The Devil In Me

What we have seen at Old Trafford this year, and all around the world, was not really the United we have come to know and love. With the exception of Macheda’s goals I can think of very few moments from the past season when I sat on my chair and thought “this is United, this is why I follow”.

We had the look of a dogged team, there were a few flashes of extravagance, mainly from Ronaldo, but nowhere near enough bravado to stand comparison to the heroes of yesteryear. I felt at times this United team was the can of spam compared to the Sunday roasts we have been raised on. It is churlish to complain, of course, when you are winning trophies but something is missing.

In particularl with the Carling Cup and the Club World Cup, it was almost as if we were collecting them rather than winning them. The spending in recent seasons has put our squad out of sight of even Chelsea in the quest to challenge for honours but there is something amiss in team spirit.

It is a United tradition, stretcing way back to the days of Billy Meredith, to have at the core of the side a maverick. A divinely gifted player who riles the opposition, outclasses them and has a bond with the supporters borne of having a “roll-your-sleeves-up” attitude and a touch of arrogance.

Although not arrogant in any way Robson’s sleeves were so far rolled up they met in the middle and the guy would have died for the shirt. Cantona and latterly Keane were heirs to Meredith’s tralblazing. During the sixties Denis Law’s attitude to authority made Marlon Brando look like a convent nun.

Where is that player now? We have the supremely gifted Ronaldo, but he seems to wind us up as much as the opposition, although he always, always wins me over with his football. Rooney is the closest I suppose but the x-factor is not quite there. Tevez’s dispute with the club breaks my heart as he could be the true talisman of the team.

What is without question is that we currently lacks a character, somebody mildly psychotic, to fire them up in the heat of battle. We were slaughtered in Rome, absolutely murdered and I couldn’t see anywhere on the park where it was going to turn around. How I longed to see Norman Whiteside trot on, a la Anfield 88, and start making things even.

He is not there, in fact, there are no Big Norms at the moment. The problem, I think, is because we are getting the players so young now they are indoctrinated into the United mythology before maverick tendencies can develop.

I would suggest we missed a trick here. If Ballack had come he would have been a hero for us, nobody really likes him but he is brilliant- a perfect fit for United, shame he didn’t. Looking around world football I cannot see that attitude too obviously anywhere. It is that attitude that I crave to see again on the pitch. For all of the merits of the current heroes, there is something slightly lacking in charisma.

Nonetheless, our shortcomings are far less yawning than those of our rivals and major surgery is not required over the summer months. I do, however, expect changes we may not see coming. Ronaldo, Tevez and Ribery will occupy most of the column inches over the next 10 weeks but be ready for something you don’t expect. The one maverick we definitely do still have is the manager, and he still has a few tricks left up his sleeve.

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 do”. 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.

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.

You always have to worry if it’s been a full moon and City are coming to visit. Perhaps the hairs will not have receded in time before they take the field. Fortunately, the only beasts unleashed at Old Trafford were those of Berbatov and Tevez and the Bitters were left looking like lemons again.

A decent run of results for the blue half (third?) of Manchester left them with every right to expect a performance from their team and the chance of overhauling their total from last year. The Blues I spoke to before kick-off intimated they would be “happy with a draw”. Knowing that we wouldn’t be I began to feel more confident.

To their credit the away fans did start a little louder but by midway through the first half we were in full voice and drowned them out completely. The banter was as enjoyable as any I can remember at OT this season.

Again, you have to admire the success of Ferguson’s rotation policy this year. We have played the equivalent of almost two league seasons of fixtures this term and the players have a hunger and a fearless determination running through their ranks.

Tevez was utterly superb and put in a performance worthy of a hat-trick. Alas, I doubt we will be seeing too many performances from him in a red shirt. He has whinged in the press on several occasions and now seems to have read The Gabriel Heinze guide to getting yourself transferred out of Old Trafford.

I hold out hope for the guy because he is a smashing player and Fergie rarely gets it wrong when knowing when to let go. He does though, look like a man close to the door. God knows what Ronaldo’s problem was. An utterly, utterly wonderful player, he makes me float at times. But his reaction to a completely sensible substitution baffles the mind. Can he really want to go to Madrid now?

