Telles about ten Hag

Alex Telles, a left full back with Brazil's national team, was deemed surplus to requirements by Erik ten Hag, Dutch manager of Eredevisie Ajax Amsterdam, subsequent to his succeeding, for the 2022-23 season, German Ralf Rangnick, who from December 2022 had been interim manager at Manchester United. On loan with Spanish club Sevilla, there Telles won the Europa Cup, 4-1 on penalties, a.e.t., with the match against Italy's Roma ending, after normal time, 1-1, on May 31st, 2023, at Puskás Arena, Budapest, Hungary, giving the lie somewhat to Alex’s supernumerary status at Old Trafford to the terraced fans on the Stretford End.
 Rangnick had replaced former Reds' striker, Norway's Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who'd steered the side to the Europa Cup Final of 2021, but losing to Spain's Villarreal, 10-11 on penalties, following a 1-1 draw, a.e.t., left a trophyless Solskjaer without enough kudos in soccer's credibility bank to continue. Ten Hag brought from Dutch club Feyenoord, Tyrell Malacia, a Dutch left full back, and Argentine Lisandro Martínez, a center back, who could also play at left back, from Ajax, but the decision to allow Telles to be loaned to Sevilla would return to haunt. England left back, Luke Shaw, had always been first choice since his signing, by United's then Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, from Southampton for £30m for the 2014-15 season, but Shaw's injury proneness had left a gap through which Telles had been able to shine.

Alex was signed from Portugal's FC Porto for £15.4m on October 5th, 2020, and made his debut against French club, Paris Saint-Germain, away 2-1, in the first game of the European Champions League group (H) stage, although it was Shaw, 30 starts and 2 appearances that term, as opposed to Telles' 8 and 1 substitute appearance, who'd fill the left back birth against Villarreal in the Europa Cup Final at Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, on May 26th, 2021, after the side had battled through being relegated from the Champions League, finishing third in group H behind Paris Saint-Germain and German Bundesliga club, RB Leipzig, but thereby qualifying for the Round of 32 in the Europa League, Europe's second tier club trophy, after the cup of champions.

 Although the left back rolein 2021-22 was filled almost equally by Telles, 18 starts and 3 appearances, and Shaw, 19 starts and 1 substitute appearance, from August 4th, 2022, ten Hag loaned Telles, taker of United’s second penalty against Villarreal in the 2021 Europa Cup Final, after coming on for Scots’ central midfielder, Scott McTominay, on 120+3 minutes, to Sevilla for 2022-23, 15 starts and 12 appearances, before transferring him for $7,800,000 to Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr for their 2023-24 season, where he was in the team that won the Arab Club Champions Cup Final at King Fahd Stadium, Taif, Saudi Arabia, on August 12th, 2023, against Al Hilal, also of Saudi Arabia, 2-1.

Former Manchester United right wing legend, Cristiano Ronaldo scored both Nassr goals, in the 74th minute, right footed close in from a low driven cross on the right from right full back, Sultan Al-Ghannam, 1-1,  and a 98th minute header from a shot by Ivory Coast central midfielder, Seko Fofana, that hit the crossbar. CR7 had been given a free transfer there by ten Hag on November 23rd, 2022, despite a successful return from Juventus, Italy, scoring 18 league goals in 27 starts and 3 appearances for Solskjaer and £12.85m.

Ten Hag's belief that Malacia and Martínez would be enough left back cover for Shaw seemed sensible in the light of Brandon Williams emergence in United's youth ranks as a rugged long-legged tackler with the capacity to cross strongly from the left, but a loan spell at then Premier League club, Norwich City, 2021-22, 23 starts and 3 appearances, didn't augur well. Williams didn't figure in ten Hag's 2022-23 league campaign and was loaned to England's second tier Championship club, Ipswich Town, for 2023-24.

 Ten Hag's decision to bring on loan Spanish left back, Sergio Reguilón, from London's Tottenham Hotspur, 4 starts and 5 appearances, until January 4th, 2024, looked like double jeopardy when United's own Spanish left back, Álvaro Carreras, 27 starts and 12 appearances on loan to England's Championship club Preston North End in 2022-23, was again loaned, first on September 1st, 2023, to Granada in Spain's La Liga, then on January 17th, 2024, to Portugal's Primeira Liga club Benfica, with the condition of his signing for €6m being that he should play half (8) of the Lisbon club's remaining games in their league season.

 When Luke Shaw was again injured, after making just 12 starts in 2023-24 thus far out of a possible 24, to be replaced by Victor Lindelöf on 45+2 minutes, during the February 18th 2-1 win at Luton Town, with a goal left footed past onrushing Belgian ‘keeper, Thomas Kaminski, from Danish center forward, Rasmus Højlund, after his intercepting of Jamaica's left half back Amari'i Bell's back pass, and a second chesting in Argentine winger Alejandro Garnacho’s shot on 7 minutes, the setback at ‘The Hatters’, Kenilworth Road, was ahead of United's campaign run in, and the F.A. Cup 5th Round tie at Nottingham Forest. With Malacia and Martínez already injured, there was no one to cover for Shaw.

 Renowned, in the early part of the third decade of the 21st century, for playing with inverted wingers, that is, left footed wingers on the right, and right footed wingers on the left, giving the look of inside forwards, rather than wideners of the pitch for the forwards to receive crossed balls to head home from the flanks, and where opposing full backs could be tested to reveal strengths and, as importantly, expose weaknesses, United's extending of the same principle to the left back position, where Portuguese right back, Diogo Dalot, or Sweden's captain Lindelöf, for example, a right footed central defender, being required to fill in, appeared courting disaster.

 As the team lost, 1-2, to Fulham at home, despite an 89th minute equalizer from center back, Harry Maguire, left footed, a yard or so out from the goalmouth, after a right footed cross-shot from wide on the left by playmaker Bruno Fernandes was palmed away two-handed only so far as Maguire by Fulham's German 'keeper, Bernd Leno, supporters were left wondering how Forest could be stopped on their own City Ground, Nottingham.

 From Huizen, metropolitan area of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, although a Moroccan international, Sofyan Amrabat, was a naturally right footed central midfielder for Italy's Fiorentina of Serie A against Premier League West Ham United in Europe's tertiary tier competition, the Europa Conference League Final of June 7th, 2023, at Fortuna Arena, Prague, in the Czech Republic, which the London team won, 2-1. On loan for a fee of £8.5m at ‘the theater of Dreams' since September 1st, the same day that left back Carreras was loaned to Granada, Amrabat was determinedly two-footed enough for ten Hag to stand in at left back as surety for the 89th minute headed goal by Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, 1-0, from a free kick on the left by Fernandes, which set up a 6th Round encounter with Liverpool.

Franz

A classic World Cup encounter was that of Manchester United’s deep lying England center forward, Bobby Charlton, and sweeper in defense, Franz Beckenbauer, who though he’d often reprise his earlier role as a central midfielder, found his niche in soccer history in the role of libero, as it’s called in Italy, for Bundesliga club, Bayern Munich, and the German national team.

 The role of the 'free' back is to ‘sweep up’, that is, take the ball away from the opponent, usually as a last ditch defense, but turned into a counter-attacking position by Beckenbauer, allying his almost prescient ability to know where to intervene, with the ball distributing vision of a playmaker behind the forwards, and who in support would often score remarkable, often seemingly impossible goals, after dispossessing his antagonist, moving up field, exchanging quick one-touch passes in midfield, and one-twos again with the attackers, getting into a place from which to strike.

 In English soccer, known as sistema, ‘the system', in Italy, the role of the ‘sweeper’ arose from the half-back line, for example, the United team that won the league titles of 1908 and 1911, and the 1909 F.A. Cup Final, 1-0, against Bristol City, with a strike from inside left, Sandy Turnbull, from the rebound, after inside right, Harold Halse, hit the bar, had a half-back line of Dick Duckworth, Charlie Roberts and Scot, Alex Bell, across the middle in front of ‘keeper, Harry Moger, as well as wing backs, which became full backs in the modern game.

 The half-back line lasted a long time in soccer, for example, the 1948 United side that won the F.A. Cup, 4-2, against Blackpool, had John Anderson at right half, Allenby Chilton at center half, and Henry Cockburn at left half, while the side that won the F.A. Cup in 1963, 3-1 against Leicester City, had Scot, Paddy Crerand on the right, Bill Foulkes in the center, and Maurice Setters on the left. Whereas the less wealthy Italian clubs adopted the libero to counter a man-to-man marking system pitting players positionally against each other, which favored the strongest individuals, soccer in England moved towards a pair of central defenders and an additional ‘hard man’ in midfield, there to break up attacks before they started, a role filled to perfection for United and England by Nobby Stiles, playing against Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final at London’s national Wembley stadium with center forward for West Ham United of Stratford, East London, Geoff Hurst, scoring a ‘hat-trick', 3, as England won, 4-2, and Beckenbauer finding Charlton too difficult to control.

 The same was true in the 1970 World Cup quarter final at Estadio de Guanajuato, La Martinica, León de los Aldama, Mexico, with England leading, after a cross on the right from Everton full back, Keith Newton, turned in at the near post by midfielder, Alan Mullery of Tottenham Hotspur, on 32 minutes, 1-0, and a goal on 49 minutes, after the break, from another cross by Newton, ran into the net at the far post by Spurs forward, Martin Peters, 2-0, and cruising. However, England’s Chelsea ‘keeper, Peter Bonetti, allowed a long range Beckenbauer shot to slip through, 2-1, on 69 minutes. Manager Alf Ramsey took Charlton and Peters off, reportedly saving the pair for the semi-final, but having the unintended effect of freeing Bayern’s Beckenbauer from defense, and captain and center forward, Hamburger SV's Uwe Seeler, equalized with a back header from a long 76^th minute ball forward into the area from Italian club A.C. Milan’s left back, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, 2-2, before left winger, Hannes Löhr of FC Cologne in the 108^th minute, a.e.t., near post, left, headed a cross from substitute Jürgen Grabowski of Eintracht Frankfurt back across to where goal poaching Bayern center forward, Gerhard Müller, was lurking at the far post to lash it right footed into the net, 2-3.

 Franz, nicknamed ‘the Kaiser’, that is, ‘the Emperor’ by the German media, had antecedents with Bobby, who was a survivor of the Munich air disaster of February 6^th, 1958, when the airliner, British European Airways Flight 609, taking the team back to Manchester, crashed on the snowbound runway at its third attempt to take off from Riem-Munich airport, Munich. The flight was scheduled to refuel in Munich, because a non-stop flight from Belgrade to Manchester was beyond the range of the ‘Elizabethan’-class Airspeed Ambassador. The injured, some unconscious, were taken to Munich's Rechts der Isar Hospital, where 3 more died, total 23 with 21 survivors. Reserve full back, Geoff Bent, England captain, and left back, Roger Byrne, right wing-half, midfielder Eddie Colman, left half, Duncan Edwards, who died 15 days later, center half, Mark Jones, left winger, David Pegg, center forward, Tommy Taylor, and Irish inside forward, Liam Whelan, all lost their lives, while right winger, Johnny Berry and Northern Irish inside forward, Jackie Blanchflower, were too badly injured ever to play again.

 Roger, Eddie, Mark, Duncan, and Tommy had been members of the team that had drawn, 3-3, with Red Star Belgrade, with a goal from Dennis Viollet after 2 minutes, and Bobby getting two more in the 30^th and 31^st minutes, 3-0, at half-time in the away leg of the European Champions’ Cup quarter final, Yugoslavia (Serbia), to secure a semi final against Spain's Real Madrid, who were on their way to five successive triumphs in the competition since winning it in 1955-56. United wouldn’t recover sufficiently to win until 1968, 4-1, a.e.t., against Portugal's Benfica at Wembley.

 Beckenbauer, born in the post-WWII ruins of Munich, Giesing district, would be aware of the tragedy befalling Charlton, before joining Bayern’s youth team in 1959. Following defeat to England in the 1966 World Cup Final, he was in the Bayern side that defeated Scots’ club Rangers in the 1967 European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, 1-0, Städtisches Stadion, Nuremberg, and in the German team that lost ‘the game of the century’ to Italy, 3-4, in the 1970 World Cup semi final at Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, before captaining Germany to World Cup triumph at Olympiastadion, Munich, 2-1, against Holland in 1974. The European Cup was won three times in succession when he was captain of Bayern. In 1974, 1-1, and 4-0, after a replay against Spain's Atlético Madrid at Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium. Retained in 1975, 2-0 against England's Leeds United, Parc des Princes, Paris, France, and defended once more in 1976, 1-0 against France’s Saint-Étienne, at Scotland’s Hampden Park, Glasgow.

 Italy’s catenaccio, ‘door-bolt’ system , offers broad protection for younger players, in terms of their physical, mental, and technical development, and probably helped French generalissimo, Paul Pogba, for example, 2011 F.A. Youth Cup Final winner, 6-3 on aggregate against Sheffield United, before agreeing to join Juventus of Turin, where he won four successive Serie A titles; 2012-13, and Supercoppa Italiana, 2013-14, 2014-15, and Coppa Italia, and Supercoppa Italiana, and 2015-16, and Coppa Italia.

 Belgium’s left footed playmaker, Adnan Januzaj, 15 starts and 12 appearances for 4 goals in 2013-14, receiving more protection there, flourished in Europe, after leaving the ‘sink or swim' English game of uncompromising center backs, and central midfield hard men. Though perceived as defensive, the libero has his advantages, which Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, experimenting with three center backs, after being appointed to succeed David Moyes for 2014-15, sought to introduce. Despite criticism, being replaced by Portuguese manager for 2016-17, José Mourinho, after winning the F.A. Cup Final in 2016, Gaal’s three at the back had some influential impact on the coaching side.

 Traditionally United had two in midfield. A holding ball winner allied to a creative playmaker; feeding twin strikers, and complimenting left and right wingers. As the idea of a ball-playing centrocampista had disappeared with the half back line, there was no sense of a gap in the center of the pitch. The symmetry of two full backs, two center backs, a left and right wing half in midfield, left and right wingers, and twin strikers, created a spectacle the terraced ranks paid to watch.

 However, the desirability of taking hold of the center was demonstrated admirably by Danish ‘keeper, Peter Schmeichel, famous for going up to the halfway line, as an additional midfielder, if United needed a goal, and even into the opponent’s penalty area, scoring a goal, with a header, as he did in the 89^th minute, 2-2, against Russia’s Rotor Volgogrod, in the UEFA Cup Round 1 at ‘the theater of Dreams’, on September 26^th, 1995.

