OLDER AND WISER

This from Tim Rich in the Telegraph

In defeat there was all of Sir Alex Ferguson's old defiance. AC Milan may have won the tie, they may even go on to lift the European Cup but with five of Carlo Ancelotti's players over 30, their moment could only be now. Tomorrow would belong to his Manchester United side, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Gabriel Heinze and Alan Smith all under 25.

However, if the future is United's, then they are going backwards into it. Since losing their European Cup semi-final to Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, Ferguson's teams have produced a worse display with each succeeding year. Quarter-finalists in 2003, beaten unluckily by Porto at the first knockout hurdle last year, overcome comfortably by Milan at the same stage this time around.

When, three years ago, United returned from Germany having lost Ferguson the chance to play Real Madrid in a European Cup final in his native Glasgow, his captain, Roy Keane, reacted with cold fury. He demanded a major overhaul at Old Trafford and in his autobiography, published later that year, claimed Manchester United were a club living on the memories of winning the Treble. "Yesterday's heroes" he called them.

In Europe, at least, they are slowly sinking. Take away that astonishing season of 1998-99 and Manchester United's record in Champions League knockout football is damningly ordinary. Of their 20 such matches in the Champions League, United have won four. In the group stages, especially at Old Trafford, United still cut a formidable figure but you would have to go back to Feb 2003 for their last truly convincing away display, the sweeping aside of Juventus in Turin.

Manchester United are routinely described as the wealthiest football club in the world, yet relatively little of that appears to transfer to the pitch. Milan's bench on Tuesday was jammed with ability - Tomasson, Serginho, Costacurta and Inzaghi. Andrei Shevchenko, the European footballer of the year, was not missed. United's substitutes, Smith, Phil Neville, David Bellion, John O'Shea and Quinton Fortune were not in that class.

Admirably, debt has long been treated with suspicion by United's board. However, some borrowing will have to be entered into if Ferguson is to land a world-class goalkeeper and overhaul a midfield too reliant on the ageing shoulders of Keane, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, men to whom tomorrow does not belong. 2002: Semi-finalists. Lost to Bayer Leverkusen on the away-goals rule. The Germans secured a 2-2 draw in the first leg at Old Trafford and cancelled out Roy Keane's opener in the BayArena.