United hungry for even more titles
Although all United’s players were saying the right things after Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over Schalke at the Veltins-Arena, few expect next week’s second leg at Old Trafford to be anything other than a formality.
A place in the final at Wembley against either Real Madrid or Barcelona awaits on May 28, before which United expect to have wrapped up a record 19th league championship.
For Ferdinand personally, it would be his fifth such triumph since arriving at Old Trafford for a then club record £29.1 million (€32.7m) in 2002.
It would be more than England team-mates John Terry and Frank Lampard have managed and would put him alongside legendary figures such as Graeme Souness.
But would Ferdinand be happy with that? Not a chance.
“If I finish in two years’ time with what I have now, I wouldn’t be satisfied. No chance. I would be having nightmares,” he said.
“There is so much to be won. If we didn’t win the league this year I would be devastated.
“I want to win the league this year, next year and every year I am playing.
“This is our fourth Champions League semi-final in five years. And we have only won it once. There is a lot of disappointment in those four years.”
For all the glory they have enjoyed down the years, it could be argued this present five-year spell is the best era United have ever had.
At no other point have they been able to combine domestic supremacy with sustained European success.
It is a quite phenomenal achievement, made all the more remarkable given that this present team have been written off by so many people so often this season.
“It is wishful thinking on a lot of people’s behalf,” laughed Ferdinand.
“People want us to lose because we have won the league three out of the last four years and they probably want to see a little bit of variation.
“But they can have those opinions and keep talking like that. We just try to win games. If we win games and end up winning titles we won’t be thinking about what people have said about us.”
There is a lot of head scratching even now about how United have ended up in this situation.
“What sets us apart from other teams is that the hunger never dies,” said Ferdinand.
“It stems from the manager and filters down through the squad.
“We have players in this squad who want to win things.
“There are still players in this squad who have not won the league. There are others who have won it a few times who want more. That is the basis on which we do our work every single day.”
It has not gone unnoticed that United have clicked into gear as a direct result of Dimitar Berbatov losing his place to Javier Hernandez.
Berbatov was absent on Tuesday with a groin strain but his whole Red Devils future is now in doubt given the speed of United’s passing and movement simply does not accommodate the Bulgarian, for whom economy of effort is the basis for his brilliance.
Meanwhile, according to United legend Peter Schmeichel, Manuel Neuer would be the perfect replacement for Edwin van der Sar.
The Schalke goalkeeper, who excelled in Tuesday night’s Champions League semi-final first leg, is expected to move to Bayern Munich in the summer, but negotiations between the clubs have yet to begin.
Ferguson, who hailed Neuer’s display as the best goalkeeping performance against the club since he became manager, is looking for a successor to Van der Saar with the veteran Dutchman retiring at the end of the season.
“He (Neuer) is probably the best goalkeeper in the world,” Schmeichel, a member of United’s treble-winning team of 1999, said last night.
“He doesn’t make mistakes – I haven’t seen him make a single mistake – and the way he played yesterday, he wasn’t lucky in the way that he saved the shots and one-on-ones, it was very calculated.”
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