Reds revelling in Chelsea boss’s attack of self-doubt

IT’S apt to drag out the old bus route — you wait for two years for a Chelsea blip and then three or four come along all at once. Where was Terry’s bad back when it was needed back in April, eh?

Of course we are revelling in it — especially in Mourinho’s sudden attack of self-doubt, which frankly doesn’t suit him at all — and thus far we seem to be semi-capitalising on it in typical United fashion, at one moment storming home, and yet then dropping points on Monday with the carelessness we have come to expect and accept as part of being Red. I suppose the feeling could be summed up by grabbing another hoary analogy: we are the Germans attacking through the Ardennes in December 1944, hoping to race ahead pellmell and build up enough distance before the defenders get their act together and surround us. (John Terry will play the role of Patton, I guess.) Except this time, I expect our petrol to last better, judging by the superhuman way Ronaldo and Scholes have responded to the challenge of this season. Those two were being written off back in August — even I had my doubts about Scholsey, and he’s my favourite player by a long chalk — but this Christmas period has belonged to them, with worthy assists from another written-off old warrior, Ole Gunnar. Fergie spent much of last week trying to make out that our great squad, about whom any doubt is apparently an “insult” to him, would be the key factor over this period, but there has been precious little evidence of that.

The sudden bigging-up of the fringe players might, some cynics would contend, have rather more to do with Fergie potentially shopwindowing potential sales and loans for January and July’s windows. Richardson, we hear, is a €5million target for West Ham, where his great mate Anton Ferdinand plays and which is conveniently located for all those nightclubs “Lord Snooty” likes to frequent. Smith continues to attract interest and even Gabby Heinze is tipped by some for a move, though in his case next summer. That latter potential move would explain why Southampton’s Bale is on our watchlist, along with the fact that Silvestre’s time at O.T. is surely coming to an end. Poor Mickey thought his new deal last summer betokened a United future; Phil Neville could have told him that it rarely means any such thing these days.

Towering above all such discussion is the prospect of Hargreaves signing, which would not be a moment too soon given the apparent slough of despond Carrick has fallen into, left out on Monday in favour of the hitherto underwhelming Fletcher. Actually, to be fair, the Scottish player has shown signs of real life recently but is never going to be the kind of player who will win you a European Cup, which Hargreaves could well be. Bob Cass of the Mail On Sunday assures me his tip about him joining is bang on. Looming ahead in our ongoing Battle of the Bulge, meanwhile, are two tough North London encounters, and if we emerge from those two unbowed then even a pessimist such as I will begin to believe that we can pull this off.

But only if we do well in the window, and if we remain completely injury-free. Big “ifs”, I will concede. Before all that comes the FA Cup third round and one wonders if we will see that rarity, a full-strength early-round United Cup line-up. After the grubby rummaging around in the League Cup bargain bin last season, you do feel that United will not want to cast aside the FA Cup quite so cavalierly this time around. We have come a long way, haven’t we, from the time we abandoned the FA Cup completely, so low down was it on our list of priorities. Then we were masters of the world, just about, or so it felt; nowadays we may well be top of the league but we take no territory for granted anymore. I prefer it this way: every week, and every match, counts when you are fighting for primacy on every front. More to the point, I have two hundred on us winning the Cup... spoken like a true disciple of Fergie, eh!?