 That’s where Peter was when England’s center forward, Teddy Sheringham, equalizing right inside forward Mario Basler’s 6^th minute free-kick, left, bent right footed around the United wall, low, and inside the right post, 1-0, scored the 91^st minute equalizer, 1-1, steering Wales’ left winger Ryan Giggs’ shot into the net against Bayern in the 1999 European Cup Final, won, 2-1, with a strike from Norwegian center forward, Solskjaer, with only the ball to beat, after Sheringham nodded on England right winger David Beckham's corner in the 93^rd minute, at FC Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium, Spain.

 Spain’s Ander Herrera, bought by Gaal for 2014-15 for €36m from Athletic Bilbao, was utilized by Mourinho as a central playmaker, behind a lone striker, and inside forwards, nominally labeled left wingers, ahead of a midfield two, essentially right and left wing halves, with Paul Pogba, returning for €105m from Juvé, center left. Ousting Spain’s left footed Juan Mata, who thereafter had the role of outside left, inside left, or inverted outside and inside right, Pogba, at the Friends Arena venue, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, got the first, 1-0, in the 2017 Europa Cup Final defeat of Dutch club, Ajax, Amsterdam, with a low left foot shot on 18 minutes, looping over Cameroon ‘keeper, André Onana, deflected off Columbian center back, Davinson Sánchez. Pogba was deployed alongside England’s Michael Carrick, center right, and later Nemanja Matić, £40m from Chelsea from 2017-18. While Armenian captain and right footed winger, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, bought for 2016-17 from German club Borussia Dortmund for £27m, scoring the second, with his right foot, 2-0, an overhead kick on 48 minutes, deployed as an inverted left wing.

 Herrera later played behind the midfield two, as a hard tackling half back, or the stamina of box-to-box Belgian, Marouane Fellaini, brought by Moyes with him from Everton for £27.5m, after his appointment to replace retiring Alex Ferguson for 2013-14, and Fellaini was there in the ‘diamond’ for the 2017 Europa Cup Final. Behind the three up front, Marouane, known for his heading ability in support of the forward line, demonstrated the influence of the ‘free’ central player of European soccer strategy and tactics.

 With 4-3-3 the centrocampista is ultimately defensive, as those nominally in front of the diamond aren’t necessarily forwards, that is, 4-1-2-3, 4-2-1-3, and 4-3-1-2, etc., are centrocampista versions of 4-4-2, and although 4-2-4 means wingers, in the absence of a recognizable sweeper, while the inclusion of a libero still remains an option, the devolution of the diamond is 4-1-4-1, that is, a midfielder in front of the back four, and behind the rest of the midfield, with a lone striker up front, which though protective of the indisputably valuable playmaker, the forecast is not enough goals to look like reign.

 When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, effectively replacing Mourinho from December 19^th, 2019, bought playmaker, Bruno Fernandes, from Portugal’s Sporting CP of Lisbon on January 30^th, 2020, for €80m, the fans anticipations were higher than four semi-final defeats, and defeat in the Europa Cup Final of 2021, 10-11, a.e.t., against Spain’s Villarreal on penalties, with the full-time score, 1-1, after a 55^th minute equalizing strike from Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, after a 20 yard shot from Rashford, blocked, fell favorably to his right boot inside Villarreal ‘keeper Onana's penalty area. The Final was notable for emphasizing a trend. Both wide players were center forwards, essentially functioning in the role of inverted inside forwards, that is, Mason Greenwood on the right, as an inverted left footed right winger, and Marcus Rashford on the left as an inverted right footed left winger.

 Cavani had taken Zlatan Ibrahimović’s mantle of Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer, before following the Swede to Old Trafford for season 2020-21, like ‘Ibra’, as a free agent. Doubts about Zlatan’s fitness before Cavani’s arrival led to his departure on March 23rd, 2018, for US’ Major League Soccer club, LA Galaxy, and United never had the two forwards striking together. Zlatan had sustained a ligament injury on April 20^th and was substituted by France center forward, right winger, and sometime inverted left winger, Anthony Martial, in the 90^th minute of the second home leg of the 2017 Europa Cup quarter final defeat of Belgium’s Anderlecht, 1-0, on 10 minutes through a low, right footed strike, center and left of Spanish ‘keeper, Rubén Iván Martínez, from Mkhitaryan, in the midfield diamond role, found with a pass by Rashford, inside left, cancelled out, 1-1, by Algeria’s attacking midfielder, Sofiane Hanni, right footed on 32 minutes, low from a rebound, when right central midfielder Youri Tielmans’ left foot shot, deflected, hit the bar, but 2-1, a.e.t., after an aerial knock down from Fellaini. Rashford, in the inverted left winger role, with his right instep dragged the ball around and behind his left leg, allowing it to roll into a position where he struck left footed, in the 107^th minute.

 Solskjaer reached the semi final of League Cup, F.A. Cup, and Europa Cup in 2020, before reaching the League Cup semi final in 2021, as well as losing the 2021 Europa Cup Final, replaced for 2022-23 by Dutch manager of Eredivisie Ajax, Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag, after former Leipzig manager, German Ralf Rangnick, on November 29^th was appointed as interim boss until the end of 2021-22. Ten Hag moved quickly to bring, for £82m from Ajax, Brazilian inverted right winger, left footed Antony, to play on the right. Complimenting right footed, inverted left winger, Rashford, United won the 2023 League Cup Final, 2-0, against Newcastle United, with go-getting right midfield, Brazilian Casemiro, bought for the start of the term by ten Hag from Real Madrid for £60m, getting the first, with a header from left back Luke Shaw’s free kick on 33 minutes, and Rashford the second, after being put through by on loan Burnley center forward, Netherlands’ Wout Weghorst, his shot deflected in off defender, Sven Botman, on 39 minutes.

 Beaten at Wembley, 1-2, by Manchester City, eventual winners of the 2022-23 treble of league, F.A. Cup, and European Cup, 1-0 against Italy’s Internazionale of Milan at Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey, with inverted left winger, bought by Solskjaer for 2021-22 from Germany’s Borussia Dortmund for £73m, right footed, Jadon Sancho, Rashford was at center forward. Ten Hag’s deploying of Portuguese right footed right back, Diogo Dalot, bought by Mourinho from FC Porto for £19m for 2018-19, as an inverted left back, for left footed socceroos, on the left side of the line up, was mene tekel upharsin, while buying left footed Danish striker, Rasmus Højlund, for 2023-24 from Italy’s Atalanta for £64m, to be the latest cutting edge of Bruno Fernandes’ diamond, 2 goals in 13 starts and 3 appearances, before United’s 4^th Round F.A. Cup tie at Newport, on January 28^th, 2024, that is, the club’s last realistic chance of silverware for that campaign's trophy cabinet, bluntly showed that an eagle with its wings on backwards might deceive for a time, but it won’t fly well enough to prey with the others.

QB Fernandes

That the Glazer family, who took over Manchester United football club, centered at their Old Trafford stadium, built 1910, adjacent to the Bridgewater Canal, off Warwick Road, north, Greater Manchester, county of Lancashire, bordering the city of Salford, and roughly delineated by former toll gates, Brooks’ Bar to the east, and Trafford Bar to the west, as part of the 19^th century Turnpike system of mercantile traffic, residential exclusivity, and road maintenance, are from the United States of America, was a fact that normally impinged but slightly on the consciousness of the average supporter.

 Malcolm Glazer, born in Rochester city, Monroe county, New York state, whose stake in the club was 2.9%, after purchasing his first tranche of shares on March 2^nd, 2003, for £9m, had 100% by June 2005, costing £790m, and although he died on May 8^th, 2014, in the incorporated town of Palm Beach, on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach county, Florida state, founding First Allied Corporation in 1984, as a holding company, with Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Conrail freight, and former US’ President George H. W. Bush’s oil and gas, Zapata Corporation, for example, as well as the American Football team, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tampa city, Florida, his legacy to his family was inestimable.

 On June 7^th, 2005, sons Avram and Joel, Executive Co-Chairmen from July 1^st, 2005, and Bryan, were first appointed to the board as non-executive directors, and sons Kevin, Edward, and daughter, Darcie, in 2006, although on December 24^th, 2024, Jim Ratcliffe, through his Ineos chemical conglomerate, were given control over soccer, after buying 25% of the club. Despite apparent seeming success with Alex Ferguson, appointed in November 1986, and continuing until retirement at the close of the 2012-13 season, the impact of the Glazers on United was discernible.

 Before 2005-06, under Ferguson’s stewardship, the F.A. Cup, 1990, 3-3 and 1-0 in the replay against Crystal Palace; the European Cup Winners’ Cup, 1991, 2-1 against Spain’s FC Barcelona at Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, Holland, and the European Super Cup, 1-0 against Red Star Belgrade at Old Trafford; the 1992 League Cup, 1-0 against Nottingham Forest; the 1992-93 Premier League championship; the F.A. Cup, 4-0 against Chelsea and league ‘double’ of 1993-94 and 1995-96, 1-0 against Liverpool; the Premier League title of 1996-97; the ‘treble’ of league, F.A. Cup, 2-0 against Newcastle United and European Cup, 2-1 against German Bundesliga club, Bayern Munich, at Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium in 1998-1999, as well as the Intercontinental Cup, 1-0 against Brazil's Palmeiras at the National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan; the 1999-2000, 2000-2001, and 2002-03 league titles, and the 2003-04 F.A. Cup, 3-0 against Millwall, at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, while Wembley was renovated, were won before the Glazers’ takeover.

 The League Cup of 2006, 4-0 against Wigan Athletic, Millennium Stadium; the league title of 2006-07; the double of league and European Cup, 1-1, at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, Russian Federation, against Chelsea, a.e.t., and 6-5 on penalties, in 2007-08, as well as the World Club Cup, 1-0 against Ecuador’s LDU Quito at the International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan; the double of League Cup, 0-0 against Tottenham Hotspur, a.e.t., and 4-1 on penalties, and league in 2008-09; the League Cup of 2010, 2-1 against Aston Villa, and the titles of 2010-11 and 2012-13, were won with the Glazers.  

 Ferguson’s retirement saw something of a drought in terms of success. Fans had seen the appointment of the business suited manager before, with Frank O’ Farrell, 1971-December 9^th 1972, when the joke at ‘the Theater of Dreams’ was that he only came out of his office on match days. Although it was no surprise to the terraced ranks to find David Moyes of Everton appointed to succeed Ferguson, despite the emergence of protégé Adnan Januzaj of Belgium, as a possible future left footed playmaker, with 15 starts and 12 appearances for 4 goals, it was no wonder to see him leave at the end of the 2013-14 campaign, having done what he’d done for ‘the Toffees’; kept the club from being relegated.

 That Malcolm Glazer’s death had a deleterious effect on the club’s chances is moot, although he didn’t live to see former Netherlands’ manager, track suited Dutchman Louis van Gaal, who'd looked more like a trainer than Moyes, after buying Spain’s playmaker, Ander Herrera, for €36m from Athletic Bilbao, win the 2014 International Champions Cup pre-season tournament in the United States on August 4^th, 3-1 against Liverpool, at Sun Life Stadium, Miami Gardens city, Miami-Dade county, Florida. However, Gaal’s experiments with three central defenders and wing backs, as well as inverted right footed left wingers, and vice versa, left fans feeling they’d gotten off lightly, when he was sacked, after winning the 2016 F.A. Cup, 2-1 against Crystal Palace.

 A pattern was beginning to emerge. The Glazers owned division South's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, when that National Football Conference (NFC) winning  team won Super Bowl XXXVII against the American Football Conference (AFC) winners, division West’s Oakland Raiders, 48-21, on January 26^th, 2003, at the San Diego Chargers' Qualcomm Stadium, California, with quarterback, Brad Johnson, who in the American public imagination, corresponding to the role of playmaker in soccer, made an 8 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver, Keenan McCardell, increasing the Buccaneers' lead to 27-3.

 The idea of the playmaker, as equivalent to the role of the quarterback, at the pivotal, central hub of the team, was to predominate at United, whose traditional two man midfield, with a holding ball winner and distributor, allied to a playmaker, behind twin strikers, and dependent on wingers to left and right, was to be modified by the diamond, consisting of a playmaker ahead of the two man midfield, and behind a single striker, assisted by two forwards, after the fashion of the quarterback (QB) in American football, handing the oval ball to a rushing back, who’d run with the ball, or throwing to left and right wide receivers in the anticipation of a touchdown (TD) in the opponents’ end zone, 6 points, followed by a place kick between the posts, 1 point, to emphasize the success, 7 points.

 Successful sans pareil, Portuguese José Mourinho, dubbed ‘The Special One’ by the English press, abrasively won the 2017 League Cup, 3-2 against Southampton, and Europa Cup, 2-0 against Ajax, Amsterdam, at Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, bringing the hard tackling and long range passing and shooting abilities of France’s Paul Pogba back from Italy’s Juventus for €105m, where he’d signed as a free agent, after winning the F.A. Youth Cup with United in 2011, 6-3 against Sheffield United on aggregate, and four consecutive Serie A titles later; 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16.

 However, after converting Herrera into a defensive midfielder, with Belgian Marouane Fellaini, who’d been brought with him from Everton by Moyes for £27.5m, and Pogba ahead of him, rather than Herrera in his former diamond role as playmaker, behind the attack, Mourinho was dismissed in December 2019, after first losing charismatic Swedish goal scoring center forward through injury, Zlatan Ibrahimović, brought from Paris Saint-Germain age 34, as a free agent, and then losing the 2018 F.A. Cup Final, 0-1 to Chelsea's Belgian center forward Eden Hazard's penalty on 22 minutes, despite the herculean efforts of Zlatan’s replacement, bought from Everton for £75m, Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku, 16 goals that 2017-18 season, and 12 more in 2018-19.

 José was replaced by former United striker, Norway’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who the board predictably thought they’d manage, but those who remembered the appointment of former player, Wilf McGuinness, as the legendary Matt Busby’s successor; F.A. Cup winner in 1948, 4-2 against Blackpool, and 1963, 3-1 against Leicester City; league titles in 1951-52, 1955-56, 1956-57, 1964-65, 1966-67, and the European Cup in 1968, 1-1, and 4-1, a.e.t., at London’s national stadium, Wembley, weren’t surprised when Solskjaer didn’t do well in the league, and had difficulties in getting past the semi-final stage of cup competitions.

