Manchester Utd 2 West Brom 2:FOR ALL the richness of his language and the passion in his voice, the time to worry about Alex Ferguson is when he says nothing. On the marginalisation of Wayne Rooney, perhaps Manchester United's most naturally gifted footballer since George Best, there has been an eerie, glacial silence.
The couple of television stations to which the United manager still speaks were told he would not welcome questions on the subject. In his programme notes, the forum he uses to address supporters directly, Rooney was deemed as worthy of comment as a venture capitalist in North Korea.
“Everyone talks about the infamous hairdryer treatment players suffer when they upset him,” said Paul Parker, whose career at Old Trafford was ended by the rise of the young Gary Neville. “But when he has really had enough, then his response is a lot more emphatic. One day you are a Manchester United player. The next day, you’re gone.”
His treatment of Rooney has echoes of the end of David Beckham’s time in Manchester. In both cases, Ferguson seemed to have concluded that the tabloid soap opera of their private lives was throwing a shadow over their careers. Beckham said he was never told directly he was leaving. However, the conversations with Ferguson ceased, he began being dropped to the bench and one April night in 2003 when he had scored twice against Real Madrid in a breathless encounter at Old Trafford, he sat down to watch a rerun of the match on the club’s television station, MUTV. When he saw Ferguson’s disdainful reaction to one of his goals, Beckham knew he was finished at United.
Rooney may be far from finished. Yesterday, United dismissed reports he would be sold in the January transfer window as “nonsense” and there seems no easy place he can go without a hitherto untapped talent for learning Spanish irregular verbs. However, if he were to be dropped, there were reasons other than the turmoil of his private life or the challenge to his manager that he had been fit enough to start United’s two previous matches.
He has not scored in open play for his club since March, although as Lou Macari, who acts as a surprisingly independent summariser on MUTV, commented: “If you are going on form, then it’s not a big shock he wasn’t in the starting line-up. If you are going on what he can do, then it is a shock.”
The final whistle left United in a state of convulsion. Compared with Bayern Munich or Lyon, each floundering in their domestic leagues, their start appears reasonable and Ferguson was surely right when suggesting a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion in October was “not decisive”. But, five draws, three of which have seen them lose a lead, have contributed to their worst start to a season since 2004, when they finished 18 points adrift of Chelsea.
If West Bromwich’s goals were inexplicable – a free-kick that scuttled through several pairs of legs and what Ferguson described as a “primary school” error from Edwin van der Sar – at no time did United threaten to snatch back the game in the manner that has become their trademark. Not even in the 18 minutes Rooney was allowed.
Afterwards, Albion’s Swedish defender, Jonas Olsson, who pointed out matter-of-factly that “we could have won”, complained – just as it had been when they overcame Arsenal at the Emirates or knocked Manchester City out of the League Cup – the focus would be on their opponents’ failings rather than their own successes. Roberto Di Matteo, who is determined to break the cycle of promotion and relegation that has bedevilled the Hawthorns under his three predecessors as manager, would not mind that. And their opponents were in the mood for self-analysis.
“We have two choices,” said Patrice Evra. “Either we accept it or we don’t and I think this is the moment not to accept it. We are still unbeaten but to me the five draws feel like we have lost games. It is not Manchester United.
“We need to start killing games off. We need to take our chances. It is not like we didn’t have a lot. When you go 2-0 up, you should go on to win the game but when you keep things at the same tempo and it’s still 2-0, the opposition only need to score one to make it difficult for you. For it to happen once . . . but twice? I remember talking about the same thing after we had played Liverpool saying I hope we don’t give away a lead like we did that day but we have done it again.”
West Bromwich’s Northern Irishman Chris Brunt never allowed his side to lose momentum once Javier Hernandez and Nani had given United what seemed an unassailable lead.
Guardian Service