I have a theory. Presuming that I was right about the Ribery bid (have faith here), he perhaps feels put in his place. Hardly what he would have wanted, but necessary for harmony in the camp. Two such public displays of dissent leave us scratching heads. I expect our summer to be savaged by rumours and recriminations. But then again. I could be wrong.

Man of the Match:

Berbatov looked like a £30million pound player. Where Rooney is stronger than a herd of Buffalo, and Ronaldo can shoot from forty yards with the accuracy of a sniper – Berbatov has the touch of a pianist.

The control he showed to bring the ball down for Tevez’s goal betrayed the laws of physics. There were several occasions when he harried the opposition and had the good grace to stick his boot in on a couple of occasions too.

I have mentioned before that he brings a lot to the side and with the team hitting form at the right time the knot in my stomach is beginning to loosen. We are not there yet, but the city limits of the Premier League title have been breached. Bring on Wigan.

I am fed up of hearing about the “four stonewall” penalty appeals. Let’s share some hard facts. Twice now Chelsea have been eliminated from Europe and launched vitriolic attacks at the officials in charge. On both occasions the referees in question, guys trying to do very difficult jobs under intense pressure, have received death threats from Chelsea fans. Anders Frisk retired immediately and Tom Henning Ovrebo was snuck out of the country under armed guard. Clearly, this is unacceptable.

In 1985 English clubs were banned from European competition for the disgraceful actions of English fans at the European Final. The issuing of death threats over a sporting match is exactly the kind of neanderthal behaviour that cannot be tolerated.

There should be a full inquiry launched immediately, by Chelsea Football Club, UEFA and the police, into the circumstances behind these death threats and punishment should reign down on the perpetrators with the full force of God.

If the fans of your club bring the game into disrepute you are responsible for their actions and liable for the consequences. Recently in Italy there have been bans imposed on travelling fans at several grounds and again I cite the ban on English clubs in the 80s.

The ramifications of this, if left alone, are potentially horrendous. I strongly recommend that Chelsea are banned from European competition until such time that they can prove able to control the actions of their fans.

If we live in a world where a man’s life is in danger because he did not award a penalty kick then something is gravely amiss. I hope action is taken soon.

There is a terrible air of gloom around the North East at the moment. It is hardly St. Tropez at the best of times but all four of their major teams are in serious trouble. The fans of the region deserve much better than what has been served up for them this season. I always expect one of the teams in the bottom three to put together a Herculean run of results in the last few games and save themselves. It has happened enough times for this expectation to be reasonable. See West Hams controversial late run or even Brian Robson’s West Brom for further reference. What is more, seasoned United watchers, for the last few years, have circled this game on the fixture list and written the word banana-skin next to it.

Ferguson has done an unbelievable job of rotating the squad this season. I expected Ronaldo to be left out, not just because of the game against Arsenal but because he seems to needle this club more than any other. This would not be a good time for him to get injured. Besides, the only completely undroppable player we have at the moment is Wayne Rooney. Contrast this to our opponents fortunes and you will note that Stuart Downing has started every single one of their league fixtures this season. Must have been tough work for the bloke.

The manager had complained about the early kick-off but fortunately it was the men in red who still seemed blurry eyed. I was intrigued to see how the partnership between Berbatov and Macheda might work but was alas pretty disappointed. I have tried to hold back the tide of negative opinion about the Bulgarian. I think he holds the ball up superbly and throughout December and January he made several very important contributions. Dare I say it, he also speaks to the media an awful lot less than Mr. Tevez does. Up here at the Riverside though, Berbatov did not light the blue touch paper. He gave the ball away with his first couple of touches and then seemed to drift off. Shame, I am sure he still has a lot to offer.

Middlesbrough huffed and puffed a little in the early stages but our defence seemed to have the making of them and the game started to remind me of quite a few others this season. We were in control, did not overexpend energy and just waited for our moment to strike. We have not contributed to the national stockpile of adrenalin as much as United teams of yesteryear. A few years ago it seemed as if our players used to jump down rigging with a cutlass in their teeth before the start of play. Now there is an icy calm and a sense of getting the job done.

Ticking off his 801st day of work well done was Mr. Ryan Giggs. His finish showed enduring class and the goalie didn’t even have the chance to move. The Boro centre backs didn’t seem to bothered about stopping him and if you watch the replay closely you can catch a glimpse of Giggsy checking his watch before deciding where to place the ball. The game was over.