 McGuinness was sacked, and replaced for the 1971-72 season, when United led the league before New Year, by O'Farrell, after Wilf lost the League Cup semi-final of 1970, 3-4 on aggregate to Manchester City, as well as the twice replayed F.A. Cup semi-final of that year, 0-1 to Leeds United, after two 0-0 draws, with legendary goal scorer, Denis Law, on the substitutes’ bench, and again the 1971 League Cup semi-final, 2-3 on aggregate to Aston Villa.

 History was repeated and Solskjaer suffered a fate similar to McGuinness, and indeed Moyes, who though losing 1-2 in the 2013-14 season’s away leg of the League Cup semi-final at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, despite a headed goal on 51 minutes from Serbia's center back, Nemanja Vidić, at the far post for a corner from the left, 1-1, won the home leg, 1-0, after a corner on the left from Januzaj, back heeled by England center forward, Danny Welbeck, finding Northern Irish center back, Jonny Evans, who headed in on 37 minutes.

 To many fans Sunderland were inexplicably given another 30 minutes. Normally, the game would have been over, as away goals count double, in the event of an aggregate draw, 2-2, that is, as United scored away, 3-2. However, a temporary rule change required a result, and after United’s Spanish ‘keeper, David de Gea, had fumbled right back Phil Bardsley’s low shot along the ground and into the net on 119 minutes, 1-1, Januzaj, playing a one-two with England center back, Chris Smalling, ran on to cross the ball, left and deep inside the area, for center forward, Mexico’s Javier Hernández, to oblige with a strike, left footed at the far post on 120+1 minutes, 2-1, a.e.t., 3-3 on aggregate. Only right midfield, Scot Darren Fletcher, from a quintet that also included Welbeck, Januzaj, England center half, Phil Jones, and Brazil’s right back, Rafael, scored as United lost on penalties, 1-2, a.e.t., in front of an incredulous Stretford End.

 Despite Solskjaer’s buying the playmaker United's American backers had been missing, Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes from Lisbon’s Sporting CP for €80m on January 20^th, 2020, who scored 18 goals in 2020-21, as the team reached the 2021 Europa Cup Final, they lost at Stadion Gdańsk, Poland, 10-11, a.e.t., on penalties, to Spain’s Villarreal, when the game had ended in a draw in normal time, 1-1.

 Together with semi-final defeats for Solskjaer in the 2020 League Cup, 2-3 to Manchester City on aggregate, F.A. Cup, 1-3 to Chelsea, and Europa Cup, 1-2 to Spain’s Sevilla, at German club FC Köln’s neutral RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne, that was failing, like McGuinness and Moyes. Glazers’ owned Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV, against AFC division West’s Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9, at ‘Ray Jay’, Raymond James (Financial) Stadium, ‘The New Sombrero’, Tampa city, Hillsborough county, Florida, on February 7^th, 2021. QB Tom Brady threw, in the first quarter, an 8 yard TD pass, 7-3, inside flank to Rob Gronkowski, tight end (TE), and defensive blocker, that is, when Kansas’ QB, Patrick Mahomes, had the down,1 followed by another TD throw of 17 yards to ‘Gronk’, as eligible Buccaneers' offensive receiver, in the second, 14-3, and a throw of 19 yards to wide receiver, Antonio Brown, for a 1 yard gain, TD, in the end zone, with six seconds of the first half remaining, 21-6. However, cue B. Fernandes, United’s defeat again in the League Cup semi final of 2021, 0-2 to Manchester City at Old Trafford, was failure.

 Former Leipzig manager, German Ralf Rangnick, was invited to fill the role of interim manager until season’s end in December 2022, and Dutch manager of Ajax, Erik ten Hag was appointed for 2022-23, which finished relatively successfully, as Fernandes fulfilled his role as diamond playmaker in ‘the American Dream’, behind on loan Dutch center forward, Wout Weghorst, England’s Marcus Rashford on the left, and inverted left footed winger, Brazil’s Antony on the right, with Brazil’s Casemiro, right midfield, and Brazil’s Fred left midfield, behind him, as QB Fernandes’ United won the League Cup, 2-0, against Newcastle. Only time, and 'diamond Jim' would tell, if 4-3-3 was going to prove a better strategy, than 4-2-4.

1 A QB in possession has four downs to advance the ball ten yards or more to get it into their opponent's end zone for a TD.

The Inverted Winger at Manchester United

The labeling of forwards as inverts began at Manchester United with the arrival of Memphis Depay, a right footed left winger, who technical writers, associated with the coaching side of soccer, defined as an inverted left winger. The choice of terminology was perhaps surprising to psychologists, for example, sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859-1939), whose understanding of ‘invert’ was ‘sexual instinct turned by constitutionalized abnormality toward persons of the same sex.’1 The other interpretation is that of ‘reverse psychology’, that is, a right full back, expecting a left footed winger as his antagonist, would be caught flat footed by Depay’s right foot, for example. 

 Memphis arrived at ‘the Theater of Dreams’, subsequent to Argentine right winger, Ángel Di María, bought for the 2014-15 campaign from La Liga Spain’s Real Madrid for £59.7m by Dutch manager, Louis van Gaal, disappointing, with 20 starts, and 7 substitute appearances, for a return of 3 goals, being sold on to France’s Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain for £44m before the commencement of the 2015-16 term. Along with Depay, £25m from Dutch Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven, came Anthony Martial from Ligue 1 AS Monaco for £36m, a French left footed center forward, who also played on either wing, that is, as an inverted right winger, if he was selected to demonstrate his attacking abilities there.

 Like Ángel, the right winger Gaal rejected, Depay was also found wanting, with 16 starts, 13 appearances from the substitutes’ bench, and 2 goals in 2015-16, but by Gaal’s successor, Portuguese José Mourinho, replacing the Dutchman, rather surprisingly to many, after the club’s defeat, 2-1, of Crystal Palace in the May 21st, 2016, F.A. Cup Final. Depay didn’t figure and Mourinho brought Armenia’s captain, right wing, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, for £30m from German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, which investment was quickly repaid, as Henrikh scored the second goal on 48 minutes, with an overhead kick inside the penalty area against the Netherlands' Ajax of Amsterdam, 2-0, to win the May 24th, 2017, Europa Cup Final at Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden. 

 The emergence of England’s Jessie Lingard on the left wing, although he came on as a substitute for inverted right wing, Spain’s Juan Mata, in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, scoring the winning goal in the 110th minute, with a right footed volley from inside the 18 yard box, meant that Depay, who made only 4 appearances as a substitute in 2016-17, wasn’t missed when his transfer to Ligue 1 Lyon for £22m went through on January 20th, 2017. However, midway through the 2017-18 season Henrikh went to North London club Arsenal in a swap deal for Chilean forward, Alexis Sánchez, who’d score 2 goals in 12 starts and have what looked like a perfectly good goal disallowed in the May 19th, 2018, F.A. Cup Final defeat against West London’s Chelsea, 0-1 to Belgian center forward Eden Hazard’s 22nd minute penalty, after he was brought down by United center back, England's Phil Jones, lunging recklessly after a ball too far away at Hazard’s feet for County Durham referee, Mark Clattenburg, to have any option but to award Chelsea the spot kick.

 Although Mourinho brought Brazilian Fred for the left side of midfield from Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukrainska Premier Liha for £47m before the 2018-19 campaign, he couldn’t be defined as a winger, and the damage was done. Alexis scored only 1 goal in 9 starts and 11 appearances and Mourinho, dismissed on December 18th, 2018, with just 7 wins in 17 games, was replaced by manager of Norway’s Eliteserien club, Molde, former United striker, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who’d scored the winning goal on 93 minutes almost on the goal line, after England center forward Teddy Sheringham’s 91st minute equalizer against German side, Bayern Munich, 2-1, in the May 12th, 1999, European Cup Final at Camp Nou, stadium of Spanish La Liga club, Barcelona.

 With players mainly inherited, with the notable exception of Portugal's midfield maestro, Bruno Fernandes, bought from Primeira Liga Lisbon's Sporting CP for €80m on January 30th, 2020, Solskjaer was able to reach the Europa Cup Final at Stadion Gdańsk, Poland, on May 26th, 2021, but lost to Spain’s Villarreal, 11-10, a.e.t., on penalties, with Spain's ‘keeper, David De Gea, the only player to miss, after Uruguayan center forward, Edinson Cavani, brought as a free agent for 2020-21 from Paris Saint-Germain, equalized on 55 minutes, a low strike from five yards, 1-1, in normal time. 

 Trophyless, despite bringing legendary right wing, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Italian Serie A club Juventus for €13m, European Champions’ Cup winner with United on May 21st, 2008, 6-5 on penalties, a.e.t., and a Ronaldo header on 26 minutes, 1-0, at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, before England midfielder, Frank Lampard’s equalizer, 1-1, on 45 minutes, poking the ball left footed between advancing Dutch ‘keeper Edwin van der Sar and England center back, Rio Ferdinand. Cristiano, who’d notch 18 goals in 2021-22, had been joined by inverted England left winger, Jadon Sancho, from Borussia Dortmund for €85m, and France’s center back, Raphaël Varane, from Real Madrid for £34m, but 7th in the Premier League, after losing away at Watford, 1-4, Solskjaer was nevertheless replaced on November 21st, 2021, by interim manager until season’s end, formerly at RB Leipzig, German Ralf Rangnick, before Dutch manager of Ajax, Erik Ten Hag, was appointed for 2022-23. 

 Cristiano, known as CR7 for his initials and his preferred shirt number, departed, 4 starts and 6 appearances for 1 goal, to Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr of the capital Riyadh, on January 1st 2023, where his illustrious name would receive more luster, scoring twice on August 12th at the King Fahd Stadium, Taif, in the 74th, 1-1, and again in the 94th minute of extra time to win the 2023 Arab Club Champions’ Cup against city of Riyadh rivals Al-Hilal, 2-1. CR7’s leaving was bittersweet, as United’s first success since 2017 came with the February 26th, 2023, League Cup Final defeat of Newcastle United, 2-0, with Marcus Rashford and inverted Brazilian right wing, left footed Antony, bought from Ajax for €95m, on the wings. Brazilian midfielder, Casemiro, bought for £60m by Ten Hag for the 2022-23 season from Real Madrid, headed in a goal from Luke Shaw's free kick on the left on 33 minutes, 1-0. Put through by on loan Dutch striker from Burnley, Wout Weghorst, 6 minutes later, Rashford’s shot, deflected off Magpies’ Dutch central defender, Sven Botman, looped over Newcastle’s German ‘keeper, Lorius Karius, goal, 2-0. 

 The decision to select Marcus Rashford, as a left winger, came as a surprise to many devoted followers, 11 starts and 5 goals in his 2015-16 debut season, and center forward in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, but the purchase of Brazilian left footed right winger, Antony, provided a clue to manger Erik Ten Hag’s thinking. Previous managers had selected Anthony Martial as a center forward, or a winger, depending on injuries, tactics, and strategy, although Ten Hag looked to play Martial as a complementing inverted left winger to Antony on the right, that is, as what fans of soccer in the 1950s would recognize as inside forwards. Van Gaal’s tactical use of three center backs, along with full backs, who’d been wingers, had been similarly deployed as ‘retro’ 1950s ‘wing backs' by a Gaal predecessor, legendary two times European Champions’ Cup winning Scot, then retired, as Sir Alex Ferguson, knighted by England’s queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to soccer, and who’d been initially replaced by Everton’s David Moyes for 2013-14, before Gaal’s appointment. Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia, a former right winger, bought from Wigan Athletic for £16m for 2009-10, before being converted to right full back by Ferguson, and England’s Ashley Young, as a left winger, bought for £17m for 2011-12 from Aston Villa, restyled as a left full back, were converted again by van Gaal to wing backs, with responsibility for wing play in support of Depay, for example, an inverted right winger, effectively in the role of an inside forward.

 With five across the back, that is, a half back line, similar to that which won United the league title in 1909 and 1911, featuring Dick Duckworth, Charlie Roberts, and Scot, Alex Bell, and the April 24th F.A. Cup Final in 1909 at South London’s Crystal Palace, 1-0 against Bristol City, after a shot on 22 minutes from inside right, Harold Halse, hit the bar, and inside left, Sandy Turnbull, struck the rebound past ‘keeper, Harry Clay, room remains for two midfield players, and three forwards, or more daringly, a playmaker, functioning as a deep lying center forward, in the mold of Bobby Charlton, or Paul Scholes, behind the strikers and the wingers, and in front of a midfield two. However, if the wing backs function as wingers, left and right wingers become redundant in the forward line, although traditional with United, used to having a holding midfielder, of the type of Eire’s Roy Keane, alongside the attacking midfielder, for example, Fernandes, as that point of the diamond, where the two wings and the central striker are the other constellating points of the diamond’s structure. 

 With this strategy, either twin strikers were deployed, which means that each striking forward can be the point of the diamond, or there’d be a holding player in the midfield alongside the diamond strategist, with a single striker up front. If the manager deployed full backs as wing backs, for example, England’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the right, signed by Solskjaer for £45m from Crystal Palace, before the 2019-20 campaign, and Luke Shaw on the left, bought for £30m from Southampton by Gaal for the 2014-15 term, it’d be logical to suppose inside forwards in the style of the 1950s United, for example, Eire’s inside right, Liam Whelan, and England’s Bobby Charlton at inside left, during United’s 1955-56 and 1956-57 championship winning seasons, therefore inverted is an appropriate description for wingers in the role of inside forwards playing with the wrong foot, as it were, on the opposite side of the pitch to where they might naturally be expected to deploy.

 Spain’s Juan Mata, for example, as a left footed player, often deployed on the right, after being brought by former manager, David Moyes, from Chelsea, on January 24th, 2014, for £37.1m, that is, as a left footed inside right, and similarly with Antony, had the effect of funneling the play into the center, as the space on the right touchline of the field lay abandoned. As there aren’t any rules barring left footed center forwards, so with inside forwards, which foot used is entirely a matter of preference. Rashford, a center forward by common consent, selected on the left or right, as a left footed inside forward, for example, rather than a twinned striker, alongside Dane Rasmus Højlund, bought from Italy's Atalanta for £64m, as an out-and-out striker for the 2023-24 term, illustrates that there aren’t any wingers per se in the inverted strategy.

