COMMUNITY SHIELD:United supporters, still angry with the Glazers, are now questioning Alex Ferguson's lack of big-money signings, writes DANIEL TAYLOR
THERE IS always something therapeutic about the first game. Those three months off can feel a long time, particularly when your mind is filled with the coalmine-black thoughts that have pursued Alex Ferguson since we last saw Manchester United in competitive action in May. The league had been lost, the bags under his eyes seemed even more super-sized than normal and the lap of honour after the final game was joylessly going through the motions.
The 2009-10 season will not be remembered at Old Trafford for winning the League Cup, or the slash of Arjen Robben’s left boot that put them out of the Champions League. It will go into the history books as the year of mutiny, of the green and gold movement and a rebellion that has never been seen before in English football.
The rancour is still there going into tomorrow’s Community Shield and a season that could potentially mark an end to the careers of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville, and even Ferguson himself.
The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, co-ordinating the protests against the Glazer family, has spent the past few days decorating the city centre with a new poster campaign: “New season, same goal.” Season-ticket sales are down, with many fans deciding to boycott while the Glazers remain in charge. Chelsea will be at Wembley as the champions and, for many United supporters, it has become a source of intense frustration that Ferguson, by and large, plans to rely on the same players.
Letters have been piling up on his desk, demanding to know why the club that once made a habit of breaking transfer records is no longer in the market for the top players. Yet Ferguson is unmoved. “I don’t see the value of adding to our squad just because the supporters want it. I’m happy with what I’ve got and I don’t see any reason to go and add to that just because people want you to buy someone.”
The perception of the fans is that he is being denied transfer funds, but the manager rigidly denies this. He has, of course, been known to withhold the truth sometimes but his argument is that United actually did well to take Chelsea to the final weekend of last season given that he had 17 players missing for two months or longer through injury, and that they would be terribly unlucky to go through the same again.
“The supporters like you to buy players. They like to see a big signing every year and sometimes the players like to see a big signing, too. But I have to be sensible about it and look at our squad. What do we need exactly? At the moment, adding to what we have with the players everyone says are available just doesn’t excite me.”
That is not to say Ferguson has completely transformed from the guy who used to buy everyone in the pub a drink to the one who disappears to the toilet when it’s time to get in a round. Chris Smalling cost €12m from Fulham and Ferguson may have unearthed a rare gem in Javier Hernandez, whose gifts inside the penalty area have already drawn comparisons with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – high praise, indeed, at Old Trafford.
Hernandez, or Chicharito as his shirt will say, demonstrated in the World Cup how he comes to life inside the penalty area and it is because of that Ferguson has put in place loan deals for Danny Welbeck and Mame Biram Diouf to join Premier League clubs.
“It leaves us with five strikers - the experienced ones in Rooney, Berbatov and Owen, along with Macheda and Hernandez,” he said.
“We haven’t tried Rooney and Hernandez yet, but there’s no doubt Hernandez has tremendous pace and penetration. He has had a good start, he’s an intelligent player and the Mexican league is a tough league so getting players from there and bringing them here isn’t a problem for me.”
As for Rooney, Ferguson shook his head when it was put to him the player’s confidence may be brittle after the ordeals of the World Cup. The same applies to Patrice Evra, the captain of the mutinous French team who has been left exhausted and needs an extra week off, according to his manager.
“Once the players are back here, it’s a different world for them. They’ve got familiarity and the support of everyone. I don’t think I will need to put my arm around anyone.” A “poor tournament”, to quote Ferguson, has other ramifications. “Rio Ferdinand is still well behind and it will be two or three weeks before he is training,” Ferguson said. Rooney, back from a four-week holiday, is expected to play no more than 45 minutes at Wembley. The idea is to ease the World Cup players back in. I don’t think we will get the benefit of these players until maybe the third week of the season.”
The target is the 19th title that will take United above Liverpool as the most successful league club in England. Ferguson, once again, sees Chelsea as the team to beat, with favourable mentions for Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester City and Everton, although, curiously, not Liverpool.
Ferguson said he “did not detect any disillusion” among the fans, although he did acknowledge ticket sales are down, adding hastily “fractionally”. His job is to make 2010-11 more memorable for what happens in red and white rather than green and gold.
