Slim pickings hard to swallow following feast

IF we were in any doubt as to where United’s priorities lie during the excruciating boredom of Saturday’s game, then Fergie settled it in his post-match interviews.

Growling his satisfaction that we had once again reduced the pre-October chances-conceded tally by two-thirds, he might as well have added — to rework an infamous old outburst — that if we want entertainment, we should ‘go watch City’.

All right, that’s a tad OTT; Swansea wasn’t completely without incident or tension but after the various feasts we enjoyed in August and September, it’s been quite a come-down since you-know-what.

Understandably so. When you’ve been kicked as repeatedly in the head as we were by City, you’re entitled to take it easy and lick your wounds. And Fergie is at least partially right to blame injuries for our relatively dysfunctional displays, although he naturally omitted to mention his own entirely voluntary additional Tinkerbellery.

I’m penning this before the Benfica kick-off, so how did the Portuguese stars seem to you? It will have been revealed in the new Red Issue last night that Javier Garcia is being “very closely watched” by United scouts. It’d be an interesting choice of teammate for Paddy Evra — Garcia is currently being accused of racially abusing Braga’s Brazilian winger Alan, as the latter alleged: “Garcia called me a black **** and wished my children were dead.”

Also scheduled to be on show last night was Gaitan, a player declared to be on our wants list by Red Issue last month, as later confirmed by various British papers. It’s all grist to the mill of those who have taken Fergie at his word — my snouts tell me that he assures anyone who asks him in private that Sneijder has “had his chance”, and that it’s time to look elsewhere. Perhaps, but this is the boss who told us he “wouldn’t sell Madrid a virus”, having already secretly agreed to let them have Ronaldo, so we may be excused if we choose to reserve judgment.

Another supposed target will hove into direct view on Saturday: Cheik Tiote.

Newcastle appear to be hungry, well-motivated and competent and, for once, I’m not going to be presumptuous about the three home points.

The Glazers might soon need to start being less presumptuous too. Last Saturday, for the second time in a month, there was underwhelming demand for what would have been a ‘new’ away trip for the majority of match-goers.

Are supporters picking and choosing far more than they used to? The desire of the Glazers and their ilk to turn fans into classic ‘customers’ might therefore been realised — but perhaps with unintended consequences. It’s too early to tell for sure: but the next three awkwardly-scheduled always might prove to be most instructive...