SOCCER:IT IS the question that has dominated summer conversations at Old Trafford and beyond, and tomorrow, against Birmingham, Manchester United will begin to discover how they will cope without a man that even their manager concedes is likely to be the best footballer on the planet for some years to come.
As he prepared his side for the first steps on the path to what would be a unique fourth successive title, Alex Ferguson was at pains to stress he had replaced players of the calibre of Cristiano Ronaldo before. Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and David Beckham have come and gone but the Scot’s regime had endured.
“We have had to replace good players time and time again,” said the Manchester United manager.
“Sometimes you do it because players get older, sometimes they move on for different reasons or because I might want to change the shape of the team. The important thing is not to get too upset because this club can produce players all the time.
“Look at the summer we almost signed Ronaldinho (2003). That fell through but two months later we got Ronaldo. Going further back, we wanted Paul Gascoigne but it didn’t happen and we got Paul Ince and then Roy Keane.
“In 1992 we thought there was a good chance we would get David Hirst and then we tried for Alan Shearer. We didn’t get either of them but we got Eric Cantona. It happens that way but this time the improvement must come from within.”
That last sentence would come as a relief to his one big-money summer signing, Antonio Valencia, who is a good, muscular winger but is not in the class of Beckham, Cantona or Keane.
The loss of those three players appeared not to affect United in the short term. Put together, the first four matches after each icon’s departure yielded 10 wins and a draw, although, tellingly, in none of those seasons did Manchester United finish as champions.
Ferguson, who has won 11 Premier League titles, predicted this campaign might be desperately close. “You can throw a blanket over ourselves, Liverpool and Chelsea,” he said. “I think it will be between the three of us and there is not a lot to choose between us.
“What might decide it is that one club gets a couple of injuries or a bit of bad luck. We do have more experience of winning the title but that does not make such a difference . . . ”
Ferguson argued that because Ronaldo’s desire to go to Real Madrid had been such an open secret, his departure would not have the out-of-the blue impact of Keane and Cantona’s exits.
“Most of the players probably expected Ronaldo to leave at some point so it is not such a great shock that he has left,” said Ferguson.
“The problem is, of course, how we progress as a football team, in a different shape and in a different way to when Ronaldo was here. That really is something I am looking forward to because it will be different without Cristiano.”
The difference will probably be felt by another recruit from Sporting Lisbon, who, like Ronaldo, grew up on one of the islands of the old Portuguese empire, in his case, Cape Verde. Still 22, Nani is almost two years younger than Ronaldo, and coaches at Old Trafford say that until now he has lacked Ronaldo’s maturity.
Ferguson thought him the outstanding player in last weekend’s Community Shield at Wembley.
He said those who voted for Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho as man of the match “obviously weren’t watching the game”.
“He seems more settled now,” Ferguson added. “Once he knew Cristiano was leaving, he probably thought to himself, ‘This is my chance now’, and the boy has been doing very well since then.”
