With or without Roo
The way things are going, you suspect it won’t be long before the Stretford End has adopted ‘You’ll never beat United’ as its new anthem.
Which is all well and good if, like the storied Ireland of heroic failure, it’s deemed to be enough that you’re there and sometimes even thereabouts when the gongs are handed out.
But that, as Roy Keane would be very quick to tell you, has never been the United way.
Second place is no place as far as the Old Trafford faithful are concerned, and United still find themselves playing catch-up in the Premier League, despite going 26 games without defeat – their longest unbeaten run for 11 years – and, for the first time under Alex Ferguson, remaining unbeaten in their opening 13 league games of the season.
But, as we know, there’s lies, damn lies and statistics, and the most damning one for United is that they have now drawn more games (seven) than they have won (six) in the Premiers League this season.
Psychologically, coming back from two down to share the spoils with Aston Villa on Saturday might have almost felt a win but, no matter, it still registered just a solitary point.
There’s a sort of dogged quality about United at the moment which is admirable in many ways but a far cry from the potent combination of power and panache traditionally associated with the club and its football. The problem, you could say, is that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Hence, the mixture of anticipation and trepidation with which Red Devils everywhere are viewing the imminent return of Wayne Rooney.
Anticipation because, in the entire United squad – and notwithstanding some sparkling cameos by Javier Hernandez – no-one comes close to touching Rooney as the kind of world-class talent who can win a game virtually on his own.
And trepidation because United fans – and England supporters too – have not seen that particular Rooney for a very long time.
Instead, he has been replaced by the soap opera figure and prodigal son whose ultimate value to the club could still lie on the balance sheet rather than the pitch.
By persuading Rooney to execute the kind of dazzling U-turn at the negotiating table which used to be his stock in trade between the white lines, United have ensured that, even at his vastly inflated salary, they’ll still pocket a king’s ransom should the player rediscover his itchy feet next summer.
Better all round, of course, that he rediscovers his form and, now that’s he’s back from his gardening leave in Nike Town and Dubai, and apparently carrying a clean bill of health, we shouldn’t have to wait too much longer to find out.
Nothing can disguise the fact that, sans Rooney, United are badly lacking the wow factor. Frank Stapleton, a former Old Trafford favourite and a man who knows a thing or two about finding the back of the net, said as much on a visit home to Dublin this week. When we asked how much he reckoned his old club were missing Rooney, Stapleton replied: “Rooney as he was last season, yes. But Rooney as he was recently, no. There’s a comparison with Ronaldo: in his second last season before he left he scored 42 goals and in his final season he got 26. He was no where near where he had been. You hit a peak like that, if you are lucky, once in your career. If you hit it twice then it’s just marvellous. Rooney has got to try to get back to that because that’s what the supporters now expect.”
So don’t be surprised if you hear a strange Bono impression emanating from behind the gaffer’s door at Carrington: that’ll just be Fergie crooning softly to himself: “I can’t live, with or without Roo…”
