SCHOLES THE GREAT

From the Times

It was around this time last year that Sir Alex Ferguson was facing up to one of the biggest crises of his reign as Manchester United manager.

Roy Keane, the club's captain and driving force for much of the preceding decade, was about to pack his bags and leave, while a 1-0 defeat by Lille on a miserable evening at the Stade de France in Paris contributed to United's failure to progress beyond the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in ten seasons.

Twelve months on, the picture looks different at Old Trafford. A 4-0 battering of Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday restored United to the top of the Barclays Premiership, while victory away to FC Copenhagen in the Champions League tomorrow will ensure that Ferguson can celebrate qualification for the first knockout round with two matches to spare.

Add to that the return to form of Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, the dramatic improvement in Cristiano Ronaldo and Louis Saha, the growing promise shown by recent signings such as Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra and the prospect of Owen Hargreaves, the England midfield player, arriving from Bayern Munich in January, and United appear to be in rude health.

Even Michael Carrick showed glimpses against Bolton of why Ferguson was willing to part with £18.6 million to secure his services.

It is early days, but as Ferguson prepares to enter his 21st year in charge at United on Monday, Sir Bobby Charlton believes that the manager's desperation to win another European Cup, not simply his desire to wrestle back the Premiership title for the first time in four seasons, is the factor that will ensure neither he nor his team grow complacent.

Bob Paisley won three European Cups as Liverpool manager and Charlton, mindful of that, thinks that Ferguson will never be satisfied until he adds to the Champions League title he secured in 1999.

“Alex is arguably the greatest manager ever, although I think the fact that Bob Paisley and Liverpool have won the European Cup more times probably grates on him a little bit,” the former United player, now a director, said. “For the number of times we've been [league] champions, we've not taken it that stage further, so I think he'd like to win at least one more European Cup.”

For United to do that this season, Gary Neville, the captain, believes that Scholes and Rooney will be crucial.

Neville describe Scholes as “the best football player that I've ever played with” yesterday, which is some claim, given the company the defender has kept during his career, but it is Rooney's recent performances that have caught the eye.

“The problem with this country is that you're not allowed to have an off-patch,” Neville said. “Wayne had barely played for five months. You don't not play football regularly for five months and then come back at your peak level.

“There is a fascination with picking on somebody who is the new star and we don't just let them grow comfortably. Everything has to be high or low, there's no in between.”