just had not shown 100% quality during the term. We did have our spells of running rampant on teams, but we were very shaky this season. Obviously what hurt us the most was injuries. I too think that we needed Hargreaves this year, especially in the UCL, but missing Fletcher in the final, I think, is what did us in. And I’m saying that as an avid fan of Michael Carrick. He’s shown true quality this past term, and I still think the Fletcher-Carrick combo is our best option. Remember, we still won good silverware this season, one bad game was all it took to remind United that they too are human.