 The advent of Alejandro Garnacho, as a left winger on the right foot, suggested tactics and strategy at Manchester United undergo revision. Although Gaal’s experiment with three center backs wasn’t entirely dismissed by Mourinho, as Gaal himself was, after the 2016 F.A. Cup Final win, the idea of starting full backs as wing backs to perform the role of wingers remained fashionable. Unfortunately, the ploy of having three central midfielders, with a diamond behind the main striker, seriously curtails United’s usually all-out attacking style, as more fluidity’s required of the front three; resulting in an inversely proportionate return through placing too much onus on a single central striker to score, that is, goal famine. Although the ideal for United is a two man midfield, with a hard man, midfield destroyer, who can pass, and a diamond; twin strikers, and left and right wingers, or at least left and right inside forwards, who’re left footed left inside forwards, and vice versa, are needed to improve the goal drought. Otherwise the forward line will be inverted to the extent that there’ll be no wide play, which means no balls from extreme angles, crossed over to evade defenders, for forwards to head in, or boot onto, after a wing and a prayer.

 The argument that inverted forward thinking is more cerebral ignores the fact that an outside left with a right foot can’t hug the touchline, evading tackles from the opposing right full back to deliver accurate balls, like that of Wales' Ryan Giggs to Roy Keane, there at the far post on 35 minutes against Brazil’s Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Palmeiras, 1-0, to secure the Intercontinental Cup trophy on November 30th, 1999, at the National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan, against the champions of South America, winners of the Copa Da Libertadores, 4-3, on penalties, after losing the June 2nd first leg away at Deportivo Cali, Valle del Cauca, Columbia, 0-1, but winning the June 16th return leg at their Palestra Italia Stadium, São Paulo, 2-1, that is, after a draw, 2-2 on aggregate.

 Reports that Manchester United actually narrowed the pitch at Old Trafford suggests timidity. Abandoning the wings to play an inverted game is indicative of fear. Moreover, against a team with wingers United’s inability to counterattack down the wings puts too much strain on the defenders, while making for a defensive team, containing as many midfielders as possible, for example, Mata, a left foot brought to replace Giggs, signed upon contract expiry for Turkey’s Süper Lig club Galatasary of Istanbul for the 2022-23 season, having found himself labeled left sided midfield too often to view his role as even that of an inverted winger, that is, as an inside left forward, after debuting against Cardiff City on January 21st, 2014, scoring 6 goals in 14 starts, including 2 goals in his only substitute appearance at Old Trafford against Norwich City, 4-0, before 2013-14 season’s end.

 The emergence of Argentine, Alejandro Garnacho, as a classic inverted left winger in 2022-23, 5 starts and 14 appearances for 3 goals, didn't preclude his appearing on the right as an orthodox, that is, right footed outside or inside right. Without a striking partnership in attack, a challenge for honors is unlikely. Irrespective of the deployment of wingers, two strikers are proven to be necessary for success. Withdrawing the wings in favor of a pitch inversion is indicative of a psychological complex, that is, introversion, which is a term used to describe an approach that is antithetical to that of the extroverted personality, as exemplified by United teams in their thirst for trophies since manager Matt Busby’s first great side beat Blackpool, 4-2, in the April 24th, 1948, F.A. Cup Final, coming back after being 0-1 on 12 minutes through right back Eddie Shimwell’s penalty, when center forward, Stan Mortensen, was tackled from behind, and again at 1-2, after a Mortensen cross-shot in the 35th minute improved upon a United goal on 28 minutes from a Delaney pass and a strike from Jack Rowley, 1-1, who went on to head home his second equalizer of the afternoon on 70 minutes from a quickly taken free-kick, 2-2, before a Pearson shot flew into the net via an upright on 80 minutes, 3-2, and two minutes later Anderson wrapped it up, 4-2.

 The attack boasted Scot, Jimmy Delaney, at outside right, Charlie Mitten at outside left, Johnny Morris at inside right, and Stan Pearson at inside left, and Jack Rowley at center forward, with a half back line of John Anderson at right half, Allenby Chilton at center half, and Henry Cockburn at left half. The full backs were John Aston on the left, and United’s captain, Eire's Johnny Carey, on the right, which was five at the back, and five up front, that is, 1-5-5, including ‘keeper Jack Crompton. The game’s evolution was of the playmaker amongst the inside forwards, dropping back alongside the more distributive half back, resulting in 2018-19 in what United fans were prone to call ‘McFred’, for example, as Fred, and Scot, Scott McTominay, were brought together in a two man midfield by Solskjaer, with Fernandes ahead of them as a part of the diamond with three forwards ahead. The concept of wing backs derived from the need to support the midfield two, which meant either attacking full backs, or defensive wingers, although 1-4-2-4 remained the prevailing paradigm at Manchester United, before the advent of the diamond, controlled by a playmaker ahead of the central midfield pair, for example, Fernandes in front of Fred and McTominay, and behind Rashford. 

 Describing inside forwards, who’re left and right wingers, as inverts, that is, being of one gender and having the traits of another, contains malice, that is, a team with inverts won't get much penetration, as they’ll be confused over whether they’re an inside forward, winger, or midfielder, which can only be detrimental for new stars, like Garnacho, defined as an inverted left winger with a right foot, although that mightn’t be evident to coaches who want a left footed left winger, and a right.

1 Ellis, Havelock Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume II: Sexual Inversion, 3rd Edition, 1927.

The Diamond

The fallacy surrounding Manchester United in recent seasons has been that of the diamond, which is a tactical concept, and a strategical structure, deriving at Manchester United from the way in which Bobby Charlton was deployed in the 1960s, as a deep lying center forward, alongside hard-tackling midfield creator-destroyers, such as Maurice Setters, Paddy Crerand, David Sadler, or Nobby Stiles. Bringing into play with long range pinpoint passes, left and right wings, for example, Johnny Giles, John Connelly, John Aston, and George Best, a former left-wing himself, Charlton, known for success with his long range shooting and passing game in the second half of the 1950s, crossing from the left wing onto the heads and boots of center forwards, Tommy Taylor and Dennis Viollet, during the 1956-57 Championship triumph, combined this with a short passing game of quick interchanges through the middle in the 1960s, carving out opportunities for forwards, who were twinned, that is, either Quixall, Herd, Law, Best, or Kidd, in their period of success. Beginning with the F.A. Cup Final win against Leicester City, 3-1, in 1963, and followed by Championship triumphs in 1964-65, and 1966-67, before a culminating victory in the European Champions’ Cup of 1968 against Benfica, 4-1, at London’s national Wembley stadium, Charlton was United’s original diamond.

 The modern theory of the central midfield attacker, as an auxiliary forward, supporting a lone striker in front of him, isn’t what Manchester United did with their diamonds. Alongside England captain Bryan Robson (1982-91) in English manager Ron Atkinson’s early 1980s United team, which brought F.A. Cup success in 1983 and 1985, after Atkinson replaced Londoner, Dave Sexton, for the 1980-81 season, first sometime England captain (on 10 occasions) Ray Wilkins, and then Northern Irish converted striker, Norman Whiteside, in a two man midfield, were diamonds, like Robson. While Wilkins took the holding midfield role, and later Whiteside, after Wilkins was transferred to Italy’s A.C. Milan for £1.5m for the 1984-85 season, Robson was free to move forward in support of the forwards and vice versa, if Robson remained as the holding player in midfield, Wilkins or Whiteside, and later Paul Ince, when manager Alex Ferguson, coming from Aberdeen, where the Scots' Club had won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983, 2-1, against Spain's Real Madrid, before being appointed to replace Atkinson on November 6th, 1986, bringing Ince from West Ham United for the 1989-90 campaign for £1m, he could move up in support of the attack. The player going up the field was the lower point of the diamond in tactical terms, while the left and right wings were the corners of the diamond, with the striker, if they struck on goal, constituting the sharper end.

 However, there were twin strikers, which was the point that remained underemphasized in the era after Scot Alex Ferguson’s managerial reign, with his 13 Championships, largely dependent on that understanding of the diamond. With England’s Paul Scholes there, alongside Paul Ince, Roy Keane, Nicky Butt, Michael Carrick, or Darren Fletcher, after his debut in 1994-95, with 6 starts, and 11 further appearances from the substitutes’ bench, scoring 5 goals, Scholes went on to amass 11 league titles, 3 F.A. Cup winners  medals, 2 in the League Cup, 2 in the European Champions’ Cup, an Intercontinental Cup winners’ medal, and another in the World Club Cup, with several sets of twinned strikers ahead of him in the diamond.

 Scotland’s Brian McClair (1987-98; 88 goals), bought for £850,000 from Celtic for the 1987-88 start, and Wales’ Mark Hughes (1980-86; 37, 1988-95; 83), bought from Barcelona for £1.8m for the 1988-89 start, after being imprudently sold by Atkinson there for the 1986-87 term, and Mark Hughes and Frenchman Eric Cantona (1992-97; 64), bought from Leeds United for £1m on November 26th, 1992, where he'd helped the Yorkshire club win the last First Division title of 1991-92, before it was restyled as the Premier League, were responsible for United’s early success under Ferguson’s stewardship, with the F.A. Cup in 1990, 3-3, a.e.t., and 1-0 in the replay, followed by the European Cup Winners’ Cup, 2-1 against Barcelona, and the Super Cup in 1991, 1-0 against Red Star Belgrade; the League Cup in 1992, 1-0 against Nottingham Forest, and the League Championship in 1993, followed by the F.A. Cup,  4-0 against Chelsea, and league double in 1994, which Scholes didn’t participate in, as a first team player. The class of 1991-92 were there, though, that is, right back, Gary Neville, midfielder Nicky Butt, left wing, Ryan Giggs, and right wing, David Beckham, who’d been in the teams that won the F.A. Youth Cup Final in 1992, 3-1 away against Crystal Palace, and 3-2 (6-3) at Old Trafford, while Scholes, playing alongside the same players in the F.A. Youth Cup Final defeat a year later, against Leeds United, 0-2 and 1-2 (1-4), would go on to first team success rivalled only by Giggs, who’d been a member of the team for a short while only before the 1991 Super Cup Final.

 Though Scholes hung up his boots at the end of the 2012-2013 term, Giggs opted to play in the 2013-14 season for manager David Moyes, coming from Everton to replace the retiring Ferguson, and became interim player manager, before Louis van Gaal’s appointment of him as his assistant manager, subsequent to Moyes’ dismissal, after a series of poor results, culminating in a 0-2 away defeat at Everton. Giggs’ United beat Norwich City, 4-0, on 26^th April, 2014, but on May 3^rd lost, 0-1, to Sunderland at home, before beating Hull City at home on May 6^th, 3-1, and drawing at St Mary’s, Southampton’s ground, 1-1, on May 11^th, with Giggs making his last appearance as a player, aged 40, putting himself on as a substitute in the 70^th minute against Hull, for a record-breaking 672^nd appearance, scoring 114 goals.

 Gary Neville, and brother Phil, who’d played at right back in the F.A. Cup Final defeat to Leeds, with Gary at center half, Butt, Beckham, Giggs, McClair and Hughes were all there for Scholes, when he made his debut in the 1994-95 season, although Hughes, ending the campaign on, below par for him, 8 league goals, was transferred to Chelsea for £1m, before the commencement of the 1995-96 season. United, with McClair, then deployed in a deeper, midfield role, Cantona, and diamond hard Scholes won the F.A. Cup, 1-0 against Liverpool, and league Championship double once more, and the Championship again in 1996-97, when Cantona then retired, aged 30.

 Trinidad and Tobago’s Dwight Yorke (1998-2002; 48) and England’s Andy Cole (1995-2001; 93), Norway’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (1996-2007; 91) and England’s Teddy Sheringham (1997-2001; 31), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the Netherlands’ Ruud van Nistelrooy (2001-06; 95), were ahead of Scholes’ diamond, as United completed the treble of league Championship, F.A. Cup winners, 3-0 against Newcastle United, and European Champions’ Cup winners, 2-1, against Germany’s Bayern Munich, in 1999, as well as Intercontinental Cup winners, 1-0 against Brazil’s Palmeiras. League titles followed in rapid succession; 1999–2000, 2000–01, and 2002–03, and the F.A. Cup in 2004, 3-0 against Millwall, at the Millenium Stadium, city of Cardiff, Wales, while Wembley, London, was being rebuilt.

 The partnerships of Ruud van Nistelrooy and France’s Louis Saha (2004-08; 28), Louis Saha and England captain (2014-17) Wayne Rooney (2004-17; 183), Wayne Rooney and England’s Alan Smith (2004-07; 7), and Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney, brought League Cup success in 2006, 4-0 against Wigan Athletic, and further successive titles; 2006–07, and the treble of 2007–08 league title, European Champions’ Cup, 1-1, a.e.t., and 6-5 on penalties against Chelsea, with Ronaldo failing to find the net, Chelsea captain, England’s center half, John Terry, slipping in the rain, and hitting the post, and France’s center forward, Nicholas Anelka, having his spot kick saved by United’s Dutch ‘keeper, Edwin van der Sar, so making Wales left-winger Ryan Giggs’ successful penalty the winner, and World Club Cup, 1-0, with a 73rd minute goal from Wayne Rooney against LDU Quito of Ecuador, after Serbian center half, Nemanja Vidić, was sent off for elbowing in the face Argentine striker, Claudio  Bieler, when both were on the floor after a tackle by  Vidić in the 49th minute, who'd convinced himself that Bieler was preventing him from getting to his feet.

 The pairings of Wayne Rooney and Argentina’s Carlos Tevez (2007-09; 19), Carlos Tevez and Bulgaria’s Dimitar Berbatov (2008-12; 48), Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, Dimitar Berbatov and Mexico’s Javier Hernández (2010-15; 37), Wayne Rooney and England’s Danny Welbeck (2008-14; 20), and Wayne Rooney and Dutchman Robin van Persie (2012-15; 48), brought the League Cup, 0-0, a.e.t., and 4-0 on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur, and league Championship double to Old Trafford in 2008-2009, followed by a successful defense of the League Cup in 2010, 2-1 against Aston Villa, and what might have been the last of Ferguson’s titles in 2010–11, when Scholes decided to retire, as a player, to join the United first-team coaching staff, after disappointedly being left out of the sides that lost to Spain’s Barcelona in the Champions’ Cup Finals of 2009 and 2011.

