Normally, the description would be both unflattering and inexact but on this occasion Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney were as much as anything culture vultures. They simply picked clean the tragicomic bones of the club whose duty to fulfil a fixture at this place of all places, on this weekend of all weekends, was not so much a contractual obligation as a biblical judgement.
Arsenal are just ahead in the chase at the top of the Premier League but Manchester United delighted in surpassing their rivals’ turnover yesterday with annual results that suggest the Glazers have not been entirely the disaster they once threatened to be at Old Trafford.
If Manchester United fans felt that Sir Alex Ferguson’s outburst about the funereal atmosphere at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day was a flash in the pan, there were some afters to contend with yesterday. Supporters’ criticism of the club’s takeover by the Glazers three years ago was a mistake, said the United manager.
“Take me home United road”. “We are the Geordies”. “Dennis Wise scored a -ahem- great goal/ In the San Siro/With 10 minutes to go”. That fantastically complicated song they sing at Anfield about poor scouser Tommy. And all the unrepeatable stuff about other clubs that every fan knows. English football stadiums are a treasure trove of musical improvisation. So who’s complaining?
How do you leave the Theatre of Dreams with a career record of eight straight defeats against Manchester United ? having just watched your team dwindle to the point where they inhabited a nightmare shooting gallery ? yet still manage to conjure more than a little of the aura of a winner?
The predicted goal feast never quite worked out but there was plenty of indication that four was a good score against a Derby side showing fresh commitment under their new manager, Paul Jewell.
Manchester United have been given dispensation by the Premier League to wear a 1950s retro kit, free of logos, for what promises to be a highly emotional Manchester derby on 9 February, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.
Though it was billed as Rooney’s Return, the script was just the same as it has been every time Cristiano Ronaldo plays these days ? goals for the young Portuguese and the lion’s share of the workload on a night when Fulham did not come close to challenging the champions.
Sir Alex Ferguson will look for a new left-back, but has indicated that he will otherwise make few moves to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window.
Victories for Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool at the weekend have put Manchester United in unfamiliar territory ? five points off the Premier League summit and in the relatively murky depths of fourth place. With the loss to Bolton Wanderers last Saturday fresh in the mind, United’s rivals could be forgiven for thinking there may be some doubt creeping into Old Trafford ahead of tonight’s home game against Fulham.
Sir Alex Ferguson is still mildly indignant about how Roy Keane fared in Fifa’s World Player of the Year award of 1999. Keane came 17th in the year of his Champions League triumph. “Incredible,” Sir Alex said yesterday. “I couldn’t believe it at the time. He was way down in the middle of the group.”
At Chelsea they have a taste for conspiracy theories and compiling dossiers, and it transpired yesterday that another case file ? of video clips claiming to show victimisation by referees ? is going to be presented to the Football Association, as the club prepares to fight a second charge of failing to control their players.
With a glimpse of the encyclopedic knowledge of his own club for which he is famous, Sir Alex Ferguson announced yesterday that 13 former Manchester United players are currently managing in England and Scotland. But there was no doubting his particular admiration for the man in that number who has made his side into top four contenders on a fraction of the Old Trafford budget.
Such is the ease with which Manchester United are scoring at the moment that Nemanja Vidic seemed to have forgotten precisely how many times they found the net in their stroll past Dynamo Kiev. “We kept a clean sheet, scored three goals and had chances to score more,” he said after his side’s qualification.
After 21 years at the Old Trafford helm, longevity no longer matters so much to Sir Alex Ferguson. Surpassing the 24 successive years Sir Matt Busby served after the Second World War, the Manchester United manager revealed yesterday, is not in his thoughts.
By weekday, a humble team leader in business banking for Lloyds TSB in Norfolk but come Saturday, the sharpest eyes in the Emirates stadium. The linesman Darren Cann was the only man in the place ? apart from William Gallas ? who saw that Arsenal’s equaliser was over the line. Not only that, he also had the courage to raise his flag and change the destiny of this intriguing game and perhaps the Premier League title race too.
