Latin flavour adds tasty spice to our dreams of the double

IF there was one reason for United being able to go one better in 2007/08 compared to last season’s slight shortfall, then it was surely the injection of the Latino vitamin-booster into the squad’s body: Tevez, Anderson and Nani have all exceeded expectations and made the difference — we hope — between being also-rans and continental kings.

Certainly, our Iberophone community is able to run the artistic gamut from alpha to omega. On Saturday, for example, Tevez gave us a work of art, a truly scintillating strike to match Scholesy’s days earlier … and then it was almost instantly undermined by the ugly hammy stupidity of Nani and his failed audition for Best Supporting Actor. Hey, Moscow demands that just the alpha males turn up, amigo.

Fortunately, West Ham’s hilariously craven refusal to make a second-half game of it meant that Nani’s moronity was of no enduring consequence, although it does join a list of similar incidents this season that trouble me like a pea under the mattress.