United's Guardian Angel Just The Tonic?

So its all agreed that we would all like to see new recruits this transfer window. The rumour mill has been very quiet up to now but the gossip is starting to heighten on Benfica's Argentinian wing wonder Angel Di Maria.

Di Maria has had two very impressive years playing in Portugal and making his full international debut, with high praise from his manager Diego Maradona. He is very much on the cusp of what he could achieve which means that his price-tag is relatively cheap at the moment. As i stated in my last article 'Ronaldo Roulette' with World Cup year upon us, players transfer fees will rocket after the tournament. It is a very real possibility that Di Maria could emerge as one of the marquee wingers in the game if Argentina progress through the competition.

So why would Di Maria be good for Manchester United? Well, with Valencia progressing well on the wing and finding more form every week, it is evident that United have no balance. If we persist with playing Rooney in the central strikers role, as its obvious the manager will, then we need a balanced wing attack. For me, Park doesn't bring you that. Neither does Darren Fletcher when he is pushed out there. Ryan Giggs can still cut it, but it would be clever to bring someone in now to learn from the master while he still has the legs. The other consideration is Gabby Obertan. He has started his United career well. He has a trick in his boots, plenty of pace and his future is bright. But the issue of position lies at the failure of Nani

His inability to take his opportunity in a Ben Foster fashion has given Sir Alex very little choice. Having two competent pace men in Valencia and Obertan is not really enough, and it could be Nani's failure that eventually leads to us landing Di Maria. £12 million plus the backflipping wonder is being touted to Benfica, but i doubt they will go for that. Inter and Chelsea are both sniffing around as well, but if United can get the cash figure right and chuck in a player who is still very highly regarded in his own country, it may just be enough.

Di Maria would bring that balance that we need, and give us vital creative options that we currently do not possess. Yes, Sir Alex may be looking towards Owen Hargreaves to give us some quality in wide positions in the near future..he has a brilliant cross on him..but we all want to see that boy in the middle, biting chunks out off his opposing number. The shape of the team would be very nice with Evra behind Di Maria. And it could be the mid priced option that Fergie is publicly craving.

With Adem Ljajic so acrimoniously chucked in the bin, we need a plan for this wide position..a place in the team which has always been coverted in our famous 4-4-2 formation. "Attack attack attack" as we sing at Old Trafford. This would go a long way to help that call.

Ronaldo Roulette - 'Spin the Wheel Sir Alex!'

So today (The 11th of January) Manchester United have announced profits of £48 million, and the prudent £500 million bond issue which will save the club some £30 million a year in interest payments (nothing to be sniffed at) The press have of course focused on 'that debt' but with the Glazers effectively wiping out two thirds of the interest payments they would pay every season, means there is minimal doubt that there is money to spend now, and in the future. The Ronaldo money has seriously bumped up the bottom line into a positive figure which looks good on paper, but the bond issue means that a Dimitar Berbatov size transfer fee has just been freed up on an annual basis (I know this doesn't mean it will go on transfers!) It is very clever business, and shows that the American owners are not the dummies we would like to believe they are..it seems that Liverpool acquired those ones.

So the team is not playing well but we have players returning. However, even with everyone fit it is now apparent that we need some more troops. And i don't mean frontline fighters, more like special SAS crack commando ones. The ones that cost a bit of cash. Its time that the manager rolled the dice. Normally i would say wait til the summer but there is a problem. That being it is World Cup year.

The formula reads: Player+Good World Cup+Manchester United Interest=Extortionate Transfer Fee.

Remember when Karel Poborsky had a brilliant Euro 96? One lobbed goal of brilliance just about doubled his transfer fee when Sir Alex went sniffing after the tournament. And i think with all the new money brought into the game by the Middle Eastlands owners and Real Madrid's new found gluttony we will probably see players go for the sort of price we didn't think we would see in this lifetime. Ronnie's £80 mil is gonna look like chicken feed.