 However, with Darren Fletcher injured in 2011-12, when United lost the title to City rivals on a goal difference alone of 8, with both clubs on 89 points, on January 8^th, 2012, Paul resumed his diamond role in the F.A. Cup 3^rd Round defeat of Manchester City, 3-2, away. In 2012–13 the last of Ferguson’s titles was won, and is how Paul Scholes won with United’s diamonds.

 With the exception of Louis van Gaal (2014-16), appointed subsequent to his role as the Dutch national team manager at the 2014 World Cup, where Holland finished third, beating hosts Brazil, 3-0, Portugal’s José Mourinho (December 18^th 2016-2018), and the Netherlands’ Erik Ten Hag, appointed as former United center forward Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s successor on April 21^st, 2022, after a spell for Carrick as caretaker manager, during which the team successfully negotiated passage into the last 16 of the European Champions' Cup, beating Spain's Villareal away, 2-0, followed by a draw, 1-1, away at Chelsea, on November 28th, and a 3-2 home win over Arsenal on December 2nd, before the appointment of German, Ralf Rangnick, from German Bundesliga club Leipzing, until season's end, with Carrick then leaving, successive Manchester United managers failed to approach the same level of success as Ferguson, primarily because of their failure to understand the importance of the diamond to the team.

 Van Gaal thought he could play three center halves, that is, Wales’ Jonny Evans, England’s Phil Jones, and Chris Smalling, with Argentine center half, or left back, Marcos Rojo, bought from Portugal’s Sporting CP for £16m, left back Luke Shaw, bought from S’ton for £30m, and defensive midfielder, the Netherlands’ Daley Blind, bought from Ajax for £14m, later added to the possible triumvirate, Gaal’s strategy was allied to former wingers, in the role of wing halves, as both full backs, Ecuador’s Antonio Valencia and England’s Ashley Young, had been right and left wingers, before they were switched by Ferguson to defense. A tactic harking back to the 1900s, when United had a famous half back line of Duckworth, Roberts and Bell, who won the Championship in 1908 and 1911, and the F.A. Cup Final in 1909, against Bristol City, 1-0.

 After pre-season success in the International Champions Cup, held in the United States of America, where United beat Liverpool in the Final, 3-1, to become 2014 ICC Champions, Jones, Smalling, and Evans were the three central defenders, with Valencia and Young as wing backs, Fletcher, Herrera, and Mata in midfield, and strikers, Rooney and Hernandez. Gaal experimented with variations, for example, Shaw as the left side of the three center backs, or as an out and out full back, paired on the right with Italy’s Matteo Darmian, bought for £12.7m from Torino for the 2015-16 season, as competition for Northern Irish Paddy McNair, 12 starts and 4 appearances as substitute in 2014-15.

 Darmian could also play center back, as did McNair, and Shaw was tried as a wing back in the style of Young, while the addition of Columbian forward Radamel Falcao for £6m on a season long loan from Monaco improved possibilities in attack, where Herrera was the diamond in center midfield, initially behind the aging van Persie, Falcao, or Rooney, and afterwards Rashford, although it was clear that Rooney had looked to be groomed for that diamond setting. Options intriguing Gaal throughout 2014-15 included the introduction of right winger, Ángel Di María, bought from Real Madrid for £59.7m, and when Di María failed to impress, French left winger, Anthony Martial, from Monaco for £36m, and Dutch right winger, Memphis Depay, from PSV Eindhoven for £25m were brought in before the 2015-16 campaign. Somewhat vindicated, Gaal’s permutating team selections eventually won, 2-1, a.e.t., in the 2016 F.A. Cup Final, against Crystal Palace.

 However, as the line ups were announced, it was clear the Dutchman had accepted the United way, and a team took the field at Wembley stadium employing the usual two man midfield, wingers, and twin strikers. Although Wayne Rooney, United’s all-time top goal scorer, was billed to appear in the Paul Scholes’ diamond role in midfield, behind Marcus Rashford, as the lone striker. Valenica started the match, and Ashley Young came on in the 72^nd minute as a left winger, as Italy’s Matteo Darmian had already replaced Rojo at left back in the 66^th minute, where they flanked Daley Blind, and Chris Smalling, who was sent off in the 105^th minute of extra time for holding onto the left leg of Palace left wing, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Yannick Bolasie, to prevent his progressing up the field, in the center of defense.

 Carrick and Belgium’s Marouane Fellaini were in midfield, with Spain’s Juan Mata and France’s Anthony Martial on the left and right wings, while Wayne Rooney and Marcus Rashford were the twin strikers. England winger Jessie Lingard came on in the 90^th minute for Mata, who’d volleyed in left-footed a cross from Wayne Rooney into the penalty area, headed down by Marouane Fellaini, to equalize substitute Jason Puncheon’s 78^th minute goal in the 81^st minute, volleying in left side of the area at a narrow angle. However, it was Lingard who, in the 110^th minute, right of center, inside the 18 yard box, right footed, volleyed into the top left corner of the Palace net, 2-1.

 The win wasn’t enough to keep Gaal in the manager’s seat, and despite assistant manager, Giggs, being mooted for the job, he left and later became manager of Wales (2018-2022), winning the 2020 British Home Championship, beating England at Wembley, 2-1, en route. José Mourinho, arriving via Chelsea, with fellow Portuguese assistant, Lui Faria, where he’d managed ‘the Blues’ to the 2014-15 English Championship, as well as the League Cup that season, coached the players to win the club’s first Europa Cup Final, against Ajax, 2-0, and England’s League Cup again, bringing as a free agent Swedish striker, Zlatan Ibrahimović, age 34, from French club Paris Saint-Germain, to pair Marcus Rashford up front.

 Zlatan scored twice against S’ton, and United ran out winners, 3-2. Paul Pogba, winner of the 2011 F.A. Youth Cup with United, 6-3, home (4-1), but first leg away (2-2), on aggregate against Sheffield United, before leaving for Italy’s Juventus, had been brought back by Mourinho for £89m to partner Spain’s Ander Herrera in midfield; bought by Gaal from Spanish side Athletic Bilbao at the start of his reign as United manager for £28.85m. However, Carrick and Fellaini weren’t overlooked, for example, Fellaini played in the diamond behind Zlatan in the defeat of Ajax, although Rooney’s farewell to the twin striker’s position occurred in the 90^th minute, when he came on as a substitute for Mata, and it wasn’t until the 77^th minute that Rashford came on for Lingard, in the diamond role behind the striker, to partner Ibrahimović in the EFL Cup win over S’ton, with ‘Ibra’ heading the winner in the 87^th minute, suggesting the traditional pairing of twin strikers at United was being challenged.

 Despite the arrival of Belgian center forward powerhouse, Romelu Lukaku, the decision of assistant Faria to leave, replaced by Carrick for the 2018-19 season, after his career ended with a standing ovation, while being substituted in the 84th minute for Pogba, during the last match of 2017-18, on May 13th against Watford, in which Carrick had been involved in making the only goal of the game in the 34th minute for Rashford, 1-0, and United’s failure to capture the 2018 F.A. Cup, losing the Final, 0-1, to a 22^nd minute Eden Hazard penalty for Chelsea, after center back Phil Jones had clumsily brought him down, contributed to Mourinho’s dismissal, with Carrick being appointed acting caretaker manager, and largely resulted from United’s playing a 4-3-3 system, with Pogba in the center of a midfield that also contained Serbia’s Nemanja Matić, bought for the 2017-18 season from Chelsea for £40m, and Herrera. Chilean forward Alexis Sánchez, ‘El Niño Maravilla’ (The Wonder Child), brought from Arsenal, in an ultimately disastrous January swap deal for the previous season’s Europa Cup winning team’s Armenian right winger, Henrik Mkhitaryan, Alexis would score only 3 times before joining Italy’s Inter Milan for their 2019-20 campaign. Together with Lingard and Rashford, substituted by Lukaku in the 73^rd, who was struggling to regain fitness after an injury, Alexis couldn’t prey with United’s clipped wings, while the squad was similarly lacking in inventiveness from a midfield diamond.

 United had to wait until the League Cup Final of 2023 for their next trophy, with Dutchman Erik Ten Hag, former center back with Eredivisie club Twente Enschede, before being appointed to coach Eerste Divisie’s Go Ahead Eagles to promotion to the Eredivisie in 2012-13. Ten Hag then coached Bayern Munich II to the Regionalliga Bayern in 2013-14, after being runners up in 2012-13, and again in 2014-15, before joining Eredivisie’s Utrecht, where in his first season the side lost 1-2 to Feyenoord in the 2016 KNVB Cup Final. Joining Ajax, Amsterdam, on December 28^th, 2017, the team had already been knocked out of the 2017-18 season’s KNVB. Erik won three out of the next four league titles, after winning the Eredivisie double in 2018-19, with a 4-0 win over Willem II in the KNVB Final; again in 2020-21, with a 2-1 win over Vitesse Arnhem in the KNVB, and the Eredivisie again in 2021-22, but losing the KNVB Final, 1-2, to PSV Eindhoven.

 Legendary Portuguese right winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the European Champions’ Cup with United in 2008, and 18 goals that season, after being sold to Real Madrid by Ferguson on June 26^th, 2009, for £80m, where he won a further four European Champions’ Cups, in 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018, was brought back by manager, Solskjaer, for the 2021-22 campaign for €15m from Italy’s Juventus, where CR7 had won Serie A titles in 2018-19 and 2019-20. However, Solskjaer, whose side were runners up in the league to City rivals, and Europa Cup finalists the previous season, 2020-21, losing 11-10 on penalties, a.e.t., after an equalizing strike from Uruguayan center forward, joining from Paris Saint-Germain, after succeeding Ibrahimović as all-time leading goal scorer there, Edinson Cavani, 1-1, in the 55^th minute, was sacked on November 21^st, 2021, after a defeat, 1-4, away at Watford; leaving United 7^th in the table.

 Ten Hag was appointed on April 21^st, 2022, after German interim manager Ralf Rangnick’s side, on February 23^rd, 2022, drawing 1-1 away to Spain’s Atlético Madrid in the last 16 of the European Champions’ Cup, lost on March 15^th, 2022, 0-1, at Old Trafford. Rashford was ousted from the return leg starting line-up against Atlético by Sweden’s 19 year old Anthony Elanga. Coming on as a substitute in the 75^th minute for Rashford, Elanga had scored the 80^th minute equalizer in the 1-1 draw at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Put through by Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes, in the midfield diamond role, before striking right footed from the right side of the 18 yard box, low past Slovenian ‘keeper, Jan Oblak, into the bottom left corner of the goal, the inexperienced Elanga, 2 goals in the league, and 3 in total, before being transferred to Nottingham Forest for their 2023-24 season, started a game that United, eventually finishing 6^th that league term needed to win at home, and didn’t.

 In the Europa Cup Final, Solskjaer had started with forwards Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani, and England’s Mason Greenwood who, after making his debut for Mourinho on March 6th, 2019, as an 87th minute substitute in a 3-1 away victory over Paris Saint-Germain, Round of 16, second leg, 2-0 behind from the first leg at Old Trafford, had been third top scorer in 2019-20 with 10 goals, behind Martial and Rashford with 17 apiece, although Rashford and Greenwood were nominally left and right wings. With Fernandes as the diamond midfield creator, in front of central midfielders, Scot Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba, Ralf honored Bruno’s talent, but denied United their traditionally successful paired twin striker combination with wingers. When Rangnick’s team drew with Atlético in the last 16 of the Champions’ Cup, Ronaldo and England’s Jadon Sancho were nominally the wingers, although the absence of the second striker was palpable, and the same was true of the second leg at home, which they lost, 0-1, with Fernandes in the diamond behind Elanga for the most part, rather than the more experienced Rashford, 11 league goals that season.

 Ten Hag moved quickly in the transfer market, buying in from Ajax for £49m Argentine center back, Lisandro Martinez, and Dutch left back from Feyenoord for £13m, Tyrell Malacia, to strengthen the defense; Dane Christian Eriksen, as a free agent after a spell with Brentford, and the Brazilian Casemiro from Real Madrid for £60m, strengthened his midfield options, while Brazilian winger from Ajax, left footed, but preferring to deploy on the right wing, Anthony, bought for £82m, gave the team another attacking ploy. However, the role of Fernandes as the midfield diamond remained problematic, with the option of fielding a single winger, and two strikers, or three strikers, masquerading as left and right wingers, invariably prevailing to the detriment of the club’s desire for success.

 Although scoring 18 times in the 2020-21 league campaign, Bruno’s inability to fit into a midfield of two limited United’s striking capability, and the 2023 League Cup Final defeat of Newcastle United, 2-0, with on loan from Burnley, Wout Weghorst, at center forward, who didn’t score, to add to his league tally of 0 in 10 starts and 7 substitute appearances, further exacerbated the issue. As left footed Anthony appeared on the right wing, with center forward Rashford on the left, without a recognized goal scorer in the center. Although Casemiro, with a 33^rd minute header from England left back Luke Shaw’s free kick, and Rashford, with a 39^th minute strike, after being put through on goal by Weghorst, secured the trophy, it left the diamond looking rather offset.

 Moreso, after City rivals, en route to a historic treble, beating Inter Milan, 1-0, in the European Champions’ Cup Final on June 23^rd at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey, after already securing the league title, with Arsenal losing at Nottingham Forest, 0-1, on May 20^th, with a game to play, and four points behind, then beat United, 2-1, in the June 3^rd F.A. Cup Final. United’s four man midfield, including Eriksen, labeled AM (auxiliary midfielder), deployed Casemiro and Brazilian Fred in the center. Fernandes, nominally on the right wing, did score an equalizing penalty in the 33^rd minute. Manchester City left wing, Jack Grealish was controversially adjudged by VAR technology, that is, video assistant referee, to have handled the ball, as England’s United right back, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, attempted to head on. However, with only center forward Rashford and left winger, Sancho, recognizable as forwards, the diamond was perceivably out of its setting.

 United had 9 defeats before January in the 2023-24 term, lying supine in 7^th, and didn’t qualify for the Europa Cup, finishing fourth in their Champions’ League group, although third was required, behind Bayern Munich, Denmark’s Copenhagen, and Turkey’s Galatasaray. With one win against Copenhagen, 1-0, at home, and a lone draw, 3-3, against Galatasaray away, in six games, and already out of the League Cup, losing 0-3 at ‘the Theater of Dreams’ to Newcastle in the 4^th Round, only time would tell if Ten Hag would be saved by another good cup run; or wingers and a pair of strikers.

