Just over a year ago, I wrote in this column that Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign as the Manchester United manager was coming to an end. His empire was crumbling, just as all great empires from the Romans onwards have eventually crumbled.
To my surprise, United rallied after that and won the Premier League. But this was almost entirely down to the brilliance of one man, Cristiano Ronaldo. Aided and abetted by the almost as brilliant Carlos Tevez. And within weeks of the season ending, both of them were gone.
Since then, Wayne Rooney has stepped into the breach and single-handedly kept United from falling into ignominious disarray. Without his 34 goals, Old Trafford would have been in mutiny by now. Such is the obvious paucity of world-class talent on display when Rooney’s not playing. But his fantastic displays have only served to hide the rotting decay in Sir Alex’s lair.
I watched the Manchester derby yesterday and until Paul Scholes scored that late winner, United looked thoroughly mediocre. This squad is simply not good enough to dominate any more. It’s the weakest I’ve seen at Old Trafford for 15 years and not in the same league as Barcelona, Real Madrid or Inter Milan. And I’m afraid that the main culprit for this is the Emperor himself.
It’s he who let Ronaldo go, when the Portuguese star was at the absolute peak of his powers.
It’s he who then let Tevez walk too, refusing to pay a transfer fee that now looks dirt cheap given the goals the devilish Argentinian has smashed in for Manchester City.
It’s he who turned to Michael Owen as a replacement striker, when everyone in football knows that Owen’s legs are shot to pieces. It’s he who paid more than £30million for Dimitar Berbatov, a man now known as the David Blaine of the Premier League because he sits in a box for weeks on end, doing bugger all.
It’s he who tacitly let most of the £80m Ronaldo fee remain in the United coffers, while rival European superteams all bought big.
United diehards will protest that Ferguson has earned the right to only go when he wants to go but I don’t agree. The empire has lost its omnipotence, the Emperor’s judgment has finally failed him and he must now fall on his sword and let someone else take over.
And the obvious candidate for the most coveted position in British football is surely Jose Mourinho.
He’s 20 years younger than Ferguson, a natural-born winner, has done a superb job at Inter Milan (as he has everywhere he’s gone), wants to return to the Premier League and would restore United to where they are used to being: No 1.
And to all United fans who will inevitably rage at me for being a ‘typical anti-United, Southern, Gooner *******’ , I simply say this: if you don’t get him, and get him now, then Mourinho may well end up at Liverpool.
And that, my friends, is your ultimate nightmare come true.