From The Independent on Sunday:
Can Ferguson honestly scrutinise his team - taking into account those absent - who lost both legs of the tie against Milan, and, more pertinently, failed to score against them, and visualise a side to claim the championship or Champions' League next season? This, remember, was a Milan deprived by injury of Andriy Schevchenko and Filippo Inzaghi. Both goals were executed by Hernan Crespo, on loan from Chelsea.
There is no shame in losing to Milan, who boast those ageless sentries Paolo Maldini and Cafu, and a fellow named Jaap Stam, whom Ferguson jettisoned far too hastily. They will frustrate other talented teams in the final eight. It is merely that, by the kind of standards Ferguson established as a marker like a master stonemason with his domestic titles and that 1999 Champions' League triumph, this collection have been found wanting. Ferguson's unconvincing response has been to contend that his players' relative lack of experience compared with that of Milan cost United. He must know that such a plea of mitigation will be dismissed from court. It is playing with numbers, or rather with players' years.
At the San Siro, there was no Gary Neville, which meant the deployment of the injury-prone Wes Brown at full-back. However, he is an England international. Ruud van Nistelrooy played, but arguably should not have. He appeared sluggish by his own standards, and did not bring the best out of Wayne Rooney.
But if we ignore Brown and Van Nistelrooy, what of the remainder? Rio Ferdinand? Mikaël Silvestre? Gabriel Heinze? Paul Scholes? Roy Keane? Ryan Giggs? No matter what their ages are compared with those of Carlo Ancelotti's team, these are hardly striplings plucked from the youth team. These are all quality, experienced internationals.
Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are still teenagers, but they are scarcely callow youths. Rooney boasts 21 England caps, with nine goals already. Both played in Euro 2004. There willbe more to come from that pair, as Ferguson bullishly predicts, and both were cruelly reminded by their lack of impact in Milan that there will have to be. Nevertheless, there remains a fallibility about United, the result of the failure effectively to replace Keane and Peter Schmeichel, and a dearth of the kind of talent that emerged with the Beckham-Neville-Scholes generation from United's academy.
Word has it that the gimlet eye of Ferguson is focused on Lyon's 22-year-old Ghanaian Michael Essien, who scored twice in the 7-2 defeat of Werder Bremen on Tuesday, as a prospective long-term replacement for Keane. Gattuso, the former Rangers man, and the Brazil-based Argentinian Javier Mascherano could also be part of United's summer harvest.
But how much longer will Ferguson farm it? When he looks at his squad, does he view a team all but in place? Or does he observe a side who, once injuries deplete them, look incapable of progressing any further than this season? That is the real test of his resolve, and his nerve.