 With or without a midfield diamond or two, improvement could be seen waiting in the wings. Argentina’s Alejandro Garnacho joined United’s youth system from Atlético Madrid in October 2020 for £450, 000, scoring a career-announcing twice from the left wing in United’s 2022 F.A. Youth Cup Final win over Nottingham Forest, 3-1, alongside center midfield, Kobbie Mainoo, 6 first team starts in the 2023-24 season before New Year’s Eve. Garnacho started 5 times, with 14 appearances as substitute, in 2022-23, before a career-establishing 3^rd minute right footed overhead kick on Sunday, November 26^th, at Goodison Park, Walton, Liverpool, opening the scoring in an away victory, 3-0, over Everton.

PC Ronaldo isn't a Criminal

The concept of political correctness, or ‘pc’ as it’s often abbreviated for social purposes, arose out of the perceptions of ethnic minorities and feminists within the United States of America that they weren’t respected, which resulted in what was called ‘positive reinforcement’, that is, preference was to be given to disabled people and transgender (TG) people, for example, in job applications, which many people found difficult to believe; leaving aside the issue of whether it was acceptable. Of course, the real issue was blacks and women, but ‘pc’ ensured that a host of minorities were preferred to the more normatively able- bodied members of the body politic.

 When Manchester United’s white number seven, red shirt wearing, right sided midfield maestro, Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the European Championship with Portugal in 2016, was accused of disrespecting the club and the fans in comments made on the social media platform, Twitter, the soccer news reporting press were entering into dangerously racist territory. The idea of being disrespected originated primarily within the Afro-American community in the United States, as a means of identifying themselves as a cohesive social force akin to that of the Italian mafiosa for whom respect was a sine qua non in their nefarious business dealings masquerading as legitimate concerns. The notion of being disrespected was equivalent to a declaration of tribal warfare on the part of the gangster accusing another of cursing their existence by demonstrating a lack of respect for their cultural security.

 In News UK’s April 2022 launched Talk TV channel interview with Piers Morgan, super fit 37 year old right-winger, 18 league goals in the previous 2021-22 season, and more recently emergency center forward, ‘CR7’ Cristiano said, in response to a question about fears of being forced out, "Yes, not only the coach, but another two or three guys around the club. I felt betrayed."1 By suggesting that Cristiano had disrespected Manchester United it was the equivalent of a declaration of war, through a curse delivered, like the racehorse’s head, ‘Khartoum’, discovered in film producer Jack Woltz’s bed, as a warning, because Woltz ignores Don Corleone’s request to cast his Godson, Johnny Fontane,2 a scene in a chapter from Mario Puzo’s novel, The Godfather (1969),3 made into a three part movie series (1972, ’74, and ’90) about Italian gangsters in New York city.

 Although describing someone as lacking in respect, or being disrespectful, is acceptable public opinion, describing them as having disrespected seems authoritative in the sense that the guilt of the criminal has been proven and sentencing may begin, which is an attack, as the setting had moved from that of staged public opinion to slander, defamation of character, character assassination, and the derailing of employment prospects amounting to political assassination in the sense that having a voice at Manchester United is a political position, for a future managerial candidate, for example.

 Amongst the mafia their employees are known as ‘soldiers’, which means that disrespecting them is a declaration to their army, ‘Arm me.’ As a consequence of black Afro-American pride Europeans are declaring war on others regularly without understanding that it isn’t just an adoption of a word from the urban dictionary for general community use, and vicariously ethnic gratification outside of the scope of most people’s knowledge and experience, but a call - ‘Army!’

 That the Manchester United fans are known as ‘the Red Army’ is relevant here, as communist Russia’s ‘Red Army’ is a real military force engaged then in invading the Ukraine with its TOS heavy flamethrower system, breathing fire, which wasn’t in emulation of Manchester United’s club logo, ‘The Red Devils’, with its flaming pitchforks, but actually incinerating European resistance to communist enslavement.

 The Old Testament of the Christian Bible has good advice for those who want them to know that they feel disrespected, ‘if your eye offends you, pluck it out.’ (Matt: 18. 9) Although the Old Testament is Judaism, that is, it’s the history and law of the Jews, which is their Torah and Talmud, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ is about actual physical attack and the sanctioned response to it of Jewish law, whereas it’s recognized that it’s often the person who’s hating that’s offensive, rather than the hated object of their ire, which is why the Christian New Testament of Jesus ‘Christ’, ‘the chosen’, is believed to supersede Judaism, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ (Mk: 12. 31) Or, as The Staple Singers sang, in the lyrics to ‘Respect Yourself’ (1971), ‘Respect yourself.’4 If you don’t people will wonder why you take out your ire on others.

 Alleged feelings of being disrespected by Cristiano, ‘never heard of’ German Ralf Rangnick, former manager of Bundesliga outfit VfB Stuttgart in 2000 when they won the Intertoto Cup, and appointed caretaker at United, after the departure of Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who restored CR7 to the club from Itialian Serie A giants, Juventus of Turin for £20 m, and subsequent to the former United and Norwegian striker’s failure to beat Spain’s Villarreal in the Final of the 2020-21 Europa Cup, are meant to be felt as a call to tribal warfare in unassailably devastating attack on a disrespecting racist to disable a very able enthusiastic performer with a huge appetite for success and a tremendous asset to the team.

 That black players, most notably Belgium center forward, Romelu Lukaku, and Paul Pogba, France’s talented 2018 World Cup winning central midfielder, had spiritual problems playing at Manchester United, is symptomatic of the ‘disrespect’ phenomenon, which arising during the managerial tenure of Portugal’s José Mourinho, who brought to the club its only trophies in half a decade, the EFL Cup and the Europa League Cup in 2017, placed the onus on the non-black players to be more respectful, so placing the emphasis further away from winning as the sole objective of the game, whereas opposing teams faced with the ‘disrespected’ haven’t any other goal other than to put several past them, which makes it more difficult than it ought to be for former Ajax Amsterdam’s Dutch manager Erik ten Hag, appointed 2022-23, players, club, and fans alike.

1 Burt, Jason ‘Exclusive: Manchester United consider tearing up Cristiano Ronaldo's contract’, The Telegraph, November 14^th, 7.06 pm, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/11/14/cristiano-ronaldo-manchester-united-considering-tearing-forwards/ .

2 Cooper, Alison ‘Was the Horse Head in “The Godfather” Based on a Real Event?’ howstuffwỏrks, April 2^nd, 2015, https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/horse-head-in-godfather-real-event.htm .

3 Puzo, Mario The Godfather, Chapter 2, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York: NY, 1969, p. 68.

4 Ingram, Luther, and Mack Rice ‘Respect Yourself’, Aretha Franklin, Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, Stax, 1972.

Age Cannot Wither Her

Unbiased observers argue that the managerial regime of Manchester United’s former Norwegian striker, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was unsuccessful due to the absence of wingers. Terrifying opposition defences with their unpredictability, players out wide cause panic. Defenders unable to deal with the calculated confusion created, United’s wings’ devastating skills were utilized by forwards queuing up to put the ball into the net. Although Welsh right wing, Daniel James, came on against Villarreal in the Europa Cup Final of 2021 at Lechia Gdańsk’s stadium, Poland, it was only in the 116^th minute, when the team were struggling to score, after South America’s then 33 year old Uruguayan center forward, Edinson, “‘ead in, son”, Cavani, struck in the 56^th minute to level the contest, 1-1, before penalties decided it for the Spaniards, 11-10, after extra time. Given attacking wing play was what made United famous and successful, the absence of either left or right wings in the team, despite Solskjaer’s moving in early October, 2020, to secure Uruguay’s talented Facundo Pellistri for £8 m from Montevideo’s Peñarol, to be yet another disused right wing, this time on loan to Spain’s Deportivo Alavés, relegated from Primera to Segunda División (Second Division) after Pellistri began there (2020-21), was a scandal contributive to bringing about the board’s decision to let Solskjaer depart.

 Although Solskjaer, a hero for that late winning goal, 2-1, against German side, Bayern Munich, in the 1999 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League Final at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium, Spain, had taken United to the Europa Cup Final, it wasn’t enough. Caretaker manager, England midfielder, Michael Carrick, coach after his exalted playing career at Old Trafford’s ‘Theater of Dreams’ stadium, gave way to Germany’s recent Leipzig boss, Ralf Rangnick, a former Association for Active Games - Verein für Bewegungsspiele (VfB) - defensive midfield player with Stuttgart II (1976-9), that is, VfB Stuttgart reserves, and England’s non-league Southwick (1979-80, while studying English and Physical Education at Sussex and Stuttgart Universities), and first team coach of VfB Stuttgart (1999-2001), Bundesliga, winning the 2000 Intertoto Cup, a then annual summer competition amongst European clubs, taken over by UEFA’s professional soccer organization from 1995, adding to the managerial credentials causing United’s board of directors to appoint Rangnick as interim manager.

 Headed by its American Co-chairmen, Joel and Avram Glazer of the owning US’ family, since the club was bought in 1991, after its shares were floated on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), for £800 m by businessman Malcolm Glazer’s holding company, First Allied Corporation, owner and renter of shopping malls in the States, whose borrowing of £500 m to buy United was, perhaps cruelly, a financial debt to be paid by the club. Founded in 1961, and called the UI Cup in the German-speaking world, originally conceived as the International Football Cup (IFC), the UEFA Intertoto (UI) Cup had been a competition for clubs that didn’t qualify for the UEFA Cup which, founded in 1971, as a replacement for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (1955-71) for teams from European cities promoting trade, and whose qualifying wasn’t dependant on any other factor, preceded its rebooting in 2009 as the UEFA Europa Cup. As clubs that would have competed for the IC gained entrance to the Europa Cup qualifying stages, it was discontinued in 2008, although the idea of a soccer tournament held in cities to promote trade would appeal to business.

 The International Champions Cup (ICC), for example, initially played for by invitation to clubs outside the United States of America, and won in 2014 by Manchester United at the Sun Life stadium, Miami Gardens, East coast state of Florida, on August 4^th, in the Final against Liverpool, 3-1, with goals on 55 minutes, thanks initially to a left-footed cross-shot from England center forward, Wayne Rooney, inside the 6 yard box past ‘keeper, Belgium’s Simon Mignolet, on 58 minutes, cancelling out an early penalty on 14 minutes from England’s midfield creator-destroyer, Steven Gerrard, after United center back, Phil Jones, brought down England left winger, Raheem Sterling, 1-1, and then a left-footed drive from Spain’s left sided midfielder, Juan Mata, in a central position around the 20 yard box, 2-1, before a right-footed strike in a similar position from England right wing, Jessie Lingard, on 88 minutes, 3-1: a money spinner, rather than a genuine competition.

 Like the Intertoto Cup, where toto is German and means ‘betting pool’, each of the participants contributes to a pot of money to be won, through turnstile receipts at the stadium gate, for example, thereby encouraging betting, that is, wagers over who’ll win, which is itself a business activity. Rather than a first tier club trophy, as the UEFA European Cup Winners Cup (ECWC) was, for the European nations domestic Cup winners to participate in from 1960, it largely replaced the non-UEFA recognized Mitropa (1927-40), or Central European Cup , competed for until 1992, when the reformed Russian Federation’s withdrawal from Eastern European territories, held since the official closure of hostilities on May 8^th, 1945, by teams from among the successor nations to the failed Austro-Hungarian Empire, after World War I (1914-18), despite being renamed the Zentropa Cup (1951/55-92), after WWII (1939-45), with Hungary’s ‘Iron Eagle’, Vasas FC, of the capital city Budapest’s district XIII, Angyalföld, ‘Earth Angel’, most successful during the political ‘Cold War’ (1947-91) détente with communist Russia, over its perceived illegal occupations of satellite slave nation states, co-opted as Republics of the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics (USSR), winning six Zentropa Cup titles (1956, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1970, and 1983), but UEFA’s ECWC too was rashly scrapped as a tournament in 1999, in favor of having domestic Cup winners qualifying as entrants to the UEFA Cup, a second tier trophy to the UEFA Champions League (UCL), while the Zentropa, the ECWC and the UI were consigned to redundant status as ‘pots’ of an obsolescent third tier. However, as Shakespeare wrote, 'Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.'1 The original ECWC was the brainchild of the Mitropa Organizing Committee, although recognized as a UEFA competition from 1963, the Mitropa never was. Like the UI and the ICC, it didn’t meet the professional sports body’s qualifying and controlling standards. United’s tacit approval of the ICC, itself abolished in 2020, after the implementation of workable industry fixture lists was handicapped by global pandemic, and the club’s willingness to participate in the American financial ad venture suggests UEFA’s preoccupation with legitimate qualifying competition rounds mightn’t be sound business practice to the Glazers, while Rangnick’s willingness to compete on a business footing for the UI and its crowds of summer holidaymakers helped secure his with the board. Moreover, that UEFA abolished the Inter-City Fairs and Intertoto Cups, while ignoring vested business interest in the developmental potential of the former Mitropa/Zentropa, Latin (1949-57),  and Balkan Cups (1961-94) in Eurasia, as a part of the West’s ‘Cold War’ policy towards the USSR and its former ‘client states’, suggests a huge investment potential bilked by UEFA, which could have been refinanced and profitably reflated as a tier competition for business, rather than as a trophy for standards measured.

 However, Dutch manager of Ajax Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag, a center back, who won the 1990-91 Eerste Divisie (Second Division) with De Graafschap, and the 2000-01 KNVB (Royal Dutch F.A.) Cup with Eredivisie (First Division) Twente, as a player, was deemed a better managerial prospect than Rangnick. Bringing as he did to Ajax, as their manager, the Eredivisie championship and KNVB Cup double in 2018-19, ten Hag was appointed to guide Manchester United’s 2022-23 season’s campaigning. The arrival of England right wing, Jadon Sancho, bought by Solskjaer for £75 m from German Bundesliga team, Borussia Dortmund, for the start of the 2021-22 season, had augured well for the future, and Solskjaer also engineered the return of Portuguese right wing, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Italian soccer giant Juventus of Turin for £20 m, after Ronaldo had left twelve years previously to join other expensive ‘Galácticos’ at Spain’s Real Madrid, where he won another four UEFA Champions League Cups in 2014, ’16, ’17, and ‘18.

