Failing Fergie’s toughest test yet
United’s 05/06 European campaign will, of course, remain one of the most humiliating suffered by any so called European giant, and deservedly so. Seldom has so much investment in wages and transfer fees produced so poor a result. At most other clubs, this abject failure combined with three successive league shortcomings and years of continental underachievement would have resulted in wholesale managerial and playing staff changes.
United, as ever, remains a special case. According to Fergie’s recent statements, indeed, success or lack thereof has nothing to do with how long he will stay in charge. Apparently, as long as he has his “good health” and his “desire”, he will stay on. This is clearly absurd, and one would imagine also not a view necessarily shared by his new owners.
He says he will be here at a minimum until June 2008 and he challenges anyone to suggest otherwise. The very real possibility is that the self-styled “World’s Biggest Club” (TM) may well go five years without winning anything that matters, and yet nothing will be done about that until the main protagonist decides to spend more time with his horses. Would any other company in any other industry allow such a tail-wagging-the-dog state of affairs to continue for so long? Of course not.
And still we believe. Even a long-time Fergie sceptic such as me is gagging with excitement-cum-horror at the prospects of this Champions League campaign under the grumpy old sod. The sheer power of the legend of 1999 casts its spell still, despite the fact that Fergie is clearly not the force he once was. “One more chance” has been the Red clarion call for a few seasons now and many would argue that last year was his only true abject failure in Europe.
These red-tinted specs merchants put the previous years’ elimination down to a combination of bad luck, bad refereeing and sheer oppositional brilliance — only last year offers no excuse. Well, except in Fergie’s eyes. He bizarrely cited “lack of experience” as the main reason for autumn’s farce, in stark contrast to the facts, namely that United were no younger and no more callow than anyone else in the group. He played that card all season, even in the face of exasperated journalists and fans pointing out that our average line up was the same age as Chelsea’s and even older than Arsenal. Thankfully, he seems to have dropped that line now, accepting that he has a mature squad and is happy with his reinforcements. The cynic wonders what he might be preparing to blame this time; weather, the astrological movements, the underlying fear of global terrorism?
The two supposedly “underperforming” and disruptive elements — Keane and van Nistelrooy — have been excised and, as Fergie so often says, having Scholes and Solskjaer back and fit is “like having two new signings”.
So no more excuses are possible, surely? Ferguson has one of the worst European Cup records in top management. Look at how many times we have entered the tournament since 1993/94 and consider the ratio of finals and semi-finals reached. It’s borderline pitiful.
Having just said all that, I have stuck £200 on United making the final at extremely healthy odds.
There is something about the convenient removal of the Italian giants and the sense that Chelsea are destined never to fulfil Ambrovich’s desperate desire, that seems to offer an open patch. Barcelona as well, is there any team that an on-form United should truly fear? I think not. The only question is this: will United’s players be let off the leash and allowed to be in-form and natural? Or are we destined to be tactically hamstrung by Carlos the Jackal’s antics and made to suffer the Fergusonian disease of playing players in their wrong positions? The legend of 1999 speaks today here — most of that campaign was conducted with simplicity, pure instinct to the fore, and a minimum of so-called “tactical sophistication”.
In short, it was the United way: Why couldn’t it work again now? Here’s hoping.
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