A week for us Reds to enjoy as Berb shows the shape of things to come

SO for two weekends in-a-row, we’ve had two-goal victories on the back of severely disputed refereeing decisions, which would ordinarily cause the more fair-minded such as me to squirm uncomfortably.

Not so in this case, though — had three hours of such overwhelmingly dominant football not brought us six points, it would’ve been a total injustice. Paul Ince, as is his wont, shouted a good game on Saturday night but his contention that Rovers were still “well in it” when we took the lead was surely very much tinkling into a gale.

With the leisurely excursion to Aalborg as the Danish in our sandwich, it’s been just the kind of tasty week the doctor would’ve ordered for a team hitherto suffering from some kind of early season hangover.

Fergie has had a wonderful opportunity to tinker and rotate his new Bulgarian toy without being under too much pressure and, finally, we are beginning to have some hope of a shape emerging.

Naturally, one trusts that shape doesn’t continually feature Rooney out on the wing, as he was at Ewood, not least given Fergie’s rare mea culpa in June that it had been a mistake to play Wayne out there so often. Rooney, legend that he is, uncomplainingly got on with it and made all the right noises afterwards about happily playing wherever he is asked but it was unsurprisingly obvious that all his best work was done when he went a-wandering into the middle.

It was also no surprise to me to see Berbatov’s talent continuing to unfurl, with his Danish double surely being the first of dozens to come. One could only shake one’s head despairingly at the various members of the commentariat getting on Berb’s back before last week; in today’s short-term short-selling world, it appears nothing but instant success guarantees you immunity from prosecution. Those still unconvinced by Dimitar should remember what he was like at Spurs at first — two months of sulky bewildered meandering, suddenly replaced overnight by pure 24-carat quality for the duration.

We saw something similar last season with Tevez: I still treasure the autumnal text sent mid-match to me by one top journo at Old Trafford asking: “Is it just me, or is Tevez sh*t?” Umm, it’s just you, matey: moments later, Tev scored, going on to a man-of-the-match performance and thence a season of utter class.

Mind you, if I may inject a note of trademark pessimism, one wonders how much more we’ll see of our favourite little troll. His agent has been muttering around Manchester all week about the total radio silence from United regarding his charge’s purchase-completion, the negotiation of which has now been twice postponed by the club. Quite understandably, he has asked one interlocutor whether he should take this as a sign that United are not going to proceed with the €40m buy-out. Hence the tales you occasionally read linking Tevez to Man City and others; when an agent mutters darkly for long enough, eventually the message gets out.

Gutted though any Red would be to lose him in June, you can grudgingly understand that the Glazers will need to play for time in this current world fiscal crisis — and that even if, by some miracle, they have the €40m in the pot come May’s accounts, there might be still be a reluctance to place it all on one player. Frankly I’d be amazed if they’ll have the money anyway; I am told their second refinance attempt failed in June and, with sponsors falling by the wayside and credit Arizona-dry, no analyst out there is predicting they can come anywhere near last season’s surplus.

One caveat to all that: their problems would temporarily disappear the moment they agree to let Ronaldo go. Not only would that payday sort Tevez out, it would probably clear this year’s debt repayment bill.

It’s not an analysis Alex is likely to appreciate, mind: still, perhaps he’ll think about that next time he’s tempted to repeat his infamous May line that “they’re brilliant owners...”

Richard Kurt’s classic ‘Red Army Years’ is only available via [e-mail]