Pundits and public alike may be gazing on Arsenal with doe-eyed admiration but Owen Hargreaves yesterday delivered a cold professional verdict on what he described as the Premier League leaders’ “so-called beautiful football”.
Carlos Tevez and Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira had been off the pitch, substituted, for just four minutes when Arsène Wenger sent on Gilberto Silva and, to fit him in, rejigged the Arsenal team into an unfamiliar 4-2-3-1 formation. One briefly wondered if a Premier League functionary had put a call in to the Arsenal bench to point out the South American audience was switching off and it was Arsenal’s turn to send one on.
The official who made the split-second call to award William Gallas’ late equaliser at the Emirates on Saturday said he knew instinctively that the ball had gone in. The linesman Darren Cann said that he saw the ball “clearly” cross the line and did not rely on the position of goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar in making his judgement.
The former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam has announced his retirement with immediate effect. The 35-year-old, now with Ajax, revealed that he had taken the decision to quit due to a lack of motivation.
Manchester United’s injury setbacks continued yesterday when the club
announced that Paul Scholes will have a knee operation on Thursday and is
expected to be out for three months. United are also awaiting the outcome of
a scan Rio Ferdinand underwent after he was forced off 20 minutes from the
end of Saturday’s win over Middlesbrough.
It started with a magical individual execution, and flamboyant celebration from the Portuguese Nani and was ultimately won by a brace from the Argentinian Carlos Tevez as Manchester United secured their eighth successive victory, the League leadership, and equalled a 100-year-old club record with four goals in four successive games. Yet, it would not have been lost on the Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate that this defeat could be attributed in large part to an Englishmen.
After a midweek in which they travelled almost 24,000 miles between them to play for their countries ? 20,226 for Carlos Tevez to Caracas via Buenos Aires and back, 3,156 for Wayne Rooney to Moscow ? came the clearest sign yet that the bold partnership between the two strikers is coming together. Maybe it agrees with their metabolisms which, given they play away in the Champions League to Dynamo Kiev tomorrow evening, is a relief.
No more of that one-nil nonsense from Manchester United. The champions performed with all their traditional verve and enterprise in recovering from a slow start and a goal’s deficit to score four times for the second successive Premier League game.
From Wayne Rooney; an apology. “When I first started playing for England I did really well and the last couple of years haven’t been as good as I can be, I know that,” he says. “My club form’s been fine, there’s no problem with that. But when I’ve been away with England probably over the last year or so I haven’t played as well as I can do. I can’t see why that is and obviously I want to try and put it right.”
Back in the mists of time ? when half-time arrived at 1.30pm on Saturday, to be precise ? Manchester United’s season was still stumbling along. OK, so they were high in the table after a series of dull 1-0 wins. But they had scored just seven goals in eight league games and even Sir Alex Ferguson admitted in the programme: “Yes, it’s a worry.”
Manchester United have been forced into a midfield reshuffle for their next four games including the Champions League visit to Dynamo Kiev on 23 October after Michael Carrick joined fellow England international Owen Hargreaves on the injured list.
Edwin van der Sar’s goalkeeping heroics at Manchester United are now so common that they are taken for granted. Although the veteran Dutchman endured a dodgy spell compared to his usual high standards at the end of last season, he confirmed his return to top form with an outstanding performance in the Champions League win over Sporting Lisbon.
It is for matches like these, away from home against fluid, resourceful opposition, that Sir Alex Ferguson paid Bayern Munich £18m for Owen Hargreaves in the summer. It is almost inevitable, therefore, that when Manchester United take to the field against Sporting Lisbon tonight, Hargreaves will be at home in Cheshire, watching on television.
While Manchester United and Chelsea are eyeing the top spot on the pitch, two less well-matched adversaries, the giants of BSkyB and the relative minnows Setanta, will be battling for an altogether bigger prize: domination of a pay-TV sports market in Britain potentially worth £4bn or more a year.
