The Devil In Me

As the season enters its sixth month and final stretch it seems as though elder statesmen dominate the tale. Events of the last few weeks bear this out and it was the old fellas who finished the weekend having the last laugh.

Last week’s article suggesting that Fergie may retire at the end of the season was met with strong resistance from you readers. However, whether I’m right or wrong, Fergie himself said recently that he wanted to go out on a high. He will no doubt be influenced by the torrid time Arsene Wenger has been experiencing lately.

The Frenchman is getting torn apart in the press and he doesn’t deserve it. There can be no denying his impact on English football has been both enormous and hugely important. Having his methods questioned by precocious journalists under the age of thirty must be galling for him. I must admit I was delighted to see Arsenal’s stupendous victory at the weekend.

The side Arsenal beat, Tottenham, are United’s opponents this weekend in a fixture Fergie has already described as being “massive” for the title race. Spurs have been terrific under the experienced guidance of Harry Redknapp. Unfortunately for them, the FA have been batting their eyelids in Redknapp’s direction for the England job and it has destabilised the club. It is far from a foregone conclusion, but I am more confident than I would have been a few weeks ago.

Despite the fact we lost our captain, Nemanja Vidic, in October for the season and our most effective midfielder, Darren Fletcher, the squad has been immense this term. This is in no small amount due to the contributions of the returning Paul Scholes and 900-man Ryan Giggs.

How Giggsie is still playing at the top of this league at his age is anybody’s guess. I can’t even think of anything I have done 900 times in my life, let alone anything as mammoth as playing for United. A few more performances like the one at the weekend and we could have another trophy to celebrate in May too. Then it really would have been a season for the old stagers.

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The Ajax of Homer’s Iliad is described as being of colossal frame and the strongest of all. The Ajax of Dutch football fit a similar description when compared to other clubs in the Low Countries. However, in terms of European football they are not what they used to be. Even so, after a couple of months that have a left a bitter taste in the mouth, this fixture was certainly one to savour.

Although the Old Trafford accountants are unlikely to agree with me, I am rather glad we are not in the Champions’ League right now; and for several reasons. Firstly, the last few seasons have proven to us that we are not as good as Barcelona and frankly, watching us lose to them in two finals has been rather morale-sapping. At the present stage, I suspect we are not the equals of Madrid either.

That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t welcome a grand Champions’ League match against either of those clubs, I would, but waiting another year isn’t such a bad thing.

Also, people of my age fell in love with a United that didn’t play in the group stages of the revamped European Cup every year. Many of us remember the sumptuous Cup Winner’s Cup tie against Diego Maradona’s Barca and how Bryan Robson bossed the Old Trafford leg. Personally, I have a special fondness for our Cup Winner’s Cup run in 1991. Mark Hughes and Clayton Blackmore remain two of my favourite ever United players.

So, if we have to play in the lesser competition then so what? We get to compete against one of the great European teams in one of the great European stadiums. I fail to see how this is selling ourselves short. And, let’s face it, it’s always great fun when you win.

Our victory on Thursday evening, and indeed in the last few games, can be ascribed to one thing. Sir Alex Ferguson’s half-time team talk. Not for the first time in recent weeks United have put in a turgid first half performance but flown out after the break and scored. The Scotsman is earning his money at the moment.

The UEFA Cup, or Europa league, also happens to be the only trophy he hasn’t won in his career. My old man remains sure that Fergie will retire at the end of the season and it could be a fitting send off. It would be nice, of course, if we could win it and have him back in the dugout next season too. I hope that is to be the case.

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Football has seldom looked less like the enjoyable pastime I fell in love with as a youngster. In the past few weeks, the overblown, hate-filled events encrusting the English game have made for very unpleasant viewing.

Almost nobody has conducted themselves with dignity or class in any of the major scandals engulfing some of our more visual protagonists. The whole scenario is a sorry and sad one.

Even so, Liverpool Football Club have earned special mention for their appalling conduct and ideology throughout the last few months. Kenny Dalglish proved himself to be a human being of great dignity and compassion in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster. In recent weeks he has undone much of that good work. It is a great shame he has chosen to damage his reputation so horrifically.

There are a growing number of Liverpool fans who feel extremely uncomfortable with the way the club and its players have conducted themselves around Suarez’s racism conviction. One wonders if Liverpool’s commercial sponsorship will suffer as a result of endorsing the Uruguayan’s racist and inflammatory behaviour.

In the midst of all this, Manchester United have also been playing football. So far 2012 has dealt us an incredibly difficult hand. Despite facing Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool twice already in this young year we start February 12th at the top of the league.

Whilst the spotlight has been shining firmly on John Terry’s humanitarianism and the latest England manager’s departure Wayne Rooney has quietly scored four goals in a week. In addition, Hernandez has found his touch again and a few of our absentees are making their ways back from injury.

From a football perspective United are looking in ruder and ruder health. It seems such a shame that we are seemingly unable to enjoy the fact that our team are playing well.

Thank goodness Liverpool are out of the way and we cannot meet them again this season. Patrice Evra’s celebration at the final whistle was ill advised and as Fergie said, “he shouldn’t have done that.” Many, I suspect, will understand the enormous provocation he has been subjected to.

From here on in I hope to be able to enjoy the matches, not recriminations. This young Manchester United team is building character the hard way, it will stand us in good stead I am sure.

Personally, I am really looking forward to the Ajax matches.

Come on you Reds.

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If aliens were to land this week and cast their intergalactic eyes over English football then no doubt they would leave immediately, safe in the knowledge that a species so stupid was not worth conquering.

A few years ago Fabio Capello was widely, and rightly, respected as one of the foremost coaches in world football. How we have reached the current nadir beggars belief.

It has been my misfortune to ply my trade in the occasional workplace with office politics but I doubt it would bear comparison with the dressing room of the England team.

It must be a wonderful time to be a journalist as seemingly every player in this fiasco is leaking their point of view to some scribe or other. So far the papers teach us the following:

Rio doesn’t like John Terry anymore.
Rio and Rio’s mates aren’t talking to John.
John still wants to be captain.
If John can’t be captain he still wants to play.
Rio and Rio’s mates don’t want John to play.
The junior players want to keep both Rio and John happy.
Fabio, the smartest man in the set up by some distance, has decided he can’t be bothered to deal with this lot anymore.

It reads like a week of plot updates in Eastenders, or some other soap opera. The most pathetic part of the whole scenario is that despite the fact a point of racial tension has caused this travesty, all of the papers say the following – ‘We must have an English manager next’.

At least Patrice Evra’s Manchester United are playing Luis Suarez’s Liverpool this weekend. We can all relax now….

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