So who should the manager go for? Its the age old pub debate with its origins in the sands of time. The next signing is always so precious to the fan. The last player i was desperate for the club to sign was a certain aloof centre forward from Tottenham. We got him at the last minute as we all know, as i spent 18 hours of my life that day glued to Sky Sports News for the confirmation. What a waste of 18 hours that turned out to be. I also obsessed about Owen Hargreaves before he arrived. Month after month i would trail through news items to see if he had finally had his head turned and that Bayern would cave in..its just not a healthy preoccupation!

Now i have a new obsession.

Two players who i think....I KNOW will give us what we need. And market forces may just dictate that if we are swift then we could do the greatest January transfer deal of all time

The two players i want play for a club who are financially in trouble and are technically referred to as 'in the shit'.. That club is Valencia.

David Villa and David Silva are precious commodities. One is a complete goal monster and the other is a creative wizard. Its clear that these are two elements we have sadly missed this season after having it in abundance the last few seasons. And there is every chance that if Spain do absolutely anything at the 2010 World Cup that these two will play major parts..and then we will see the inflation of success kick in.

I don't need to bang on about the qualities of these two..any football fan worth their salt know all about them. But what i will comment on is the economics. Villa's price tag sat in the fifty million bracket only last summer, but the confusion over his on/off transfer to Madrid, coupled with Valencia's desperation to hold on to him for one more season, blew the deal to shreds. Currently, Valencia are near to bankruptcy, with in excess of half a billion Euros worth of pure debt. However they have plucked away with grim determination and currently lie third in La Liga. Surely an aggressive cash bid plus a player or two would seal a deal?

I think £60 million plus Nani would broker a deal. Then again, maybe add Berbatov to that and knock the price down to fifty? I think this would seriously tempt the Spaniards. Two internationals plus a huge bag of cash. It would give them some genuine liquid assets and two players that need a fresh opportunity. It would also mean that we haven't spent the entire Ronaldo transfer and have also lost two high earners off the wage bill. Its a deal that suits all parties.

This is all a bit of a fantasy, but there is no real obstacles in the way..except that if these two become available that Man City would arrive in Spain with a Lear jet full of one hundred million quid of cash to gazump the deal. That's a very real threat. But with some Fergie charm, a very nice wage deal, and the history of Manchester United and Old Trafford displayed like a beacon of light, i seriously think we could broker this...

But if we wait til June we have sweet FA chance of it!

Sometimes you have to break the bank. Villa and Silva would bring an edge to the team that would frighten the whole of Europe. It would also demonstrate to the fans the owners dedication to success...and Chelsea would wet themselves! If we don't get one or two marquee players i think we will be in a vortex of 'ifs' and 'buts'.. I know United have pulled off the seemingly impossible before, but something feels wrong about this year. I think this is the correction to that feeling.

The Curious Case of Michael Owen - United's Nobody Boy

For me, Michael Owen has produced the two most special moments for Man Utd in the last few months. Firstly his hat trick against the German champions of Wolfsburg was excellent. Three very different goals that showed what he can do as the man that leads the line. His run from the half way line and cute finish was joyous to behold.

The other moment was of course 'That' Manchester derby. A goal which rocked Old Trafford like nothing since and rarely before. It will live in my memory for ever and i feel blessed that it all happened just yards in front of my face.

Fergie has come out recently and said something that we have all felt whilst watching England play over the last several years. And that is that Rooney and Owen do not really blend as a pair. Its a strange thing for a manager to admit but i think honesty is always the best policy. I think at twenty grand a week basic and a pay as you play deal with no transfer fee was an awesome bit of business. But now I'm starting to question the whole 'arrangement'

Owen seems to be perennially stuck on the bench. The manager obviously sees him as an impact striker..20 minutes here. 10 minutes there. But at 30 years old and with plenty of cunning left in that little head of his, is this the right way to get all we can from the Ex-Scouse Kingpin? I have always believed that no matter how well you play or how many goals you leak, that its essential that you have a consistent threat at the right end. There is no doubt that Rooney is that threat in most United fans eyes and certainly in the managers. But it is very much the lack of goals this season that is the problem. Its a game by game issue. No goals against Fulham. No goals against Burnley. No goals at home to Villa or..gulp..Leeds Utd. No goals away to either Liverpool or Chelsea (both hemorrhaging goals for fun against lesser teams) It is clearly a problem.

