Relieved United still shaken to the core

SOCCER ANGLES:In doing what they did, the Stretford-Rooney partnership made the great structure that is Ferguson's modern United tremble, writes MICHAEL WALKER

THE STRETFORD End. One of the most famous sections of any stadium in England, Europe or across the world acquired a fresh meaning this week.

Once upon a time all that name conveyed was Manchester United, Old Trafford and noise. It was a powerful combination. But as of Monday morning when it became clear from a number of newspapers that something was afoot with Wayne Rooney at United, the surname of Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford hovered around Old Trafford.

Stretford, suspended by the Football Association as an agent not that long ago, is a man who knows about money, movement and football. Until yesterday morning’s twist and Rooney’s decision to stay, not go, Stretford was shaping up to be the principal villain in the eyes of United and its fans. That’s a lot of enemies.

Agents, of course, make for easy bogeymen in sport. They can always be targeted as if their clients have no brain cells of their own. Stretford draws particular ire from reporters, too, which is why they in turn repeatedly refer to him as a ‘former vacuum cleaner salesman’. It is known to irritate Stretford. Handily it also reinforces the idea of Stretford as a man who pushes an object around while, well, hoovering up.

Trying to fathom Stretford’s end in all of this is both simple and unknowable. What a football agent gets from a player like Rooney is a lot of money and a fairly constant supply of it. So Stretford was after more money when Monday’s papers dropped. Something had been leaked on Sunday. Hence we had Alex Ferguson’s defiant response on Tuesday.

Whose money is the harder question to answer. There were people within Manchester City who were prepared to say on Thursday, when Rooney and Ferguson were at their most distant, that Rooney had agreed to join City.

That would have necessitated phone calls to or from Stretford to or from those high up at Eastlands. The fact that Brian Marwood was a Nike executive when Rooney signed for that company as a teenager was cited as the most obvious connection. Marwood is now a senior City figure. Had Rooney moved that would have been deemed proven as the source of a transfer.

But Rooney has not moved so perhaps that Marwood link was overplayed. No, Rooney has stayed at United, which means that when a meaty cheque arrives on Stretford’s plate soon David Gill’s name will be on it. Or the Glazer family’s.

The midweek bogeyman is returned to a businessman who needs paying on a Friday.

But then United have done that before. Stretford was Rooney’s agent when the transfer from Everton was arranged in 2004. They were happy to co-operate with someone who could get them an asset they desired. Sod Everton.

Now it’s sod City. But United fans gloating at yesterday’s developments did so out of relief as well as joy. They have been shaken, every one of them.

In doing what they did, in saying what they said, the Stretford-Rooney partnership made the great structure that is Ferguson’s modern United tremble. As Ferguson said of the ‘big United family’: “We’ve all been hurt.” And Stretford-Rooney were able to do it because while seemingly robust and with unshakable foundations, United are actually simultaneously fragile. That is because of the Glazers.

It will be cited as proof of their financial muscle that the Glazers were able to intervene in the Rooney non-saga saga after a transatlantic telephone call from Gill on Wednesday night. Thanks to the Glazers, United have been able to retain their most prized player.

Yet that does not erode certain other facts. In January of this year so corrosive was the interest on Glazer borrowings in United’s name that they rearranged their debt. They had to pay for this, as we would do if we were changing our mortgage. It’s just the fee for the Glazers was £41 million.

Of course they do not pay. Manchester United pay. That’s what happens when you buy a club with money borrowed from a bank. You then take the club’s profits and repay the bank without putting your hand in your own pocket. There are numerous other examples of the financial ‘strategy’ the Glazers have embarked upon.

Because United fans are far from stupid, the exceptional Manchester United Supporters’ Trust, going 11 years, came up with the green and gold protest. And because of their existence, Rooney was able to tap into their concerns this week.

There was anger at Rooney from some, but on Wednesday at Old Trafford, aside from a few shouts of ‘Scouser’, there was restraint. They were watching a muted United performance against a poor team, Bursaspor: they could see easily Rooney’s point about disappearing talent. Not too long ago Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez were on this pitch.

This week’s shock may herald a return to the stellar recruitment of United’s recent past. Presumably Rooney will have been given assurances as well as a big new wallet. Stretford can buy a fleet of Dysons. And United fans can keep spending in the Megastore. On Wednesday, after the Bursapor game, the place was packed. A desktop 2011 calendar could be bought for £5.99. It was a certainty that, once opened, the picture for January would be Wayne Rooney. And so it is.

Imagine if he was going that month? Ferguson is 69 on December 31st. He would have been turning the page to one huge hangover.

Despair on Teesside as Strachan's gamble backfires

GORDON STRACHAN is no more at Middlesbrough. A manager with a reputation as a clever-dick as a man must be, to use a Ferguson word from this week, 'dumbfounded' at the turn of events.

The good or bad job Strachan performed at Celtic is the subject of fairly constant argument in Scotland but he can point to solid achievements. There was silverware to view and progress in European football. After Christmas.

Yet at Middlesbrough Strachan is out less than a year after succeeding Gareth Southgate.

What went wrong? He bought badly. It is not a new refrain.

Strachan returned to Scotland for players in January and in the summer.

For whatever reason, they have not produced in the second division of English football but ask Boro fans and they will tell you that the likes of Kris Boyd simply aren't good enough. They are not seeking a different explanation.

If so, then Boro are in a predicament. Boyd earns £35,000 per week at a club where at the minute there's a firm of pawnbrokers advertised across Boyd's midriff.

There was anticipation on Teesside in August. It's not even November and there's despair.