The Scotsman:
The head on Darren Fletcher's bony shoulders will never be other than a mighty sensible one. Since last Sunday, however, it has also been a mighty sore one. Hurt and humiliation are football's most powerful headache-inducers. And while the Manchester United midfielder's teeth don't quite clench as he talks of being happy for team-mates who earned their first medal in the Carling Cup win over Wigan Athletic a week ago, these molars certainly move much closer.
Fletcher wouldn't be human if it was otherwise. The 22-year-old throws out the line about the Millennium Stadium success having "salvaged some pride for the season" for Alex Ferguson's side. Yet pride was exactly what the circumstances surrounding the cup triumph robbed him of. Ferguson has made a case for the Scots midfielder during even the roughest times. For Fletcher then to be told he did not even merit a place in the squad for the final must have been soul-destroying.
"No-one said to me that football was going to be easy," states Fletcher, who has made 100 appearances for United after earning his manager's admiration for the manner in which he battled back from serious ankle and knee injuries. Last Sunday, he wasn't simply discarded by Ferguson. "He explained his reasons for dropping me and explained he had been dropped in a cup final," Fletcher says.
Yet the words that the midfielder has drawn comfort from in recent days did not come from the mouth of the fellow Scot who has nurtured and shaped his career. They were uttered by an Englishman and a foe. "I read a comment from Gareth Southgate recently and I thought it was perfect. He said: 'I love football but I hate it'. It has its ups and downs. I played in two FA Cup finals and I was selected before people and this time I wasn't. It is as simple as that. It gives me more determination and a bit of fire in my belly to prove people wrong.
"I'll definitely be back in the team, there is no doubt about that. I'll make sure I'm back in the team," he says. "I've just got to work hard in training and wait for my next chance. It might come against Wigan [tomorrow].
"Roy Keane was, and still has the qualities of, the best midfielder in the world," he says. "He was that in my time at United and he would be an influential player and a world-class performer no matter what team he played in. He showed that in the Old Firm game and is starting to show that since he has been playing in midfield in Scotland. Any team would miss him, and I mean any team - Chelsea, you name it."
Mention of the Stamford Bridge club brings into focus a difficulty for Fletcher that is not of his own making. He tends to make a decent contribution to a United side who win most of their league matches but suffer the odd, sometimes wholly unexpected, reverse along the way. It was ever thus and in the 1990s such form was no impediment to Ferguson guiding his side to regular championship success. Roman Abramovich's largesse has changed all that, however.
"In the Premiership, Chelsea have raised the bar," Fletcher says. "They have lost only twice which is ridiculous with the number of hard games we play. Liverpool are improving all the time, as they showed in the Champions League and are now starting to show in the Premiership. Arsenal are in a transitional period a little bit like us, but they have shown their form in Europe. Teams like Bolton give you horrible matches. Not just because they are physical but because they can adapt and come at you with long balls and come at you with flair. But our results against the bigger teams suggest we should be challenging Chelsea. But it is the games we should have won that we haven't and you could put that down to being sloppy."