Yet we have a former European Footballer of the Year sat on the bench, who now seems to have fallen behind a Senegalese 22 year old who has played 11 minutes for the club. Anyone else think that is a bit weird?

Now maybe Diouf will become a sensation, but the odds are stacked against him. Mecheda had a flying start only to disappoint with recent form. And Danny Welbeck? Well, he is a striker that..erm..never plays up front but gets a wide birth when he gets an opportunity. A role he clearly doesn't relish.

So Michael Owen, with all that predatory instinct that he has..the knowledge to score a goal out of half a chance, gets left as the bridesmaid. Holding the bouquet of barbed-wire while players with a tenth of his experience get in the wedding photos. And this leads me back to his contract.

Pay as you play sounds nice, doesn't it? 'Eh Mickey O! You play for us, score us some goals and you get a nice fat appearance and goals bonus' All very nice in cloud cuckoo land. If the boy doesn't play...AT ALL..he cant score. Its not algebra. Of course this leads back to other articles i have recently written such as The Rooney Obsession where i question what the hell we are actually doing in the forward positions at the moment, but this isn't some sort of rant. I'm genuinely baffled why Michael Owen has not started more matches.

If Fergie has had a look at him and now thinks he doesn't fancy him then that's OK. But it means that we need to sign a striker immediately in the January transfer window. I am not happy going forward with just Rooney, a Bulgarian who doesn't score enough, an Ex Scouser who doesn't play enough, and three promising kids to lead the line. Its just not acceptable. I agree with Fergie that the transfer market is crazy. But when has there ever really been value out there? Yep..once in a blue moon (did i just say blue moon?) you pick up a Cantona for peanuts and he turns out to be a messiah. But that happens once in a lifetime. For about half of the money we sold the Winker for we could pick up David Villa. For a quarter we could probably get Dzeko. I dont believe in panic buying, but oh lord we need reinforcements of the highest kind. With a midfield that has no goals left in it whatsoever, the emphasis is firmly on the front men.

I think Owen's United career will be over as quickly as it begun. And i think that is a real shame. Im convinced next year he will end up at an Everton, or an Aston Villa and he will score goals..and lots of them. He doesn't need to sit on the bench of the biggest club in the world, especially when he is on a basic wage of what the youngsters earn. It was a gamble for him and United to form this marriage. Rather than it be a failure or success, it just turned out to be a loveless union of convenience.

How long has Sir Alex got left at United? Time to think about the future

Its difficult when you write a football blog that is specifically about one team. You are thankful for the forum to be able to write for the public and also vent your spleen at will. However you have to be cautious when you write something that many will find unpopular and possibly downright treacherous

Having just watched another lackluster performance against the Brummie boys i was very interested to see what the manager had to say in his post match interview. As we know, these interviews rarely touch on the truth of the game and club managers generally use it to attack the opponent and the ref. At 68 years young, Sir Alex is the master at these games. But lets call a spade a spade. United are currently playing the biggest load of trash i have seen them play for many a season. And i would like Sir Alex to be constructive and show some wisdom on the matter. Instead he went about calling our first half performance as "brilliant" and then ripped into Mark Clattenburg for giving two deserved yellow cards to Fletcher, who walked a tightrope all match. Of course this is designed to knock us all off the scent of the stink produced by our team, but lets face it..its all codswallop. Don't pull the wool over the eyes of your own fans, boss! He then snapped at the young interviewer for suggesting that Rooney looked a bit isolated up front on his own...just pathetic really. Smells of Brian Clough in the latter years of his life at Forest.

