Terrace Talk: Daring to dream of another miracle in Barcelona

Bienvenue from French Catalonia, where your correspondent is en route to watch either the end of United’s trophy hopes or one of the greatest nights ever.

I’m going to be as honest as Ole was in his post-Hammers press gig on Saturday, when he admitted United were lucky to “get away with it”, and had played poorly — yet again. Thus the truth is I almost expect us to get a bit of a kicking from Barcelona tomorrow night and, to be even more brutal, we would doubtless deserve it.

The mediocre quality and enduring poor form of this team since February mean it doesn’t really belong in the quarter-finals, let alone the semi-finals, and we all know it.

Naturally, none of those admissions above affects one jot our collective burning desire to pull off a sensation in Camp Nou. As every football fan in the world knows, that stadium once saw the greatest miracle in United’s history. Every time a Red steps inside it, he cannot help but think of it. Or of the person who is most identified with it; our current manager.

I confess that sometimes just typing the words of his name gives me a frisson, because something in the subconscious shouts “and Solskjaer has won it!”

In Clive Tyldesley’s woollyback Scousey accent, annoyingly.

Of course, the trouble is that these spooky vibrant emotions which all Red fans feel count for nothing with the players. None of the starting 11 tomorrow night will have watched that 1999 final as a United fan. Tomorrow is just another big game in another big stadium. There is no inspirational collective Jungian magic for them to access.

Some may have more prosaic extra motivations, though. Marcus Rashford, I am told, really is a genuine option for Barca’s recruiters this summer; this could be his final clinching audition in front of them.

Pogba, said to be desperate for a move to Madrid, will surely also be taking advantage of extra Iberian attention. What better way to endear yourself to Madrilenos than to play a major part in humiliating their deadliest rivals?

A third player being widely discussed as a possible summer exiteer, Ander Herrera, is supposedly injured and thus unlikely to feature. Two weeks ago, his camp were derisively dismissing any suggestions he might be tempted by PSG. Now they’ve suddenly gone quiet.

PSG are also widely cited as potential suitors for our fourth at-risk player, David De Gea, although in his case you’d expect half of Europe to come calling should he become available.

So that’s four players I’ve all but sold there. Yet there is definitely a fin de siècle air about the place. Now that the Ole ‘bounce’ is well and truly over, we have all been reminded how little we either like or rate so many of the players. De Gea apart, how many would you really miss?

I am told by people who have spoken privately with Ole that he, too, is under no illusions about the task ahead.

Indeed, the phrase “zero chance” popped up when discussions turned to whether United might catch up with Liverpool or City next season. Next season is for rebuilding our ladder, not for actually replacing anyone on a perch.

I hear Ole and Phelan have also spoken about trying to recruit ‘United Way’ players, on a disproportionately English basis, which I take to signal a determination to end the Woodward era practise of signing flashy expensive foreign ‘superstars’. Whether Woodward himself, or any new director of football, will agree with that desire remains to be seen.

If tomorrow night does indeed end our trophy-hunting season, we do still have the chance to come back home and try to secure that dull compensatory bauble, the top four finish.

Lest we forget: Everton are hungrily waiting for us at the weekend. And Goodison Park really is no place to go with a Spanish hangover...

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