THE WISH expressed by Alex Ferguson on Saturday that his health holds up for another five years will have sent a draught through the managers’ offices at Melwood, Cobham and London Colney.
All smiles as he basked in the glow of his 11th championship, the Master of Carrington was in no mood to give comfort to his domestic rivals, and the thought of the need to match themselves against his vast football intelligence for another five years will do nothing to enhance the close season for Rafael Benitez, Arsene Wenger and whoever Roman Abramovich appoints.
It might not be five years, of course. He may have been teasing. It could be 10, given the memory of the bad experience he went through the last time he announced his retirement. Or, more likely, just a couple, to take him up to 70 and past two milestones: the record of 18 league titles now held jointly with Liverpool, and the personal tally of three European Cup victories belonging to Liverpool’s Bob Paisley, which Ferguson will equal should his side overcome Barcelona in Rome next week.
He might, finally, be satisfied with those. But there is no overestimating the pleasure he continues to derive from supervising his squad of world-class players, and in particular the younger ones whose entire development he has overseen. Witness his special commendations, discussing United’s internal player of the year award in Saturday’s match programme, for John O’Shea and Darren Fletcher, two home-grown players whose rise has amply vindicated his judgment. Both have endured terrace scepticism, but they have done the job required by Ferguson this season with honour, and in Fletcher’s case with real distinction.
Combining some of the tactical qualities of Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt with an athleticism of his own, the 25-year-old Scot has played in recent weeks like a genuine heir to Bryan Robson and Roy Keane. Animating the team with a restless physicality, he adds a dimension to the team’s attacking play which can help define the team’s forward momentum.
There will be even more fresh clay to mould in the coming seasons, as Ferguson emphasised yesterday in an interview with his old friend and amanuensis Hugh McIlvanney in the Sunday Times, he spoke warmly of two teenage strikers currently on the edge of the first-team squad. Ferguson said he has already told Fabio Capello Danny Welbeck, an 18-year-old local boy, will be in the England squad for the 2010 World Cup, and 17-year-old Federico Macheda has already contributed two vital goals to the success of the current campaign.
The prospect of integrating Welbeck and Macheda into his side, along with the teenage Brazilian twins Rafael and Fabio da Silva in defence and the two Serbs, the 22-year-old Zoran Tosic and the 17-year-old Adem Ljajic, in midfield, with Ben Foster almost ready to take over in goal, provides persuasive reasons for Ferguson to stick around.
It will also make him more sanguine about the prospect of losing Carlos Tevez or Cristiano Ronaldo, or both. Although he would like to keep them, the cost of one and the desires of the other may force him to plan a different future. He does not do sentiment in such matters, and the energy he has shown since cancelling his plan to retire in 2002 has enabled him to build resources that would turn their departure into a further demonstration of creative team building.
One thing he knows is the foundations are solid. On Saturday, Wenger attributed United’s success this season to one factor: “Their defensive record.” The campaign, it could be said, was built on that extraordinary run of 14 clean sheets in league fixtures kept by Edwin van der Sar between November 15th and February 18th. Gary Neville will be there next year, and the astonishingly resilient Ryan Giggs. Given the recent performances of Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Anderson, however, we may not be seeing much more of Scholes, a mainstay of the generation of locally produced prodigies whose success enabled the manager to establish his reputation for faith in youth.
Ferguson’s rivals must take comfort where they can. Benitez was complaining again at the weekend about United’s superior financial resources, but as he prepares for another season of attempting to outwit Ferguson the Liverpool manager may be encouraged not just by the knowledge that his team have lost only two league matches this season to United’s four defeats, but by a quirkier statistic showing that the 36 titles shared by the two clubs, going back to 1901, have come in an order that suggests a sort of football version of the Fibonacci sequence.
First Liverpool won two, then United won two. Then Liverpool won three, after which United won three. Liverpool’s sixth was followed by United’s sixth, and their seventh by United’s seventh. Then Liverpool won 11, followed by 11 for United. To maintain an elegant symmetry that has lasted more than a century, Liverpool must be the next to win the title – which will not impress Ferguson.
Guardian Service