The performance and the managers comments greatly disappointed me. I expect and want better. When we play bad we should hold our hands up and say so..i don't want us to be Arsenal who go..'oh we play pretty football but we still only drew..but we were pretty don't ya think?" Nope not interested in that bull. I want honesty, solutions and real assessments. And I'm starting to ask questions that i knew one day i would ask, but you honestly hope you never will. I think we are getting very close to a change of management. Readers. You must understand that this is not a bandwagonesque attempt to jump on a bad performance. I am a United fan that genuinely cares...probably way way too much. But if you cant detect my sincerity from my words then i apologize now.

At this time in his life i doubt that Fergie will want to go on a huge rebuilding mission, as it becomes more and more apparent that losing Ronaldo and Tevez has effected the team more than any of us wanted to believe it would. We lack flair. We lack drive. We lack leadership. You will never hear me call for Sir Alex's head...he has done too much for us for that. But every good thing comes to an end. The unpopular Glazer family are in a no win situation. They could NEVER sack Fergie, cos the fans would rather burn down Old Trafford than back them. But at some point there will be a transition of power and we must be ready for it. The last time this happened it was 1986 and i was 10 years old. Its gonna hurt. The sting will not be pleasant for any of us.

My natural mindset is to always think ahead..be one step advanced of everyone. So i can't help but speculate what Manchester United need not today, but tomorrow. To replace Alex Ferguson is impossible..It took us nearly twenty years to get over Sir Matt Busby. I fear we could 'go south' if we don't get it right. I don't wanna be sat here in 2030 remembering the United golden years and wondering why it all went wrong. Oh, and in 2030 Sir Alex will be 88. I hope his shadow will not loom so largely over the club as Busby's did..this led to relegation in the 1970s..only years after the Babes had won everything on the planet..lightning could strike twice unless we start to forward think. There's only one man i want to take the helm. He is proven. He has won everything. And he has the ego we need.

Jose Mourinho is a bit Marmite to many, but the fact is he breeds success. His players always run through brick walls for him because of unbridled love, and most importantly HE VERY RARELY LOSES. Not losing is a habit that we have cultured at United since 1990. Twenty years of this may fool people that this is endemic..in the DNA. But it isn't. Its because of the manager. His rules. His ideas. His players. If we get this next move wrong in this game then we could end up in a Checkmate - Think Liverpool hiring Graeme Souness. We must secure the best manager possible, and with Mourinho pontificating about his desire to return to Old Blighty and his love for the Prem, I feel the time is right for EVERYONE. They say a change is as good as a rest, but i don't want a rest from winning trophies. So maybe..just maybe..its a change that we need

Soon when i walk up Sir Matt Busby Way, there will be a new statue in place with that of the Babes Creator supreme and the Holy Trinity of Best Law and Charlton. Sir Alex is immortal already. I don't want to remember him go out in a sea of disappointment. Think how Forest fans felt..Clough's last game resulted in the relegation of the club and yet they had to say goodbye to their greatest hero in disgusting putrid circumstances. Despite promotion the following year they haven't ever really recovered their status. That was back in 1993. Seventeen years in the blink of an eye.

Change can be horrible but sometimes it is necessary. The manager will always define this period of this club, but he will be the first to say that no one individual is bigger than Manchester United. I hope the end is graceful and fitting..its up to all of us to prepare properly so this can actually happen. A real tribute to a great man, whilst giving our club the self preservation it needs.

As the song goes..."Every single one of us..loves Alex Ferguson"

Why Gary Neville deserves a new contract...The Teddy Sheringham factor.

