From the Sunday Times:
The Big Bang theory of Creation suggests that everything begins out of nothing. Certainly, the making of history can occur with the merest warning. Last Wednesday’s Champions League game against Basel should have been meaningless for Manchester United, but it turned out to be momentous, and not just for the fact that Gary Neville scored, from outside the box, using his left foot — the equivalent of Tiger Woods chipping in from off the green using his golf bag.
A willowy teenager, "all skin and bone", as Sir Alex Ferguson said, made a debut which 67,000 people left Old Trafford feeling might be epochal. When Darren Fletcher left the field after 74 of the most poised and plucky minutes you will see from a kid new on such a stage, the ovation was greater than for David Beckham, who was replacing him. In the touch of hands between the players when Fletcher came off and Beckham came on, it was even possible to believe that a baton was being passed.
Neville, still reeling from the shock of his goal, was first to make the link. "It was fantastic for me to play behind him. He was even dominating me at times, shouting for the ball. He’s intelligent, he works hard, and he has an engine comparable to that of David Beckham," Neville said. "He’s slightly built and he runs all day, and while they are slightly different players, in that way he reminds me of David when he was younger."
The truth is that United are looking for a new hero too. Arsenal have stolen their honours and the cloak they once wore as the country’s best football side. What Arsène Wenger has yet to get his hands on is United’s essence, their unusual ability as a club to regenerate themselves from within. Transfusions of fresh blood, identified and prepared by their scouting and coaching staff, are what have kept United in health since Sir Matt Busby and his doomed Babes.
"I think it’s the most important thing about this whole club, that it brings people through. Doing that has always been our manager’s dream," said Neville. "He wanted them (home-grown players) to have an identity in the team, and he has done that."
The first time Fletcher met Beckham, he had his picture taken with him and asked for his autograph. The England captain recognised a boy as football-mad as he had been (Fletcher went to beg his local boys’ club for a game aged five, and although he was too young, he was so good that they created a team for him). Beckham advised the youngster to keep coming to United’s football camps from Dalkeith, just as he had done from London, and to work as hard as possible.
"I told my sisters I was going to sign for United, and all they cared about was that I might end up in the same team as Beckham," Fletcher said. Last Wednesday he did something even better than play alongside Beckham. He looked capable of playing instead of him.
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