NO EURO AWAY WIN FOR OVER TWO YEARS
Daniel Taylor in the Guardian:
“Disaster is an overused word in sport but if there has to be a place for it in the football lexicon it is fair to say this was a game that had potentially disastrous ramifications for Sir Alex Ferguson. An early departure from the Champions League would not just have wounded his pride, it might have wreaked havoc on his chances of making it to a 20th anniversary at Manchester United.
“The Glazers might have accepted Ferguson's explanation about Roy Keane, they might even be willing to brush over the team's erratic Premiership displays, but it is highly doubtful that they would tolerate a November exit from the Champions League.
“Just the very thought of what a Villarreal victory could have done in tandem with a Lille defeat of Benfica must have been enough to make these ‘lifelong United fans’ nauseous given the bags of gold that would be forfeited. Joel Glazer could be seen gnawing his fingernails and the same fears will harass his family all the way to United's final group game against Benfica.
“Playing Champions League football after Christmas has become something that United fans assume they are buying into when they pay for their season tickets and their displeasure was recorded in the final, vengeful chant of ‘Keano’.
“Even before the Glazers moved into power the club's annual income and expenditure were structured around reaching the last 16 of Europe's premier competition. The new owners' debts make prolonging the involvement in Europe even more essential.
“In football terms the public perception of Joel, Bryan and Avi Glazer is of three American versions of Tim Nice-but-Dim trying to come to terms with the offside law. Yet their wide-eyed, Homer Simpson innocence should not disguise the fact that if United fail in Lisbon they will probably not hesitate in recommending he is ushered out of the door at the end of the season.
“There were times last night, indeed, when the Glazers must have pondered whether the supporters' faith in Ferguson is still absolute. True, the manager was applauded when he stepped on to the pitch before kick-off to accept a rather bizarre award for ‘services to the Champions League’. But within a few seconds the first cry of ‘Keano’ had emanated lustily from the stands. At the final whistle it felt like a massed show of dissent against the man who had precipitated the captain's departure.”
Oliver Kay in The Times:
It is, as Sir Alex Ferguson would put it, “squeaky bum time” at Old Trafford, from the dressing-room to the boardroom and from the manager’s office to the Florida home of the club’s owners. A goalless draw at home to Villarreal last night left Manchester United’s Champions League ambitions on a knife-edge and opened the door to a doomsday scenario that neither Ferguson nor the Glazer family dare contemplate.
Victory over Benfica in Lisbon on December 7 would secure their passage to the knockout stages, but a draw would leave them dependent on Villarreal beating Lille — and the signs are far from encouraging. United have not won away in the Champions League since November 2003 and have scored in only one of their past eight matches in the competition proper.
Elimination at the group stage would represent humiliation for Ferguson, whose hopes of staying in charge, under the terms of his 12-month rolling contract, hinge on a favourable end-of-season verdict from the board. It would also be a severe financial blow for the Glazers, four of whom left the warmth of Palm Beach for the biting cold of Old Trafford.
The official line is that they remain calm but, having borrowed more than £500 million in expectation of huge profits, how could they not be unnerved by the prospect of taking less than £10 million from this season’s Champions League?
It has already reached the stage where United officials are acknowledging the financial spin-offs of finishing third and being demoted to the Uefa Cup, which would allow them to fix an independent television deal, but should they lose in Lisbon, they will finish bottom of the group and be denied even that meagre comfort.
Tim Rich in the Telegraph:
Actors are traditionally wary of "lifetime achievement awards", which are handed out to those who have lived long but are unlikely to trouble ceremonies with anything from their current repertoire.
Giving Sir Alex Ferguson a memento to mark Manchester United's astonishing triumph in the 1999 European Cup final in a ceremony before kick-off was not quite in that category - Uefa were celebrating 50 years of the competition and every winning team will be honoured this season.
However, you had the feeling that Uefa thought they might as well give Ferguson the gong while Manchester United were still actively involved in the tournament.
They might not be for much longer. Roy Keane's name, chanted as Ferguson trudged off the pitch following another display largely bereft of inspiration, was a symbol of the mounting frustration enveloping Old Trafford. One by one the great certainties of the club - one of which was that United always gallop through the Champions League group stages - are failing.
They require an away win in the Champions League, something that has been beyond their reach since Diego Forlan scored the only goal in a scrappy victory over Panathinaikos in Athens two years ago.
Last night Ferguson attacked Villarreal's time-wasting and diving, and although their behaviour often entered into the realms of gamesmanship, these were irritants United once brushed aside.
Manchester United are floundering on a stage they once graced because one by one the midfield that once swaggered through these games has gone and the men Ferguson has chosen to replace the Beckhams, the Butts and the Keanes are not footballers touched by their same rare gifts.
Manchester United no longer look like a side capable of winning the European Cup again, though with some justice Ferguson might have pointed out that, at half-time in their final group game last season, nor did Liverpool.
Oliver Holt in the Mirror:
There was no theatrical bow from the Boss this time as he walked down the touchline towards the Stretford End after the final whistle.
None of the bravado or the feeling of deliverance that linked the temporary lifting of the siege when United beat Chelsea here a fortnight ago.
Instead, Sir Alex Ferguson beat his retreat towards the dubious sanctuary of the dressing room with the name of the man he deposed last Friday ringing in his ears.
"Keano, Keano", the crowd sang as Sir Alex stared ahead, clutching a UEFA award designating him one of the champions of this competition in its 50th year.
How poignant and how pointless that award seemed last night as United laboured to a goalless draw against a Villarreal team that dived and writhed its way to parity.
If they lose on December 7, it will be a cold, cold Christmas indeed in the red half of Manchester.
Failure to make the last 16 would deprive them of £15m in prize money and gate revenues the new owners cannot afford to lose.
It was Ferguson's bad luck that the Glazer brothers missed the tumultuous win over Chelsea but were here to gaze glumly down from the directors' box at United's latest reverse. Even with their lack of knowledge of football, Joel, Avi and Bryan must realise their business plan is already in danger.
For the Glazers, ridding themselves of Ferguson would no longer be the unpardonable act it might have been six months ago.
That's the thing with staying at a club for so long. Sometimes, there are tough decisions to be made.