Its funny how people's perception of a player is sometimes born of how they look or what their style is on a pitch

At the moment, Ryan Giggs continues to defy the doubters with every month that passes of his career. Like a fine wine, he almost seems to improve with age. However that statement is a fallacy. Despite his wonderful consistency, he is not the same player as he was 10 years ago. The rose tinted glasses we wear are because of the spark of magic Giggsy boy can still produce. That millisecond of inspiration. Giggs has learned to taylor his game. Curb the natural instinct to run, run and run again at defenders. He passes with more precision. He has made sure that ageism doesn't affect his chance of being selected. And for that...we love him.

Gary Neville on the other hand, will never produce 'moments of inspiration'..at least not to the watching public. Last night, radio numpty Adrian Durham (drive time host on Talksport Radio) described Neville as 'Ferguson's nodding dog' and belittled his achievements in the game, saying that he was lucky to come through the United Youth system and was no better than an average full back. Yes. An average full back who happens to be England's most capped right back? Winner of eight league championships and 19 major titles in all? Who has been named the Premier League's right back of the season five times and was also named in the 'Premier League Team of the Decade'....Not bad for an average player.

There is no doubting that Gary Neville's unerring dedication to 'everything United', his lack of outright flair, and his less than pleasing features (when compared to his best mate Becks) have made him a hate figure to many and widely unpopular. He also has a big mouth and allegedly hates Scousers. Of course, all of this has made him who he is, and he was always going to be club captain at some point of his career.

I will admit that in the 90s i was not what you would describe as a fan of his. He had displaced Paul Parker for club and country, who i thought was a better player than him, and he looked small up against alot of his opponents (yes i know Paul Parker was a bit of a midget!). The biggest thing that used to get me though was that he was a bit error-prone. Not enough for you to want to bin him, but enough for you to notice..a bit like Wes Brown can be. My opinion of him didn't really change until the Noughties were upon us. Coinciding with the sale of David Beckham, he stepped up a notch and became a better player. His heart was as big as any striker or winger that would have a go at him. Tactically he had improved greatly, and his service, overlapping and crossing the ball going forward, was excellent. He totally won me over. And all of this when i would have sold him in the blink of an eye..its the sort of template that Darren Fletcher followed...'Zero to Hero'.

So after the Leeds game many are calling for Gary to hand the armband back to Fergie, do his little jog around the pitch with his daughter in his arms and wife shedding a tear of pride, and say goodbye to the Faithful one last time. Its just the end of his shelf life. Someones gotta take a bullet for United's poor form. But lets look at the facts:

Last season Neville made 29 appearances for the club. Not bad for a player who is not first choice. And again this year he has made 12 outings before the turn of the year. Yes he had a horrible game against Leeds...but so did ten other players. I'm still impressed with the way he crosses the ball..(for me he has provided the best cross i have seen at Old Trafford this season) and at 35 he still gallops to overlap like John OShea can only do in his dreams. There's no doubt that his days as first choice are gone. I want to see Rafael installed as first choice ahead of all other choices. But we have let players go too early before when as a squad we still could have benefited from them.

It was only recently that Sir Alex mentioned that one such case was when Teddy Sheringham left the club. At 35 years old we let him go because of his age. This was in-spite of him scoring 21 goals in 42 games in his last season. We all dictated that that was it for him. Time to hang up the boots for a team as big as United..so we let him trot of back to Spurs. Teddy went on to play another 7 seasons of football (5 of those in the Prem) playing an astounding 225 matches scoring 70 times. Not statistics for a washed up footballer me thinks. Its a lesson that when an old player has a few bad games that he may just be suffering from what the likes of a younger/fitter/stronger Micah Richards (Golden boy one day. Pile of trash the next) is..and that's a bad run of form. We allowed Denis Irwin to go, and he still managed another 75 games. At 30 we let Andy Cole go, and he went on for another 10 seasons with 7 of those being in the top division. The point is that with his knowledge and experience, is he worth just a measly one year deal? I believe so. The biggest question lies against his fitness, but if we can squeeze thirty games out of him like last year then i think that's a good return. Some fans wont accept this, as they will demand we send him off to the old peoples home and replace him with a faster, cleverer and better looking more 'United' like player.

