PROLOGUE: As Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson can boast a shedload of Premier League titles, a bucketload of FA Cups, and far too many League Cups, Champions Leagues, Charity Shields and individual awards to just store away somewhere sensible. How do you, then, write about a man who has accomplished so much?
Someone, naming no names, wrote this about Antonio Valencia in April 2012:
They tell you that football is a game played by eleven, not one, but what is this sport, like the chocolate selection box you feel guilty for constantly treating yourself to, if you haven't got your favourites?
Ashley Young had one of his finest games in a red shirt opposition and definition of finest considered in Manchester United's 3-2 win over Manchester City earlier this season. Good things barely repeat themselves, however, and so Monday's reverse fixture was slightly different. Indeed, it was exactly that: a reversal of all the good we saw in December, where United again, opposition considered had looked like a team worthy of all of football's best silver.
Ashley Young had one of his finest games in a red shirt opposition and definition of finest considered in Manchester United's 3-2 win over Manchester City earlier this season. Good things barely repeat themselves, however, and so Monday's reverse fixture was slightly different. Indeed, it was exactly that: a reversal of all the good we saw in December, where United again, opposition considered had looked like a team worthy of all of football's best silver.
Observers will point to an uninspiring 1-0 home win over Reading last Saturday as proof of the weakest Manchester United side since thatother timethey were just as dire. It's almost an extension of last year's criticisms: why watch, analyse and conclude when there's a way to do none of that?
If a tenner a week were to ensure a generous flow of goals for the next few seasons, any football manager in the world would without a second thought rummage through his jeans and pay it up himself. This, however, was 1966, and Matt Busby usually wore tracksuits.
Manchester United 2-3 Real Madrid (agg: 2-3), 19.04.00
The best goals are typically those that can be looked back on fondly; naturally, then, they have to be in a winning context. This one isn't that. It's an exception to the rule my rule that goals have to mean something.
"Everyone's quite fond of the trier," says the handsome hero in that film. "But, in the end, they prefer the guy that finds success ... the one that actually gets there. I mean, look at me. I'm the handsome hero in this film." This is an actual quote from a film with a handsome guy. "People forget," he continues.
Robin van Persie's first act as a Manchester United player was to take a corner-kick in the season's first game at Everton; it almost didn't matter that the set-piece amounted to nothing, because it was an outcome most were familiar with. It was also Van Persie. And his job was to score goals.
Back when ‘mind games' as a footballing concept was underground and credible, Fabien Barthez could call himself the undisputed King of the Games. He had virtually won 2002's free-for-all when his famed eccentricities, history has it, saw him prevent a spot-kick and, with it, a Manchester United defeat.
Manchester United have, at times, looked a team without an identity. They still win games they win plenty but it sometimes feels like they've forgotten how they used to do things. Nerves have replaced verve, and it has generally been less entertaining to watch as a result. Still; while they no longer dissect teams like they had done in the latter part of the '00s, United are still home to a talented set of players who can play.
Diplomatic and idiosyncratic, Anders Lindegaard has a lot to be liked for. He is popular enough amongst fans: he'll remind you that he's not at Manchester United to "pick his nose", and that his career has developed in the way of a "fairytale", that he's got "calmfidence" and plenty of it, and that he'll love to have even "one seat" named after him (in response to Sir Alex Ferguson's very own stand and statue).
"I want this chess set. Isn't it beautiful, this set?" In Living With Michael Jackson, the infamous 2003 documentary which gave an insight into the life of a troubled star, there was a segment where, in a vase and furnishing store, Jackson binged on the nice, shiny things, buying expensive urns, vases and even a large golden chess set.
If it has been established that the 'second best bed' for Anne Hathaway (the other one) was not an insult nor an example of a fractious relationship, then surely we've got it all wrong. 'Second best' is a good thing or, at least, it should be. Certainly, being second best at Manchester United is.
Eric Cantona the footballer would strut around on stage accompanied by a spotlight if it had momentarilyfocussedelsewhere, he would instantly demand it back. It was part of a package deal, but it was not something that hindered him, rather the opposite.
