Grant confirms Keane interest

IT was the sort of performance, and certainly the sort of result, that had Avram Grant clutching at straws in his efforts to sound optimistic about West Ham’s hopes of avoiding another relegation battle – or, more accurately, clutching at Republic of Ireland international forward Robbie Keane.

The West Ham manager confirmed he is attempting to land Keane on loan from Tottenham before the transfer window closes on Tuesday.

“I hope but I don’t know,” said Grant. “There’s also the financial situation we need to think about here. The club has big, big debts but he’s a player I would like to get, of course.

“You know, it’s the beginning of the season, we don’t want to make conclusions after two or three weeks. We need to wait and then after 10 or 15 games we’ll know what the situation is. But we didn’t find the players in the positions that we needed so it’s been more difficult than I expected.”

In truth, even a striker of Keane’s pedigree would have made little or no difference to events at Old Trafford. A grand total of two shooting opportunities fell West Ham’s way, both to the fit-again wide man Kieron Dyer who placed them harmlessly wide.

That paucity of goal attempts spoke much of Grant’s lack of ambition, a packed midfield and Carlton Cole as a solitary striker were his tactic of choice, the object containment.

Yet it is an approach which so rarely brings any result, save for a predictable stroll for the home team. This type of game – and they are all too frequent at Old Trafford – quickly degenerates into an attack versus defence training exercise and the only element of drama comes in guessing when United will finally break the deadlock and by how many goals they will eventually win.

This was a painfully routine win for Alex Ferguson’s team, memorable only for two features: firstly, the fact that Wayne Rooney ended a run of 13 games for club and country without a goal; secondly, the outstanding performance of Nani who is growing into a player seemingly capable of filling the creative (if not goalscoring) void left by Cristiano Ronaldo over a year ago.

Nani, indeed, offers Ferguson something of a dilemma. He is clearly more effective playing on the right flank, rather than the left where he has spent most of his time. But Antonio Valencia, similarly, prefers the right side and, while a slightly different attacking prospect than Nani, can be just as devastating on that wing.

“It’s a problem... but a nice one to have,” said Ferguson. “Nani prefers to play on the right but Valencia’s form is fantastic so it gives us a problem.

“Nani is improving from last year. In the last two games he was a bit short having had an operation in the summer.”

That operation kept Nani out of Portugal’s World Cup team, an injury that was doubtless devastating for the player personally but which now looks as though it may have been a blessing in disguise. With the benefit of hindsight, for example, it is easy to make a case that Rooney – and United – would have been better served had he missed the debacle that was England’s World Cup campaign.

But, at least in scoring for the first time since the end of March, Rooney ended a run of 1,113 minutes without a goal when he clinically converted a first half penalty awarded after a Jonathan Spector trip on Ryan Giggs.

“We played today with confidence, Rooney, Berbatov and me showed more confidence to score,” said Nani, who scored a superb second goal from 15 yards and set up Dimitar Berbatov for the third with a delightful far post chip. “Rooney scoring will give him more confidence for the next game.”

Ferguson, certainly, looked like a relieved man when quizzed about Rooney’s return to scoring ways and, for once, the United manager is happy that his star asset is leaving on international duty this week as England start their European Championship campaign at home to Bulgaria on Friday. Two outings for his country over the coming days will, claims his manager, improve Rooney’s fitness and form.

“Rooney took his penalty well but his performance stood out for me. He enjoyed his football today and was full of life,” said Ferguson. “He looked much more like himself and worked his socks off.

“He needs games. That 90 minutes will bring him on. Now he has a couple of games with England which will help him. They have come at a good time for us and he will relish them.”

MAN OF THE MATCH: Nani (Man Utd): His game has been steadily improving over recent months to the point where, on occasion, he appears to be United’s most potent attacking weapon. This was one of those occasions.

MATCH RATING: **: All very so-what. West Ham came in the distant hope of getting a point and in fact got what they deserved – nothing.

REFEREE: Mark Clattenburg 7: Probably got the penalty right although Grant was not convinced and generally ran a fairly perfunctory game well.