But for me, there is not a player that embodies Manchester United more than Gary Neville. People talk of retiring the Number 11 shirt when Giggs moves on to that great big Sky Pundits executive box in the clouds. But i say we should retire the Number 2 shirt as well. 582 times that lad from Bury has put his body on the line for the club. I think he will make 600 before he is anywhere ready to stop running his gob off..

The Rooney Obsession

So the wound caused by the defeat to the Yorkshire filth is starting to heal with a very faint scar in place.

The reaction to the game has had United fans react in so many different ways..from total apathy to manic hysteria..this is the norm whenever the reds lose. Many have started to point fingers at individuals. Blog writers have started their autopsy on the young players of the squad, the older members of our team, and of course our very own current fan's pariah Dimitar Berbatov. It is human nature that when things start to go wrong we look for the easiest target and we go for the jugular. However, Ive always believed in prevention rather than cure...firefighting gets you absolutely no where. Ive read (for want of a better word) 'attacks' on Gibson, Owen, Berba, Anderson, etc etc...and I'm afraid to say they are all pretty hollow assessments as to why we are playing like a bunch of schoolgirls.

The one player that seems to skip under the radar though is a certain golden child who plays up front. The all action, scouse marauder, savior of English football...Mr Wayne Rooney. Firstly, i love Wazza as much as anyone. He is a modern United legend..and still only about 15 years old (don't be fooled by that receding hairline!) With Ronnie and Filthbag Moneysucker gone, he is without doubt our singular most important player..

..And that's where the trouble begins

Every Englishman and woman appear to have the obsession that no matter what, no matter how good or shit we are playing, that Rooney MUST MUST MUST play up front. And why is this? Its because..erm..he is..erm..a genius. And genius can do no wrong. Genius will always find the back of the net. The strange thing about the monster which is Wayne Rooney is that the weakest part of his game is his finishing and his general goal tally for a centre forward..yet the world and their mothers still insist that he plays up top.

I watch the boy wonder every week. On the telly its easy to assume that he is infallible. On the ball, turning at players he is excellent. Better than excellent at times! But what you don't see on the TV is his off the ball work and the way he interacts with whoever his strike partner is (generally Berbatov) And that side of his game needs ALOT of work. The only player i have ever seen Rooney really gel with up top for any amount of time was when Carlos Tevez first joined the club, and they looked like mental midget twins terrifying the opposition with intuitive artistry. Has he ever hit it off with anyone at international level? Michael Owen? Nope. Emile Heskey? A little bit. But the fact is that when he plays as the primary central striker, whoever plays second fiddle to him normally gets a bum deal.

And the question has to be raised...why?

Its not that Rooney isn't intelligent. Or that he is greedy. Or that he does not care. However, i feel his cavalier attitude (something we all love about him) is his biggest weakness. Maybe with the years this will change. We know he isn't the nutjob he used to be. The mouth still barks at referees way too much but he isn't trying to kill anyone anymore. But it does not disguise the fact that if you micro analyse the things that makes a team tick..especially a team like Manchester United, that Rooney does not cut it as the centre forward. Now of course, the boy is scoring goals this year, and I'm sure that is the bomb that many will throw in my face after this article is published to the Interweb World. However my retort will be three words:

Ruud Van Nistelrooy

Ruud used to score goals..and LOTS of them. But during his five year tenure there was just one league championship, an FA cup win, and the Mickey Mouse cup. No European finals. No consistency in success. Rubbish. Now its fair to say that this wasn't Ruud's fault. 150 goals in 219 games proves his contribution. But the problem with having Ruud Van Nistelrooy up front was that IT WAS ALL ABOUT RUUD VAN NISTELROOY. If he didn't score then invariably we wouldn't win. I'm starting to see a mirror image with Rooney. Once again you could argue that this isn't Wazza's fault.. Hes paid to score goals. But United last three years of phenomenal success have come after Fergie ditched the idea of having just the one hitman and decided we needed a more complete threat from the team.