 Even though then 36 years of age, Cristiano brightened the loyal red support at the prospect of seeing once again the skills of the genius who, scoring 18 league goals in 27 (3) appearances that 2021-22 season, often as an ad hoc center forward, when no one else could be relied on for goals, had been instrumental in  winning the 2008 European Champions League Final at Russia’s Moscow Luzhniki stadium, against England’s Chelsea of London, 6-5, on penalties, after Ronaldo‘s own headed goal put United ahead, 1-0, before England midfielder, Frank Lampard, equalized to send the match into extra time, 1-1, and the penalty decider ultimately decided by Welsh winger, Ryan Giggs, on as a substitute in the 87^th minute for goal scoring England midfielder, Paul Scholes, who struck the ball into the net, past Czech ‘keeper Petr Čech, after Chelsea’s England center half, John Terry, with a chance to win it for the Blues, 5-4, thanks to a rare failure to score from the 10 yards spot from Ronaldo, had slipped on his arse in the rain, and saw his shot hit United’s Dutch ‘keeper Edwin van der Sar’s post.

 It had been 2-2, with Argentine center forward, Carlos Tevez, formerly of Boca Juniors (2002-05) and Corinthians of Brazil (2005-07), first sblood, 1-0, being replied to by captain of Germany’s central midfielder, Michael Ballack, 1-1. He’d lead his national team to defeat in the 2008 European Championship Final against Spain, 0-1, at the Ernst-Happel stadium, Vienna, Austria, named for Rapid Wien’s center back (1943-56, 1956-59), who in 1970 managed Feyenoord of the Dutch Eredivisie to European Champions Cup success, a feat he achieved again in 1983 with Hamburg SV of Germany’s Bundesliga. Brazilian defender, Juliano Belletti, before the expectant Luzhniki  crowd, on as a substitute in the 124^th minute for Chelsea’s French defensive midfielder, Claude Makélélé, replied to Carrick’s successful penalty, 2-2, before Ronaldo’s miss allowed Lampard to make it 2-3 in favor of Chelsea. England’s right sided midfielder, Owen Hargreaves, bought from Bayern Munich at the beginning of the season for £17 m, got United’s 3^rd, 3-3, before Chelsea left back, England’s Ashley Cole, made it 4-3 to the London team.

 Although Brazilian winger, Nani, that is, Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha, on in the 101^st minute for Rooney, got United’s 4^th, 4-4, Terry then had that disaster when he could have won it for the Blues, 5-4. Brazilian midfielder, Anderson, that is, Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, on as a 125^th minute substitute for right back, England’s Wes Brown, who’d sent in the cross for Ronaldo’s headed opener on 26 minutes, got United’s 5^th and ahead for the first time in the now ‘sudden death’ penalty phase, 5-4, and after Salomon Kalou’s strike, on as substitute for French left winger, Florent Malouda, in the 92^nd minute, 5-5, Giggs’ successful spot kick in reply to that of the Ivory Coast forward, 6-5, meant that French center forward, Nicholas Anelka, on as a 99^th minute substitute for England’s Joe Cole on the right of Chelsea’s midfield, had to score to level the contest, but his penalty kick was saved by ‘keeper Edwin to give United their third Champions League title, 6-5.

 It was the addition of Brazil’s left footed Antony, that is, Antony Matheus dos Santos, that signaled a future with a replacement for enduring Welsh left winger, Ryan Giggs, 24 seasons and two UEFA Champions League victories (1999, and 2008), between 1990-91 and 2013-14, when Giggs was even player manager, after Scot’s legend, Alex Ferguson, who’d taken the club to the last 13 of its league titles since his appointment from Aberdeen on December 6^th, 1986. Antony, arriving for £82 m from Ajax, where Erik ten Hag had been his manager, at the commencement of the 2022-23 term, gave United as many attacking options as before Ferguson’s retirement, although ten Hag also moved for the creative midfield vision of Denmark’s 30 year old Christian Eriksen, coming on a free transfer from ‘The Bees’, English Premier league outfit, Brentford Town, as the new United manager also strengthened his defence, with center back, Argentine Lisandro Martinez, coming from Ajax for £48 m, left back, Tyrell Malacia, again coming from Ajax for £15 m, and Brazilian defensive midfielder, called Casemiro, which is a nickname differing from his family’s, translating variously as ‘Emír’, and/or ‘Destroyer’, that is, Carlos Henrique Casimiro, coming from Real Madrid for £70 m.

 Ronaldo’s refusal to come onto the field as substitute against London’s Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League game of Wednesday, October 19^th, 2022, seemed fateful to the crowded onlookers. The team won, 2-0, through goals from Brazil’s midfielder, Fred, that is, Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, and Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes, a deep-lying center forward in the style of former United and England captain, Robert Charlton, winner of the European Cup in 1968 against Portugal’s Benfica, 4-1, with two from Charlton himself, the second a rare header from ‘Bobby’, who had won the 1966 World Cup with England, also at Wembley stadium, London, 4-2, against Germany. But Cristiano’s days and nights in the red shirt now seemed numbered. Despite Sancho’s relative paucity of goals for the team, just 3 league goals in 20 (9) appearances in 2021-22, in comparison with the Portuguese’s prolific marksmanship, age was on his side at 22 years.

1 Shakespeare, William, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, Scene 2, ‘Flourish. All but Enobarbus, Agrippa, and Maecenas exit.’ l. 275-7, 1607.

Giggs or Islam

The retirement of Wales’ left winger, Ryan Giggs, meant a gap on the Manchester United left wing that needed to be filled. Giggs made 672 appearances for 114 league goals between the 1990-91 season, in which he debuted, as a seventeen year old former England school boy international, and then Wales Under 18 international, substituting for left full back, Denis Irwin, on March 2^nd, 1991, in a defeat, 0-2, to Everton at Old Trafford’s ‘theater of dreams’, before  scoring in his only other and full appearance that campaign, a derby defeat of Manchester City, 1-0, on May 4^th, 1991, and his farewell in the 2013-14 season, during which he made 6 (6) appearances, and finally in the role of player manager, putting himself on the field as a 40 year old 70^th minute substitute for Welsh debutante, forward Tom Lawrence, in a 3-1 home defeat of Hull City on May 6^th, 2014.

 Former Everton manager, David Moyes, had been chosen by the board as replacement for retired managerial legend, Alex Ferguson, who in 2012-13 had brought the last of his 13 league titles to the club, following his own appointment as manager at Manchester United on November 6^th, 1986. Moyes was sacked on April 22^nd, 2014, largely because of a defeat to Sunderland at Old Trafford in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final, 1-2, on penalties, with all those chosen to take the spot kick failing, that is, England center forward, Danny Welbeck, Belgian midfielder, Adnan Januzaj, England center back, Phil Jones, and Brazilian left back, Rafael da Silva; all apart from central Scots’ midfielder, Darren Fletcher, that is, and after the teams had drawn after extra time, 3-3, on aggregate, with each club winning their home leg, 2-1.

 Giggs retired with a sackful of medals after his debut for Ferguson. Those thirteen league titles; in 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11, and 2012-13; four FA Cups; in 1993-94, 1995-96, 1998-99, and 2003-04; three League Cups; in 1991-92, 2005-06, and 2008-09; two European Champions’ Cups; in 1998-99, and 2007-08; the European Super Cup in 1991; the Intercontinental Cup in 1999, and the FIFA World Club Cup in 2008. Included in the trophy haul were three league and cup ‘doubles’; in 1994, 1996, and 1999. Also the ‘treble’ of FA Cup, league championship, and European Champions’ Cup in 1999; the league championship and European Champions’ Cup ‘double’ in 2008, and the league championship and League Cup ‘double’ of 2008-09. 

  However, although the value of Giggs’ contribution from his debut as a seventeen year old is indubitable, especially alongside England right wing, David Beckham, who made 265 league appearances for the club, scoring 62 goals, between the 1994-95 and 2002-03 seasons, debuting on 23^rd September, 1992, as substitute for Russian Federation winger, Andrei Kanchelskis, against Brighton & Hove Albion in the League Cup, 2^nd round 1^st leg, seventeen year old England schoolboy Beckham, signing a professional contract after a draw, 1-1, away at the Goldstone Ground, due to a 36^th minute opening goal from England left winger, Danny Wallace, equalized through a header from Matthew Edwards, the absence of an adequate replacement out wide on the left became palpable.

 Apart from the evident value of wingers to success for Ferguson, who always had four or five to choose from during his tenure, the apparent failure of successive managerial regimes to find a left wing has an added cultural dimension; Islam. The emergence of players whose cultural obligations are other than western Christianity is both welcome and symptomatic of an underlying malaise unrecognized by soccer chiefs. Perhaps the most prominent are Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester United’s own central midfield giant, Paul Pogba, winner with France of the 2018 World Cup Final in Moscow at the Russian Federation’s Luzhniki Stadium, against Croatia, 4-2, after being a victorious opening goalscorer on 18 minutes at the Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, with Manchester United during their Europa Cup Final defeat of Ajax of Amsterdam, 2-0, the previous 2016-17 season.

 The contribution of Moslem players is undoubted. Egypt’s center forward and captain, Salah at Liverpool, has a clean sweep of all of the major English and European trophies; the league championship in 2019-20; the European Champions’ Cup in 2018-19; the European Super Cup in 2019, and the FIFA World Club Cup in 2019. Liverpool hadn’t won the league title since 1989-90 before Salah, who got to add those medals to his collection after netting 73 times in 108 league games. However, the Moslem religion is devoted to right hand correction; everything is right justified: a word processing term because Arabic, like Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Bible, is written from right to left. Although that can’t explain the absence of a left winger at Manchester United, it does indicate a source of resistance to left and right western thinking, which is based on reading and writing from left to right; for example, successive Manchester United managers preferred to deploy inside forwards, and left footers, like Spain’s Juan Mata, brought by Moyes for £37.1m from Chelsea on January 24^th, 2014, were required to serve as right inside forwards, while right footers served as inside lefts; a bizarre inversion denying the value of the left footer on the left wing, who’d been Ashley Young at the time of Giggs’ retirement, but like Ecuador’s winger Antonio Valencia on the right, Young was withdrawn into the full back position, so leaving the left wing yawningly vacant once more.

 The appearance of the term ‘winger’ to denote any player, whether left footed or right, who practiced his art out wide, is similarly symptomatic of a desire to neutralize the especial qualities relating to the artistry of the left sided player. Common explanations heard from players include ‘two-footed’, ‘either foot’, ‘both feet’, and ‘either wing’, while the supporters want to know who it is that the manager can select to play wide out on the left? Wales’ right winger, Daniel James, arrived at Old Trafford for £15m from Swansea on June 6^th, 2019, and was sold to Leeds United for £25m on August 31^st, 2021, after 39 (11) games and 6 goals, and his replacement, Jadon Sancho, arriving from German Bundesliga club Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund for £73m on July 23^rd, replacing James as a substitute in a 5-1 win over Leeds on August 14^th, 2021, was described as a right winger who’d played on the left for Dortmund. Presumably because the Bundesliga outfit had succumbed to Moslem pressure themselves and so a left winger wasn’t selectable.

 The emergence of the single winger team with the player who, right footed, can ply his skills on either side of the pitch, is a symptom of a wider cultural issue. To what extent are left wingers being stifled out of the game by religious zealots espousing the expertise of the soccer tactician? United’s choice after Moyes was Dutch national team boss, Louis van Gaal, who signed for the right wing Argentina’s Ángel Di Maria from Real Madrid on August 26^th, 2014, for £59.7m. Di Maria was transferred to French Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain for the start of the 2015-16 season with 20 (7) league appearances for 3 goals, after being sent off in an FA Cup  6^th round defeat to Arsenal at home, 1-2, which only tended to emphasize the unbalanced ineffectiveness of a bird at prey with but a single wing. Teams playing against the ‘red devils’ quickly realized that the way to nullify United was to turn to the right and sweep the wing off the field. With no alternative avenue of attack on the left, and despite Di Maria’s obvious strength and power, any tenacious full back, wing back or half back, could adopt the renowned ‘bite yer legs’ style of Leeds’ phenomenally tough England center back, Norman Hunter (1962-76), and clatter him out of the game, a fate which Di Maria’s German replacement from  Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V., Bastian Schweinsteiger, also experienced after his arrival on July 13^th for the 2015-16 season for £13.5m. Bastian made 13 (5) appearances for 1 goal before leaving for the United States’ Major League Soccer (MLS) side, Chicago Fire, on March 21^st, 2017, while at Bayern he’d won eight Bundesliga championships; in 2002-03, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009-10, 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, and the European Champions’ Cup in 2012-13.

Memphis Depay, making 16 (13) league appearances for 2 goals, similarly lasted a year, after being signed for the 2015-16 campaign for £25m from Philips Sport Vereniging (Philips Sports Union), Dutch Eredivisie club, 'Lightbulbs' PSV Eindhoven. Although United won the FA Cup that season, 2-1, against Crystal Palace at London’s Wembley Stadium, left footed winger Mata was deployed on the right, and got the equalizing goal, 1-1, volleying in with his left on 81minutes, after a cross from the right wing by England center forward, Wayne Rooney, chested down to Mata in the Palace box by Belgian midfielder, Marouane Fellaini, subsequent to Palace’s opener on 78 minutes. A cross on the right from Palace full back, Joel Ward, had been met with a controlled left footed volley on the left of the United penalty area from Jason Puncheon, 0-1, who’d come on for France’s attacking midfielder, Yohan Cabaye, on 72 minutes. France’s right footed winger, Anthony Martial, similarly deployed inexplicably on the left, suggested the malaise of left footed inside right and right footed inside left was destined to cripple United’s wings permanently. Although right wing, Jessie Lingard, came on for Mata in the 90^th minute to volley the winning goal in the 110^th minute of added extra time from the edge of the Palace 18 yard box, van Gaal was sacked and replaced by Portuguese legend, José Mourinho, who’d already won the European Champions’ Cup in 2003-04 with Portugal’s Porto and again in 2009-10 with Italy’s Inter Milan.

