It has been 7 games now since the
season kick started and though it is still at infancy, I don’t recollect a
season when you could not incline to bet on one of United/Chelsea/City topping
the table. Instead we have Arsenal, Liverpool hogging the limelight. As said
earlier, it is still premature to declare anybody a favourite but something
tells me this season is going to a firecracker unlike the previous one where
United romped home in April. Personally I am not happy with the situation as we
are mopping up the last positions at the top half of the table. You will have
to go all the way back to Fergie’s initial years to find United struggling like
this in the early stages. However, I am not going to lose sleep on this as we
in for a long season.
I could come up with a list of
reasons as to why United have not started well this season but foremost is the
retirement of the LEGEND. There are many who have not known United without SAF
being on the bench and it is a bitter truth we need to grasp. You could
actually see a SAF figure sized hole if you made it to the dressing room, so
enormous was his presence that it instilled fear in opposition players and
referees. Moyes, his successor, though has not won anything in his career seems
to be a sane choice, least him being British. And it takes some time for him to
acclimatize to the new job, probably the toughest if you ask me, which is not
going to be Everton’ish in scale (no disrespect to the toffees). He is coming to grips with managing the
champions and making them play like one. Then, we had one of the worst transfer
window anybody could imagine. The management failed to walk the talk about
supporting the manager with a huge kitty and the gaffer was left high and dry.
Ed, only if that t**t was to sighted someplace. Add to this a minor hiccup in
the form of Wayne Rooney’s future with the club. It is hence not a surprise
that United are limping after all these hurdles. Still, the team needs to pull
its weight just because we are UNITED and the bar is high.
Looking back at the transfer
window, our hopes were raised sky high about snaring the who’s who of the
midfield stars from the Iberian nations to ze germans. Thiago was so close to
joining us before moving to Bayern, Ronaldo flirted with us before committing
his future to Madrid, Fabregas was openly wooed. When the window closed, we
bought only one – the Belgian with an afro, funnily paying 4 mil more than his
price if bought before August, and barely before the deadline at that. How
sorely David Gill and his business acumen was missed. Till then it was only SAF
being missed but the terrible business concluded in the summer just highlighted
Gill’s worth to the club, an able ally to the manager lost (resigned to take
over the chair in UEFA). When Ed returned from down under even before the game against
the all stars, I was more or less convinced that one of the above mentioned
scheming midfielders would be moving to Salford. Little did I realize how
pathetic he was at his new role, signing one deal after the other in generating
revenues but penny pinching when it came to invest it back on the players. Well
it has to be lessons learnt and perform better in the subsequent transfer
windows but I am still skeptical about Ed doing justice in adding strength to
the team. When the deadline crossed, the major coup for us was retaining the services
of Rooney which I was not keen though during early summer.
The season’s fixture list when
rolled out had me thinking if it was designed specifically for United to
compensate for the way we finished the last season, playing Liverpool, Chelsea
and City in the first 5 games. We lost 2 games and drew one, thanks to cautious
approach by Mourinho back in charge for the blues and derby was particularly
humiliating. But, now that we have seen the back of these games, the players
should take initiative to relieve some pressure from Moyes and deliver results.
By Christmas, if we are in the top 4 then we can be confident of making the cut
when the season ends. I have no hopes of winning the league or any cup this
season as the new manager needs time to get his ideas across and have everybody
on the same page. For the neutrals, the season could not have started in a
better way as the London clubs are hugging the top table with Liverpool being in
the mix. It is now 6 teams vying for 4 CL spots, a mouth watering prospect when
we near the ‘sqeaky bum time’ with no clear favourites.
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| The Chosen One |
Fergie asked the fans to get behind the new manager during his farewell at Old Trafford and that is enough for me not
to gun for Moyes’ head even if we perform poorly now. I have convinced myself
to be patient for at least 2 years and not doubt the new manager’s ability hoping
the wise elder’s words come true. Manchester United inherited by Fergie is not
the same as one now with Moyes. The great scot has seen to that the mechanizations
are in place and all that is expected from the successor is to play the brand
of football epitomized by Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson. History will be made.
“So come on David Moyes!
Play like Fergie’s boys!
We’ll go wild, wild, wild!”
