New Year transfer dreams better be modest ones, lads

IF FOOTBALL seasons are marked as much by their glorious moments as by trophies won, then we should still be remembering last Saturday warmly come the summer.

The sight of the entire United team mobbing the lovely Paul Scholes after his utterly peerless volley was the heart of what the game should be about: instinct, dazzling flair, unaffected joy.

No ridiculous video-game re-enactments or solipsistic shirt-name-pointing here — just genuine ecstasy, and extra seasonal goodwill towards one of the most popular Reds of his generation.

That said, take nothing away from the afternoon’s true star, Ronaldo. Pause for the 20th time I’ve said this: as long as you have either Ronnie or Rooney on form, we will ALWAYS have a chance.

That the precocious, prodigious pair of ’em are still so young belies the managerial excuse so often used when we do slip up that we are a young team who need some leeway cutting: it is, surely, the younger ones who are most reliably producing the goods, is it not?

And the average age of the rest of the team is actually 28 — no spring chickens. Mind you, we haven’t heard so much of the excuse-mongering this season, for the simple reason that excuses haven’t often been needed. I guess that’s what Jose Mourinho was getting at when, reflecting my own comments here two weeks ago, he said that it has been as good as it can get for us.

Good form all round, a certain amount of luck on decisions, no real injury or suspension worries...as opposed to Chelsea, who have had a catalogue of complaints. And boy, have they complained; we haven’t heard such whingeing from a major power since Dalglish’s Liverpool days.

Despite it all, still they doggedly cling: and Robben’s eminently punchable grinning face as he rescued them with yet another late late show at Wigan did spoil the Red Christmas run-up somewhat. I am going to assume that we beat Wigan yesterday, counting on my good prediction run (viz that we could lose at West Ham and trounce Villa) to not make me look a total fool. (Pause again here for you to insert hollow laugh should Jewell have produced some gems yesterday).

Moreover, it’s not just Chelsea who seem threateningly adept at keeping up the pace despite a sojourn in the valley of travails.

Arsenal’s six-shooting at the weekend — brilliantly timed, given Wenger’s brave boasting the day before — is a tad ominous.

Papers helpfully ran tables reminding us of what happened in 1997/8, as if we could have forgotten. So there is confidence, but not arrogance, in the Red heartlands as the year turns: so much, it would seem, depends on the imminent window cleaning. The pane is a tad murky at the moment, after weeks of denials from Fergie that he was up to anything.

As I noted here three columns ago “Fergie’s new favourite journalistic mouth-piece Bob Cass rubbed the point home in his Mail on Sunday column, writing that there would be no move in January for either Torres or Klose.”

Mind you, he didn’t mention Owen Hargreaves: Freudian omission?

Aha! Sigmund responded quickly: here’s that same Bob Cass last Sunday: “Sir Alex Ferguson will clinch the £12million (€17.8m) capture of England midfielder Owen Hargreaves within the next fortnight.”

Cass either speaks the pure Fergie truth here — a Christmas present of a scoop from his old drinking buddy — or he is going to look the biggest ass on Fleet Street next month, albeit amidst stiff competition.

Elsewhere we still see familiar names linked: Klose — I suspect he wants the move more than we do; Joey Barton — whom I exclusively revealed here Fergie turned down last January; Gareth Bale — which would be our third left back, surely a joke?; and the possible sales of ‘Lord’ Richardson and Alan Smith — no complaints here on that score.

Fergie is good at mid season surprises though: no-one had a sniff of Andy Cole, Eric Cantona or Henrik Larsson, and only one paper had any inkling at all of Vidic (The Guardian’s hardnosed Danny Taylor) and Evra (the NOTW).

So prepare to be amazed, perhaps.

Remembering, all the while, this salient and sobering fact: the Glazers’ annual interest bill increases to £43m (€64.1m) this year, swallowing up just over half the club’s trading profit. We’re on a budget, so your transfer dreams better be modest ones, lads.

* Richard Kurt, author of ‘The Red Army Years’.