Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United players may be staying at the same Amsterdam hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their notorious bed-in, but the theme of lethargy is clearly not contagious, writes Daniel Taylor
Nihil Sans Labore says the Govan coat of arms on Ferguson's office wall back in Manchester and an hour in the company of this wonderfully enthused sexagenarian yesterday revealed a man intent on drumming the message into his team.
Three months have passed since Ferguson, battered and beleaguered at the end of the most disappointing of his 16 seasons at Old Trafford, watched Arsenal win the title in Manchester and, over breakfast at the Amsterdam Hilton, the manager scarcely attempted to conceal the anguish which has engulfed his summer.
It had been, he acknowledged, a season of huge upheaval, unsuccessful experimentation on the field coupled with vast expenditure off it, incorporating dressing-room disharmony, a total breakdown in his relations with the press and, ultimately, no silverware for only the third time in 13 years.
He is angry with himself for allowing his now-aborted retirement plans to have been public knowledge, believing it had an unsettling effect at the club.
But, above all, he feels let down, almost betrayed, by some of his senior players for allowing complacency, a corrosive by-product of their sustained success, to creep in.
"When I look back, the players' hunger had a lot to do with it," he says. "We had nine senior players signing new contracts and that definitely relaxed a few of them.
"It happens in all walks of life. When you get a lift in salary, it can relax you. You start thinking: 'Oh, the future's not looking too bad, I can see my pension a bit better now.' Money can make you see a lot of things differently and it can be enough to take you off-track.
"I'm not sure if that hunger was always there. Then, with me planning to retire at that stage, I think some players were thinking at the start of the season: 'Ach, we'll have a new manager anyway next year.' It was that relaxation in the players' minds that cost us in individual mistakes."
Few would argue the task of restoring United's hegemony is beyond him.
He has had to get his hands dirty. Jimmy Ryan and Mike Phelan, first-team coaches last season, have been relegated to working with the reserves and the academy since Carlos Queiroz, the former Portugal and South Africa manager, was brought in as assistant manager.
Brian McClair has been switched from the reserves to the under-19s while the youth coaches Neil Bailey and Dave Williams were informed their services were no longer required.
Whether Ferguson will be as ruthless when it comes to selecting his team remains to be seen.
Ferguson is capable of many things but fitting six midfielders into four places is beyond even his powers and Juan Sebastian Veron, whom the manager stuck by doggedly last season, will have to be sacrificed if he replicates his most infuriating form.
"Having six midfield players can create problems because trying to accommodate them all doesn't always work and there were lots of times for us when it didn't.
"Other times I think too many of the players were listening to what the newspapers were saying about the system we were playing. But we should see the best of Veron this season.
"Having Carlos here will help everyone and bringing in Rio (Ferdinand) has given everyone a real boost. Working with Laurent Blanc will be tremendous for him."
Again, he believes it will boil down to United, Arsenal or Liverpool, with Newcastle not far behind. Leeds and Chelsea, with their financial constraints, are mentioned only as an afterthought.
Before leaving, he recalls his wise words at the start of the 2000 season. "If you remember, I said back then that all the clubs spending fortunes trying to catch us might end up suffering."
United have suffered themselves, albeit in different circumstances, over the last year, but Ferguson's eyes smoulder with determination. As his motto says: Nothing without work.
Guardian Service
