Manchester United are about as eager to wear the mantle of erstwhile champions as trendsetters asked to don hand-me-downs. As runners-up to Arsenal in the Premiership their place in the qualifying round of next season's Champions League is assured, but at Old Trafford yesterday nobody was celebrating silver medals.
Instead, the majority of the usual 55,000-plus crowd commiserated with Alex Ferguson's players for winning nothing this time except applause, and even that had begun to fade with the team's departure from Europe followed by Arsenal's remorseless and ultimately successful pursuit of the championship. Leeds United's fans turned up to gloat noisily at their rivals' failure. One could hardly blame them. After all, it had been a long time.
Manchester United rounded off their season at home with a comfortable victory over the first side to defeat them in the league this season when Wetherall's goal at Elland Road in late September ended their eight-game unbeaten run. That was the day Roy Keane suffered the cruciate ligament damage which put Ferguson's captain out for the rest of the season.
So there was a touch of Nemesis in Manchester United's mood, although at times it was clear there were people on the pitch who knew it was all over. Nevertheless Leeds, their UEFA Cup place secure, provided a stiff enough challenge for Gunnar Halle to get himself sent off in the second half for a second bookable offence and there was even some pushing and shoving a little later.
Halle's dismissal brought referee Gary Willard's number of red cards this season to eight. Six yellow cards left him 10 bookings short of his hundred. Yet only one of those he issued here seemed unnecessary and that was when a tired Gary Pallister inadvertently ran into the back of an equally weary Alf-Inge Haaland in the closing minute.
Understandably, Manchester United's football flickered fitfully. Some of their players seemed more interested than others. Teddy Sheringham appeared to be treading water until substituted by Brian McClair. Whatever Sheringham is saving for England in the World Cup, one trusts it will be worth the wait. Ryan Giggs, on the other hand, performed as if the title was still there to be won.
There are ways of playing and ways of playing and Leeds employed a system which has been serving them well, particularly in away games. Again Lucas Radebe played between a back four and a middle four, with Jimmy FloydHasselbaink trying to hold the ball up in the hope of quick support.
Yet there is still a considerable difference between Derby on an off-day and Manchester United on a dog day, as Leeds quickly discovered. With David Beckham frequently tucking in alongside Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, Leeds's movements tended to run out of space in midfield, leaving Hasselbaink a lonely figure vainly claiming free-kicks as he tried to take on David May and Pallister.
After five minutes Ian Harte's impulsiveness cost Leeds dear. The left-back committed himself early as Gary Neville took Pallister's long pass on the right and, after the Manchester United defender had just managed to keep the ball in play, he produced a telling centre from which Giggs outjumped the centre-backs to head past Nigel Martyn.
On the half-hour Denis Irwin's cross from the left found Harte holding Sheringham down before the striker could rise to meet it and Irwin put the penalty away.
Towards the interval the match started to be overtaken by end-ofseason ennui, but it roused itself sufficiently for the second half to produce a third goal quickly followed by the departure of Halle. Two minutes before the hour Beckham drove the ball low into the near corner of the net; two minutes past it Halle, shown the yellow card earlier for a foul on Irwin, saw red for fouling Wes Brown, one of Manchester's substitutes.
Jaap Stam, Manchester United's £10 million signing from PSV Eindhoven, signed autographs in the stand and felt sure the championship would return to Old Trafford next season. Well he would, wouldn't he? But Ferguson's spending will not stop there if the club are serious about renewing their quests at home and abroad.
"We can now do one of two things. We can either wither and die or we can do something about it. And I'm confident it will be the latter." Ferguson will do something alright.
Ferguson, meanwhile, was gracious in title defeat, having watched Arsenal string a run of 10 straight League victories together, culminating in yesterday's 4-0 humiliation of relegation-threatened Everton, which made this game relatively meaningless.
"We recognise what champions are made of," he said. "You have to hold your hands up and say well done. They deserve our praise."
The Manchester United manager was thrilled with his side's performance, commenting: "It was a more consistent display. The rhythm was back and their attitude was excellent. We've now got one last game and I'm sure the players will go out and enjoy it."