The second goal is a good example of why I am in love with this game. Rooney’s first touch and vision for the through ball were utterly inspiring and Park’s finish was as clinical as any you will see in the league. It was also great that the move was started by Macheda and on this form Rooney must be the most fearsome opponent on the planet.

Boro are one of the few clubs left in this league who I consider the be run properly. Their chairman is a local boy done good who sticks with his managers and tries to do things the right way. The days of Ravanelli and Juninho are behind them but, despite the utter dourness of the Riverside and our recent run-ins, they are a good part of English football. It was heartening to see a banner in their stand saying WE SHALL OVERCOME. Somebody needs to tell their players that.

Thoughts on the Arsenal tie:

As the 95/96 season came to its nerve-jangling climax somebody remarked at half time of the game at St. James Park that United had been “murdered nil nil”. I feel a sense of deja vu here. We outfought, outclassed and outran the Gunners but only have a one goal lead to show for it. Newcastle (the murderers of quote past) went on to lose that game. Not for a second would I directly compare this United team with that Geordie choke machine but the precedent is there.

If Arsenal get their tip-tappy game going they are capable of scoring many a goal and teams that have gone for our throats this season, shamed as I am to say it, have done alright for themselves. I think we will have enough in the tank but beware an early Arsenal goal.

Manchester United’s capacity for drama is certainly not on the wane. There are times when I wonder if I follow football or merely suffer from it. This still wasn’t vintage stuff from United but five goals against a resurgent Spurs is very respectable. One question that is left in hanging in air though. What on earth has happened to Howard Webb?

Not so long ago this guy was widely respected as the English game’s best referee. Mourinho would pillory for him in the big fixtures and that shiny pate had us all thinking he was our very own Pierluigi Collina. Not today. I try very hard not to criticise other people, and I think referees have an exceptionally difficult job, but that was as close to a penalty as Japan is to the Caribbean. Not very.

Nonetheless, we had our scoring boots on from that point and the more I look at the goal difference column the more I think it could turn out to be crucial. We need ten points to secure this title and I highly doubt that Middlesbrough or Manchester City will be rooting for us to claim it.

There is still a lot of work to be done. The team has looked a little tired of late but we have been able to lean on different areas of the side at different times. For so long the defence held us together but now it is the attack. If we believe the papers, then next season our attack will also include some young scamp named Kaka. Where on earth would we play him? In goal?

The next three weeks see us playing two games a week again. It seems as though we have been doing that all season. We are not there yet but I hope we can hold on. Should the drama levels stay this high then by the end of May I could be sporting the same hairstyle as Mr. Webb.

Okay. So we are not trapped in the marshy trash compactor of a Starship Destroyer wearing uncomfortable Stormtrooper outfits with a strange beasty lurking beneath but, beware we should. I am not at all sure our record at New Wembley ((C) Tony Blair) is anything to feel confident about.

We have played four matches so far at the boo palace and on not one occassion have we scored more than a single goal. The two Charity Shields we have played there may as well have been telethons they were so long. Both matches went to penalties and our outrageous fortune with the dead ball continued.

This year’s Carling Cup Final and the sequence repeated itself. Most of our attacks in that game resembled an old woman trying to stab a brick wall with a plastic takeaway fork. Not particularly incisive.

Prior to those glorious occasions we were mugged by Didier Drogba in the final throes of injury time when Chelsea were still under the control of Darth Mourinho. To put it mildly, our form on this ground ain’t too good.

There may be reasons for this. I am told that the pitch is made from a special turf that can be rolled up for rock concerts and has less traction than normal pitches. This could explain why our zippy passing game has yet to grace the hallowed turf. It also gives us the opportunity to blame James Blunt if we lose.

I don’t see the pitch being wider as a great problem. We have more wingmen than Maverick in Top Gun and should be able to exploit that extra space handsomely. So what is it then? I suggest it may simply be because the ground is in London. Our record there is nowhere near as good as it is in say, Birmingham, or even Liverpool.

Basically, nothing will surpirse me today. If the game was being played at any other ground in the country I would predict 2-1 either way. Now, I am not so sure. Everton have several players who are happy to put their boot in (to share a dressing room with Duncan Ferguson has its effects) and in Cahill they have a guy who can win football matches. As always, I live in hope, but, I have a baaad feeling about this.