Savouring last months of our moody genius

ONE of the weekend’s headlines was “Lucky Devils.” But the results that United are getting don’t have too much to do with luck.

The similarities between them this year and us over the past two years are striking. They are winning games where they don’t play particularly well; their goals are coming from unlikely sources; they battle for every second of every game and no game is ever lost to them.

That isn’t luck; that is the mark of champions.

Despite O’Shea’s goal loosening our grip on the Premiership trophy, I have to admit to a perverse sense of pleasure in seeing so many Scousers with their heads in their hands in the 92nd minute of that game.

Going to Portsmouth is always a stark reminder that the “good old days” weren’t always that good.

By kick off we were all soaked to the skin and the “sh*t ground, one bog” chant told its own story.

Although we didn’t play particularly well, Portsmouth did little to demonstrate how they have managed to have such a good season.

Being mental is obviously a contagious condition in North London. I have thought for a long time that Wenger is in fruit-cake territory, but Adebayor seems to have lost touch with reality too. How can he (with a straight face) maintain that he did nothing wrong during the “Snarling Cup” final.

I am awaiting with interest the FA’s reaction to the Arsenal manager’s claim that the lino lied and that the whole system is dishonest. Mourinho would have been hung, drawn and quartered by now. I assume the delay in an immediate charge is that Dein hasn’t finished smarming a pardon for him yet. The whole system is indeed dishonest and there are double standards, but Arsenal are not a team that suffer usually.

You can always tell when we are entering the last quarter of a season as my bank balance takes a nose dive. Take the last fortnight — Porto away Wednesday

before last, then Cardiff, Pompey away last Saturday and Porto home yesterday — what with travel, tickets and spending money, there is no change out of 1,000 for just four games — and my season ticket renewal form will be thudding on my doormat any day soon.

It is heartening that there does seem to be a backlash against high ticket prices, but it will be really only the clubs with attendance problems that will benefit the most. The successful clubs with full stadia will still be turning your pockets inside out for that very last penny you may have.

So Tottenham this weekend. Losing to Spurs is unthinkable — especially in the FA Cup and I am desperate for us to get to Wembley this season. They have some very good players but I also think they have an average defence and if Robinson really is England’s No 1, then no wonder England are never there when the gongs are being handed out.

I imagine Jose will have a plan — he usually does, and he’s not often wrong. If the Italian papers are to be believed, Roman is still not taken with Mourinho’s specialness. The Mancini whispers are getting louder and louder; swapping Jose for Mancini would be like swapping prime sirloin for half a pound of economy sausages made from sawdust and the bits swept up from an abattoir floor.

I suspect that the league has gone, and I’m not sure how much kudos Roman places by the FA Cup, but if Jose was to win the Champions League? Then what? How could Abramovich force him out then without looking very silly indeed? Mourinho’s a very shrewd man — he has become very media friendly of late. The vast majority of the fans adore him, and the players have come out very publicly to support him. Roman really will have his work cut out if he wants him out.

Many fans are refusing to believe that relations have reached such a low, but Roman’s refusal to back Jose in the January transfer window when we were in dire need told me all I need to know. But this is what you get when you have a billionaire attempting to play real life Fantasy Football — no matter how well meaning he is, his knowledge is limited.

Sacking a manager like Mourinho will be akin to pressing the self destruct button. So despite probably finishing second this season, I am going to try and savour what could be the last few months of having a mad, moody, charismatic, slightly unhinged (but not in a Wenger way) genius at the helm.

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