So what does this all mean? Well, to me its relatively simple. Yes, we could go out and break the bank, and I'm convinced that at some point the manager will bring in new faces. But for the time being we need to play to our strengths AS A TEAM. Not to individuals talents. I'm definitely not saying "lets drop Rooney" or "flog him to Real Madrid" But the times i have been most impressed with him is when he can drop deep, turn onto the opponent and terrorize them face on...a bit like Lionel Messi does for Barcelona. Would you call Messi a winger? No. But he attacks from a wide position. And that is what we should do with Wazza. This means we would have more of a threat on the pitch in either a 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 formation. At the moment we are trying to get 10 players to feed a singular entity up front. Been there..done that..won nothing.

There is no doubting that the team has to take all of this on the chin..its a collective issue. But for me the games we have lost this season have come from our inability to score at vital times. Yes the defence has been bonk and our midfield have looked like amateurs at times, but it is worrying when our ability to score goals weighs so heavily one player. Yes, Ronaldo did score most of the goals of the last three years, but as in the 90s the goals were shared out among several players. Goal threats were everywhere. At the moment we have Michael Owen warming a bench he doesn't deserve to be sitting on. What could we be if we managed to integrate him, Berba and Roo in the same side? It would be awesome...and it IS possible.

Rooney will never be a Ryan Giggs..running down the wing. But he has the talent and God given ability to diversify and do a top class job for the team. Berba WILL play better with Owen up top with him (someone who will properly work the channels for him..Roo drops too deep for this) and Michael Owen will do what he does best - guarantee you 20 league goals a season. I know this can work. I hope Sir Alex gives it a pop against Birmingham

Translating Transition & Humiliation By The Truckload - United Damned By Leeds

So its the day after the Leeds United humiliation, and many disappointments are apparent for many reasons. Happy new year NOT

The turn of the decade has started with many stating the dreaded word when used in reference to a football team.

"Transition"

Yep, I've heard it several times now...so a team that has got to the last two European Cup finals and won the last three league titles is now in transition. Okay. So we lost the best player in the world from our ranks and a scampering Argentinian. So this now means we are in transition? I don't buy it at all.

The performance against Leeds (and you can add Villa, Burnley, Fulham and all the other bits of mediocrity this season) has fuck all to do with transition. It has to do with attitude and quality. The injury plague that hit every defender at the club was not very helpful at all as we know, but winning games will always be about outscoring your opponent..something we have always prided ourselves in being able to achieve. To not 'outscore' a team from the third tier of English football with what was a decent selection by the manager with his first choice strikers, borderlines on criminal. But worse than that it is becoming a reoccurring bad habit.

The result against Wigan clouded what alot of fans are thinking at the moment, and that is we are not very good. Somehow due to Chelsea's crapness and Arsenal's inability to put a run together we are still in the thick of the title race and i am thankful for that. But the performance level this year compared to the last few years has been trash. Individually you could pick the bones out of every player, and not one of them is up to scratch, except maybe Patrice Evra. People may point to Wayne Rooney's increased goal haul this season, but as positive as that is, he is one of the reasons why we are underperforming this year. He and Berbatov seem to be becoming increasingly estranged to each others game..one good pass against Hull may make people think that this is not the case, but they are wrong. We have a former European footballer of the year sat warming our bench who cant get a game because of the faith shown in this partnership, which i have a feeling of doom about. It simply does not work week in week out

We have a midfield which is playing as inconsistently as i can remember in recent memory...i have no clue who our best two central midfielders are at the moment...just as Carrick or Anderson give you a good game, they play utter tripe the next. Fletcher will always give you endeavour but his quality on the ball has not been good recently. Scholes and Giggs are in and out as their age dictates, which leaves you with Darron Gibson who's metaphorically played about 10 minutes of top class football. And lets not even start up about the mentally damaged Owen Hargreaves.

