Caught in the act of United drama
As they head to Burnley today, the most obvious warning from history is the painful memory of their trip to Turf Moor this month five years ago, when, then as now, the home side were newly- promoted to the Premier League. And, under then manager Owen Coyle, Burnley proceeded to mark their return to the top-flight after an absence of 33 years by recording a sensational victory over the reigning champions, a Robbie Blake goal enough to overcome a United side for whom Michael Owen was making his first competitive start.
Those inclined to read too much into that result were misguided, however, normal service soon being restored, even if United did end the season having to settle for second place as they surrendered their crown to Chelsea. Meanwhile, despite hitting that early height, Burnley wound up going straight back down, along with Portsmouth and Hull.
Nor did United have to wait a whole lot longer to regain the title, doing so in 2011 and again in 2013, the latter initially seen as Alex Ferguson’s ceremonial last hurrah but, after all that has happened since then, now being increasingly regarded as a watershed moment for the club and even for English football as a whole.
Certainly, should United fail to win or, worse, suffer another defeat at Burnley today, no-one will be writing it up as one of the great shock results, a blip from which the visitors will be expected to immediately bounce back. And should they win, it will be framed merely as a reprieve, a moment of respite from the storm, not a harbinger of much greater things to come.
And there was another ghost around yesterday too, as the news broke that United were close to selling Tom Cleverley to Aston Villa, Hull City or Everton. Here was another reminder that, before David Moyes and before Louis van Gaal, there had been little signs that the future would not necessarily be all plain-sailing for England’s most successful club.
It so happens that this month four years ago, I found myself in conversation with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the then coach of the United reserves who were in Ireland to play Arsenal’s reserves at Tallaght Stadium. As the talk turned to young talent, I asked him to name one rising start at Old Trafford who we should watch out for above all others. The Norwegian answered without missing a beat.
“Tom Cleverley,” said Solskjaer. “He’s done his rounds on loan, at Watford, at Leicester, and for me, he’s top class. Great character, attitude is fantastic and he’s got all the skills, he’s different class. I think the manager is going to keep him this year because he thinks he can make an impact in the first team.” A replacement for Scholes? “Tom’s not the same type of player as Paul. Tom can play left back, right back, left mid, right mid, centre mid, up front — he can play anywhere.”
By playing anywhere, I doubt that Solskjaer had Villa Park or the KC Stadium in mind but it’s certainly away from Old Trafford that Cleverley must look to resurrect a career which suffered more than most from the general malaise which has engulfed United since Ferguson bade farewell. Hailed also at one point as the next big thing for England, Cleverley instead finished up last season’s annus horribilis as not only a scapegoat for United supporters but surplus to requirements when Roy Hodgson named his World Cup squad.
In retrospect, that might have been a bullet dodged, but Cleverley is still having to put up with dog’s abuse even as he prepares to leave Old Trafford, the Twittersphere alive with parting jibes yesterday, the only even vaguely funny one being the suggestion that, having supposedly agreed an £8 million price for the player, United were prepared to pay Villa in installments.
At 25, Cleverley can still make up lost ground in his career but it was the ground lost in finding that successor to Paul Scholes which is one of the things really catching up on United now. It was never going to be an easy task and maybe — despite his good goal return while out on loan — the more defensively minded Cleverley was never going to be the player to carry it off, no matter how highly he was rated at the time, but the huge quality deficit in United’s midfield is one that still hasn’t been satisfactorily plugged, despite occasionally hapless and now increasingly frantic trips to the market.
This week’s League Cup humiliation at the hands of MK Dons means no-one at Old Trafford is going to make the mistake of hyping up the young ones again, while the arrival of the dynamic Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid can only be considered one piece, even if a potentially significant one, in the radically new jigsaw which van Gaal now has no option but to try to put together.
The Dutchman has traditionally taken his time in establishing his authority and imprinting his vision at a new club, with the results in the long-term invariably compensating for short-term pain. But with the transfer door close to shutting and Turf Moor promising another trial of fire today, the pressure in his new job is fierce. Right now, Louis van Gaal is like nothing so much as a theatre director trying to change the cast and rewrite the script with the play already in progress.
