earnest. Sir Alex Ferguson will be little more than a
jealous onlooker at the Champions League final in
Gelsenkirchen on May 26 and presumably he will rather shut
himself away in a darkened room than follow the progress of
Chelsea and Arsenal in a competition which continues to
cause him such anguish.
‘For a club of United's bloated resources and loaded
ambitions not to reach the quarter-finals for the first time
in eight seasons can be described only as utter failure and
Ferguson will face questions, legitimate or not, about the
amount of culpability he should accept.
‘Ferguson has grown wearily accustomed to end-of-empire
obituaries but, even though the FA Cup may yet be returned
to Old Trafford, he has cause to regard this as his most
troubled season since there were banners in the Stretford
End demanding his removal from office in December 1989.
‘United, quite simply, have taken a step backwards, if not
two, and Ferguson may have to reinvent them if they are to
win the European Cup again under his management.
‘Other subjects, such as why he failed to buy a replacement
for Rio Ferdinand in the January transfer window or why he
dithered so long before appointing a successor to Carlos
Queiroz, as his assistant, he did not want to elaborate
upon.
‘Yet what really rankles with Ferguson is the accusation
that he should never have sold Beckham. A variation of the
charge is probably closer to the truth because Ferguson was
entitled to offload a player with whom his relationship had
become so vitriolic that the acrimony polluted the entire
dressing-room. Where he erred, perhaps, was by not replacing
him satisfactorily. It says much, for example, that, despite
the warm embrace Ferguson reserved for Cristiano Ronaldo at
the end of Saturday's FA Cup tie against Fulham, the most
expensive teenager in British football did not merit a
starting place.
‘Only two of this season's six recruits were in his initial
XI and one of those, Eric Djemba-Djemba, had not started a
match since November 1. The Cameroonian was as effective as
anyone before suffering a broken rib. Yet it is unfair to
bill him as the next Roy Keane, if there ever could be such
a thing. If Djemba-Djemba is the new Keane, Roy Carroll must
be the new Peter Schmeichel.
‘The real Keane could be located in the South Stand, his
most impenetrable stare a neon warning for autograph hunters
to think twice.
‘He had plenty to occupy him, too. Yet, by the time of
Costinha's late and decisive contribution, the news that
Uefa may add another two games to his one-match ban for
stamping on the Porto goalkeeper Vitor Baia had paled into
insignificance.
‘Keane stormed off the moment the ball went into Tim
Howard's net.’