And whats going on wide? Park? Valencia? Obertan? Giggs? Me? Nobody seems to be able to cross a ball at the moment...not with any consistency. The best crosses i have seen this year have come from the full backs..which worries me when i think that Gary Neville has excelled at this part of the game more than the wingers.

Then there is Nemanja Vidic. The press say he wants to go and he says he wants to stay..but doesn't it all have the stink of the Ronaldo debacle we all went through? Yesterday, he didn't feel right so did not play. I DO NOT like the sound of all that. Rio is desperately needed back but his persistent injuries may turn him into our very own Ledley King...which a club like us doesn't need or want.

So.............maybe we are in transition.

And if so..do we rely on a man who has just turned 68 to rebuild again? Yes the man is a legend, and a genius. But do we go for a younger option? Or are we gonna allow Sir Alex go out the same way that Jock Stein did? I sincerely hope that our greed for success does not dictate that. I for one hope that he gives his family his future years and we don't see him collapse in a dugout somewhere. If Mourinho is up for it, i hope the board are already in some sort of consultation. Planning for the future has always been the United way.

This leads me to the fans yesterday. To be honest I'm normally quite apathetic to whether the fans sing or not at Old Trafford. I pay my money, I sing, I enjoy myself. I also normally wouldn't have bothered with yesterdays game. I spend enough time and money following my club over a season that on a freezing cold, snow covered Manc day during the Xmas break, is better served with my family than watching a Cup match that I'm forced to purchase under the terms of my season ticket. Yes its like chucking thirty quid in the bin. But yesterday i attended because it was Leeds. A team we sing about every week. Yes they have fallen from grace but they will always be one of the natural enemies. So i thought, "lets go to this one, have a singalong and enjoy what will be a great atmosphere" As i walked up to Old Trafford i could hear the United Faithful singing with more gusto than usual..you could cut the tension with a knife. And i loved it! As i took my seat an hour before the game, the 10,000 Leeds fans were already bleating like sheep from the away end, and i smiled to myself as i thought about other matches that invoke this sort of passion. Everything went to plan up until the 19th minute of the game.

The home fans arrived..we all started to sing..getting louder..and louder.. WE ALL HATE LEEDS SCUM WE ALL HATE LEEDS SCUM..and then Jermaine Beckford scored. In years gone by this would have prompted a vocal retaliation from the crowd. As they went to kick off after the goal a couple of dozen of us stood up without thought and started singing. This led to several shifty looks from some sat around me (not season ticketers i might add) Here i am..in my ground..watching my club..with people trying to make me feel bad that I'm trying to lift my team with their unapologetic eyes. The sound levels never recovered after that, so you could say that the crowd played just about as well as the team did. I really thought that a game against a club that we hate on a par with Liverpool may produce a vintage collective chanting display

I was wrong

Losing to Leeds was bad enough, but to allow 10,000 away fans drown out the remaining 65,000 'alleged' United fans is not right..it never will be. And don't kid yourself that its the corporate or the Prawn Sandwich brigade cos its not. They make up just a handful of the attendance. Its the normal people. The dad with his son. The middle class bloke who does his 'football thing' at the weekends. It was them that weren't singing yesterday. And it makes me sick. These people expect success and think that they have the right to enjoy it while giving nothing back. WRONG. This isn't Stamford Bridge you know! Also, far too many are buggering off on the 80 minute mark to get back to their cars, whether United are winning or not. Yesterday the team needed us, but they didn't have their twelfth man. I feel ever so slightly ashamed.

Funny things are starting to happen at Manchester United. The fans seem sanitized as much as the players do. We have an aging manager who may just think this time that he is better off following his thoroughbred horses at race meets around the globe. We should remember that Liverpool are the prime example of what happens to teams when it starts to go all wrong, even when you are the top dog. Next league championship in 2030 anyone? All of this is possible.

Its up to us to sing our team to success and demand that they put in the same effort that we do. It is us that puts the Glory into Man United.