Manchester United have been involved in a dozen Champions League campaigns, reaching the knockout stages on 10 occasions, and Ryan Giggs has appeared in all of them.
Six years ago, halfway through what would turn out to be United's most glorious season, Giggs spelled out the way he saw the future. Manchester United, he noted, were a bigger club than Juventus, but the Italians were providing the template for Champions League success. They played in three consecutive finals and were doing what Liverpool had done 20 years earlier and what Real Madrid would soon start to do again. They were coming back for more.
They flew to Lisbon with Ferguson's hollow boast of 'We'll get through, don't worry about that' ringing in their ears, and managed to leave two of their young players in Manchester. When the game kicked off it was clear they had left some of their supporters as well.
Rows of empty seats at the United end of the ground were as much a sign of the times as Rio Ferdinand's massively inflated value or Cristiano Ronaldo's inability to harness his ability for the benefit of his team-mates. United's defensive concentration was poor and their midfield anonymous, with both wingers failing to provide width and being withdrawn before the end. Ominously for England, Wayne Rooney has recently looked as if he might not be able to carry a whole team after all, and Ruud van Nistelrooy is not even expected to make an impact if players cannot provide him with a service.
The Glazer family must know enough about football and Manchester United to know this will not do. They have already proved themselves more sensible than many football folk by not budgeting for a much longer European run. They have noted, perhaps because they are not as clouded by allegiance, optimism or sentiment as some, that United have only gone one round further than the group stage in the past two years anyway. The Glazers have not just lost £15m, that is only an estimate of potential profits to a team reaching the final. They might just have lost a little of their remaining faith in Ferguson, and in this they are not alone. Many supporters, believe it or not, would be on the Glazers' side if the matter came to a showdown right now, and plenty of waverers will join them after hearing Carlos Queiroz's 'Crisis what crisis?' routine.
Ferguson's assistant was asked to face the media routine last Friday because his boss was at a funeral. In terms of offering supporters what they want to hear, he demonstrated about as much tact and discernment as Gerard Houllier bragging about Liverpool winning five cups in one season.
'We have to be ready in the league to show what happened in Europe was an accident,' Queiroz said. 'We are still second in the table, and we are still in control of our destiny in the FA Cup and Carling Cup. We will bounce back. Don't judge our season now, judge it at the end. Our fans know we are doing the right things to move the club forward. Not being in the second stage of the Champions League was only due to an accident, we still have time to deliver and make our fans happy.'
Queiroz is wrong in several places there, but principally in the belief that United's time to deliver is still in some rosy future. United's time to deliver was on Wednesday, 7 December in Lisbon, and they missed the deadline as surely as Gerard Pique and Giuseppe Rossi missed the team flight.
The next deadline is for Ferguson. It is clear the endgame has arrived, and just about the only reason for the manager sitting tight at the moment is the sudden undesirability of the United situation for anyone lined up as a potential replacement. Yes, you would inherit a team with Rooney, Ronaldo and, er, Ferdinand, but look at the giants who have gone and not been replaced. David Beckham, Roy Keane, Peter Schmeichel, Jaap Stam, Nicky Butt and Teddy Sheringham are no more, and Giggs, Scholes, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Gary Neville and Van Nistelrooy might not be around that much longer.
The supporters recognise this. They know the club might be in for a lean period, and they would prefer to remember him just for the good times. They have adopted a saying - not yet a chant - that sums up their feelings. Ferguson needs to think about it, because if he ever hears it rolling down from the Stretford End, it will be too late.
Thanks for the memories.
It's time to go.