Such is the strength in depth of Manchester United that they will field one impressive line-up in Northern Ireland tonight, another in Scotland and leave their finest box-to-box operator to work up a sweat in Cheshire. The latter being Sir Alex Ferguson, who has been told to help his wife with a house move today instead of watching United’s pre-season programme come to a close against either Glentoran or Dunfermline.
* MANCHESTER UNITED Gabriel Heinze held face-to-face discussions with Sir Alex Ferguson for the first time yesterday in a bid to resolve the row over his proposed move from Manchester United to Liverpool. Heinze reported for duty at United’s Carrington training complex yesterday morning following a brief break after the Copa America.
The Premier League has tightened its transfer rules to prevent another Carlos Tevez-style contractdispute.
From his place on the bench even Jose Mourinho found it hard to suppress a smile at the appaling success his team endured from the penalty spot ? and he is not known for making light of failure. On the English football season’s great irrelevant opening day, Edwin van der Sar was the hero but the atmosphere was soon a good deal chillier around the Chelsea manager as the start of his campaign threatened to disintegrate.
The hottest day of the year and the football season arrives. What could be more natural in the perverse, looking-glass world of the Premiership where £30m players are transferred for £2m, the former England manager gets a job and promptly signs nine foreigners, and £100,000-a-week footballers turn out for charity, and the punters are the ones dipping their hands into their pockets?
Two highly-appropriate opponents will contest the first Community Shield at the new Wembley for, as with the venue itself, neither Manchester United or Chelsea are on schedule for their opening ceremony.
Edwin van der Sar will not make a decision over his Manchester United future until January at the earliest. The Dutchman is about to enter the final year of his contract aware that the spotlight will be on him after a series of below-par performances at the end of last season.
Working on the Manchester United beat, like the football writer Daniel Taylor, must feel like being a minor functionary in the court of a sometimes benevolent despot. Your continuing existence there depends on the whims of His Nibs; a word of backchat might lead to banishment, or worse. And God forbid you should write something he disagrees with.
Sir Alex Ferguson is convinced that Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney can prove to be the perfect striking partnership at Manchester United.
The Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has claimed every major club in Europe knew Gabriel Heinze was up for sale this summer. A row has erupted over the Manchester United defender’s future after Liverpool matched the club’s £6.8m asking price, only to have the bid rejected.
The first provocation of the new, “mellowed” Jose Mourinho did not take long. A mere 24 hours after declaring his intent to avoid confrontation next season the Chelsea manager was effectively accused of endangering the global appeal of the Premiership yesterday as Carlos Queiroz heralded Manchester United’s title success a victory for football’s romantics over the pragmatists.
Carlos Tevez’s representative Kia Joorabchian has resorted to the High Court to force through the player’s contentious transfer from West Ham to Manchester United despite Fifa’s recommendation that the saga be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
With the Carlos Tevez affair rumbling on the last thing Manchester United need is another drawn-out transfer saga, but it looks like they have one on their hands in the form of Gabriel Heinze’s proposed move to Liverpool.
Sir Alex Ferguson said yesterday that he does not have a fallback position should his £30m bid to sign Carlos Tevez eventually fail.
It is Carlos Tevez or bust as far as Sir Alex Ferguson is concerned, but it could yet be neither.
Fifa has agreed to step into the dispute over Carlos Tevez’s proposed £35m transfer to Manchester United with a ruling expected within the next fortnight. But first the case has to be referred to world football’s governing body by the Premier League board and that should happen by the end of this week.
Alan Smith has been given a place in Manchester United’s Far East tour squad as speculation over his career at the club remains rife.
Manchester United could be charged with “tapping up” Carlos Tevez if they continue to push for the striker’s £35m transfer without the agreement of the Premier League.
Carlos Tevez’s proposed £35m transfer to Manchester United took another twist last night with an appeal to the Football Association to help to sort out the deal.
The Premiership season may be 31 days away from starting, but last night
Jose Mourinho fired the first shots at the champions Manchester United. As
Sir Alex Ferguson’s summer spending creeps towards £70m, the Chelsea manager
reminded him that with big financial backing came more pressure.