Mourinho moved quickly in the transfer market to secure the services of Armenia’s captain, right winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan, from Borussia Dortmund for £30m, an investment which paid dividends throughout the 2016-17 season as United won the League Cup, 3-2, against Southampton, and the Europa Cup against Ajax, 2-0, with Henrikh hooking the ball in over his head for the second of the night on 48 minutes, after Pogba’s deflected drive, looping over the ‘keeper’s head, had opened the scoring on 18 minutes. United finished 6^th in the league, and although the team made it to the 2017-2018 season’s FA Cup Final, an Eden Hazard penalty, 0-1, after the Chelsea forward was clumsily brought down on 22 minutes by England center back Phil Jones’ sliding tackle, ultimately resulted in Mourinho’s departure on December 18^th, 2018, with only 7 wins in 17 games at the start of the 2018-19 season.

 Former United and  Clausenengen Fotballklubb (CFK) forward (1990-95), then managing his Kristiansund birthplace Møre og Romsdal  county’s Molde Fotballklubb (MFK), which he played for between 1995 and 1996 in Norway’s premier Eliteserien league, scoring 31 goals in 42 games, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who Ferguson signed for £1.5m halfway through the Eliteserien April-October 1996 season on July 29^th, scored the last gasp winner of the 1999 European Champions’ Cup Final in the 93^rd minute against Germany’s Bundesliga side, Bayern Munich, 2-1, after England center forward, Teddy Sheringham, had struck in the 91^st minute to equalize Bayern’s right forward Mario Basler’s 6^th minute strike from a free kick, and was appointed manager at Old Trafford on December 19^th, 2018. 

 Solskjaer inherited the services of Frederico Rodrigues de Paula Santos, Brazilian left footed midfielder, Fred, bought by Mourinho for £47m from the Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk on June 15^th, 2018, and secured the transfer of right winger, Daniel James, from Swansea. The club suffered defeat at the semi-final stages of three competitions; the League Cup, the FA Cup, and the Europa Cup. However, it’s unlikely that the team would have got so far without Solskjaer’s inspired late addition of high scoring creative Portuguese midfielder, Bruno Fernandes, who had 8 league goals from 14 appearances, after being transferred from Portugal’s Sporting CP on 30^th January, 2020, for £67.6m.

 Despite making it to the 2020-21 Europa Cup Final at the Gdańsk Stadion, Poland, Solskjaer’s United lost on penalties, 10-11, to Spain’s Villareal, with ‘keeper de Gea missing the last spot kick, after added extra time when the match had finished, 1-1, thanks to an opportunist 55^th minute equalizing strike from 33 year old Uruguay center forward, Edinson Cavani, brought on a free transfer from Paris Saint Germain, on October 5^th, 2020, after a January 15^th back injury incurred in a 3^rd round FA Cup replay win over Wolves, 1-0, and which put England center forward, Marcus Rashford, out of the game for three months, revealed weaknesses in the reserve strikers. Although United finshed runners up in the league title race in 2020-21, Fred’s eclipsing Mata as the favored left foot only underscored the fact that United hadn’t found a left wing of the caliber of Welsh wizard, Ryan Giggs.

The return of Portuguese right winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Italy’s Juventus on August 31^st, 2021, for £12.85m, where he’d won two consecutive Serie A titles, after being transferred from Real Madrid for the 2018-19 season, where he’d won four European Champions’ Cups; in 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17, and 2017-18; three World Club Cups; in 2014, 2016, and 2017, and who’d bought him from Manchester United before the 2009-10 season for £80m, was welcomed, but still it indicated a preoccupation with the right side of midfield, rather than the balanced wing play of alternating left and right upon which United had always traditionally thrived, and Solskjaer was sacked on November 21^st, 2021.

 Although Ralf Rangnick, manager of the German Bundesliga club RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V., when the Saxony club, known as RB (Red Bull) Leipzig, because founded in 2009 by Austrian energy drinks manufacturer, Red Bull GmbH, lost the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB)-Pokal (Cup) Final at the Olympiastadion, Berlin, 0-3, to FC Bayern in 2018-19, he’d previously won the equivalent of the German FA Cup against Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. (MSV) Duisburg, at the Olympiastadion, 5-0, as manager of Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V. (FC  Schalke 04) in 2010-11, which success with S04 seemed qualified enough to the United board, and Rangnick succeeded eight day caretaker, former England and United midfielder, coach Michael Carrick, as Old Trafford’s interim manager on November 29^th, 2021.

Pretending That There's A Future And That There's No Today

The rot began in 2017-18 when José Mourinho inexplicably left top-scoring Belgian international center forward, Romelu Lukaku, out of the Manchester United team that lost, 0-1, to Chelsea, and that 22^nd minute Eden Hazard penalty in the FA Cup Final of 2018, after center back Phil Jones' reckless sliding tackle, which left the club without a trophy that season and led to the manager's dismissal halfway through the 2018-19 campaign.

 The appointment as manager of former reds' striker, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who scored that last gasp winner against Germany's Bayern Munich to win the 1999 European Champions League Final, 2-1, seemed at first inspirational on the part of the club's owner from the United States, Malcolm Glazer, whose American Football franchise, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Florida, won the 2021 Super Bowl Final at home in Tampa's 'The New Sombrero', Raymond James Stadium.

 The National Football Conference (NFC) qualifiers, finishing second in the NFC division South, and entering the play-offs as a 'wild card', that is, amongst the best three teams that weren't division winners, qualified as champions of  the NFC by beating North division winners, the Green Bay Packers, 31-26, to reach Super Bowl LV, where they faced AFC division West winners, Kansas City Chiefs, champions of the American Football Conference (AFC), by virtue of their beating AFC East division winners, the Buffalo Bills, 38-24. The Buccaneers won the National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl against the Chiefs, 31-9, while Malcom Glazer's sons, Joel and Avram, remained co-chairmen at Old Trafford.

 2021 wasn't such a celebratory year for Manchester United. After taking over just before Christmas 2018, Solskjaer had steered the team through to the quarter finals of the Champions League, defeating Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), despite drawing on aggregate 3-3 over the home and away legs of the tie in the round of the last sixteen clubs still remaining in the competition, and losing 0-2 at their Old Trafford stadium in front of the die hard fans of the Stretford End stand, because PSG were beaten in France, 3-1. Goals scored away from home counting double, United progressed to a quarter-final against Spanish giants, Barcelona, but lost 0-1 at home, and 0-3 at Camp Nou stadium, that is, 0-4 on aggregate. As Ole took over at season's midpoint, pundits reserved judgment on United's finishing 6^th under his managership; at least until the conclusion of a full term.

 Mourinho's legacy was significant. In his first season, 2016-17, the side won the Europa Cup, 2-0, against the Dutch club Ajax of Amsterdam at Friends Arena, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, and the League Cup at London's Wembley stadium against Southampton, 3-2, with Sweden's center forward, Zlatan Ibrahimović, the inspirational free transfer from PSG, aged 34, rocking the stands with his ineffable goal scoring talent.

 Midfield artisan, Paul Pogba, who'd win the 2018 World Cup with France against Croatia, England's semi-final conquerors (1-2, a.e.t.), at the Luzhniki stadium, Moscow, 4-2, where United had won the 2008 UCL Champions League, and had won four straight Italian Serie A titles with Juventus between 2012 and 2016, had been returned to United for a fee of €105m, where he'd won the 2011 Youth Cup Final, 6-3 on aggregate against Sheffield United (2-2, 4-1), with the away leg at Bramall Lane being played first, alongside winger, Jessie Lingard, who converting a right wing cross from Pogba had opened the scoring for the youth team against 'The Blades' in the 14^th minute.

 An initial strike rebounding off the 'keeper gave Lingard a second opportunity, and the ball was judged by the referee to have crossed the line under the bar, despite a defender's attempt to keep it out, Harry Maguire. While Pogba was at Juvé, Jessie's opportunist right footed strike, in the second half of added extra time, won the FA Cup, 2-1, in the 110^th minute of the 2016 Final at Wembley against Crystal Palace for the manager Mourinho replaced, former Dutch national team boss, Louis Van Gaal.

 José's lack of patience with Ibrahimović ultimately led to the manager's own downfall. The Swede incurred a cruciate ligament injury, just before the end of normal time in the second leg of the Europa League quarter final at Old Trafford against Anderlecht. Level at 2-2 on aggregate, Marouane Fellaini's header, back heeled by Rashford with his right boot to make space for his left to strike low along the ground in the six yard box on 107 minutes, the club went through, 3-2, to the semi-final against Spain's Celta Vigo, but Zlatan  missed most of the 2017-18 campaign. 

 Standing over a free-kick to the right of the Celta penalty area in the away leg of the semi-final, as Daley Blind made a decoy run over the ball in front of Marcus, the Manchester United center forward lashed the ball over the wall right footed, past the outstretched left hand of Vigo 'keeper, Sergio Alvarez, and inside the far post. Despite Ibrahimović's absence, the away goal from Rashford on 67 minutes, 0-1, meant Fellaini's headed goal from Rashford's cross on 17 minutes in the second leg of the semi at Old Trafford, despite Celta Vigo center back, Fecundo Roncaglia, glancing in a header from a corner on 85 minutes, sent United through to the Final against Ajax, 2-1 on aggregate.

 Giving Ibrahimović a free transfer to the United States' Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise, Los Angeles (L. A.) Galaxy, where he confounded doubters about his fitness to score 22 and 30 goals in consecutive terms, before returning to Europe and Italian giants, A. C. Milan, for whom he scored 10 and 15 goals in the two seasons before 2021-22, was undoubtedly the mistake that cost Mourinho his tenure at Manchester United.

 Mourinho's replacement for Ibrahimović, Romelu Lukaku, coming from Everton on July 10^th, 2017, for €88m, scored 16 league goals in 2017-18, but inexplicably didn't make the losing FA Cup Final team, and got 12 the following season when Ole replaced the eccentric Mourinho on December 19^th, 2018. Romelu went to Internazionale of Milan, and along with similarly offloaded United talents, forward Alexis Sánchez of Chile, England left winger/left back, and former captain, Ashley Young, and Italian fullback Matteo Darmian, who'd played at left back in the Europa Cup Final victory over Dutch club Ajax in 2017, won the Serie A title in 2020-21.

 Belgian midfielder, Marouane Fellaini, bought by Ferguson's immediate successor, David Moyes, from his previous club, Everton, for £27.5m on September 2^nd, 2013, and Dutch defender, Daley Blind, bought from Ajax by Gaal for £13.8m on September 1^st, 2014, both of whom had been instrumental in bringing the Europa Cup and League Cup to Old Trafford in Mourinho's first season, and had been in the team that beat Crystal Palace, 2-1, in the 2016 FA Cup Final, were deemed surplus to requirements by Solskjaer by the end of season 2018-19, although Brazilian Fred, bought from the Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk for £47m by Mourinho, and who'd made his debut in a victory, 2-1, over Leicester City, on August 11^th, 2018, remained to give depth in midfield selection, Lukaku, Darmian, and Young, with Sánchez on loan at Inter before the move was made permanent, were let go by Ole by 2019-20 season's end. United's loss was Inter's gain and the club didn't win a trophy in 2020-21, although they did reach the Europa Cup Final against Spain's Villarreal. A 1-1 draw at Stadion Gdańsk, Poland, after extra time, was followed by a penalty shoot out in which United's Spanish 'keeper, David de Gea, was the only one of the twenty-two players on the pitch to fail, so the trophy went to Villarreal, 10-11.

 Marcus Rashford was the teenage center forward that had emerged during Gaal's tenure, and Solskjaer's major addition to the squad inherited was Bruno Fernandes from Portugal's CP Sporting of Lisbon for €80m on January 30^th 2020, an extraordinarily gifted attacking midfield player in the Paul Scholes mold to rival strikers for goals. Ole had made an attempt to resolve defensive issues with the arrival of England center back from Leicester City on August 5^th, 2019, for £80m, Harry Maguire, and Wales' Daniel James had been brought from Swansea City on June 12^th, 2019, for £15m to give width to the team on the right wing, while Mason Greenwood was emerging as a teenage striker to compete alongside Rashford for goals up front.

 Only the addition of 33 year old Uruguay forward, Edinson Cavani, allowed to leave PSG, where he won six Ligue 1 titles, on a free, recognizably improved the squad for the 2021-22 season, as it was he that scored the goal to equalize against Villarreal, 1-1, in the 2021 Europa Cup Final, but hopes rose when super fit 36 year old Portuguese right winger 'CR7', Cristiano Ronaldo, agreed to move for the start of the 2021-22 campaign from Juventus to Old Trafford for £12.85m. Ronaldo, who'd brought more honor to the United number 7 shirt, made famous by 1968's inspirational European Cup winning winger, George Best, amongst others, including le god, French striker, Eric Cantona (1992-7), had arrived from CP Sporting for £12.25m for the 2003-04 season, and had been a  Champions League winner with the club, defeating Chelsea, 6-5 on penalties in the 2008 Final a.e.t., and a 1-1 draw when normal time was up, thanks largely to CR7's 26^th minute opening headed goal from a right wing cross from Wes Brown, in the right back position, before Chelsea's England midfielder, Frank Lampard, equalized just before half time, and Ryan Giggs winning penalty after Chelsea center back, John Terry, fell on his arse in the rain and hit the post when he could have won the trophy for 'The Blues'. Cristiano had been prised away from then United manager, Alex Ferguson, at the end of the 2008-09 season by Spanish giants Real Madrid for €94m, where he won another four Champions League winners medals (2014, '16, '17, and '18) before leaving for the 2018-19 season with Juventus of Turin, Italy, for €100m, adding two Serie A titles to his medal collection.

 Solskjaer's first full season in charge, 2019-20, had ended with the club in 3^rd place in the English Premier League, and the side reaching the semi-finals of the three cup competitions they were eligible for. Losing at home, 1-3, left it an almost impossible task against Manchester City in the League Cup, although United won the away leg at the Etihad Stadium in East Manchester, 1-0. The team lost to London's Chelsea in the FA Cup, 0-1, and to Spain's Sevilla in the Europa Cup, 1-2, despite being a goal up from a Fernandes' penalty on 9 minutes, after forward Diego Carlos' lunging tackle, as Rashford struck for goal, brought the United star down. Ole's team were getting a reputation for being a semi-side; not being able to go all the way. In 2020-21 the club again lost to Manchester City in the League Cup semi-final, despite it being a single tie staged at Old Trafford, 0-2, before losing the Final of the Europa Cup to Villarreal. Still not being able to go all the way, at least the side had proven it could progress beyond semis, and United finished runners up in the league.

 Often criticized for his team selection, Solskjaer's bringing Jadon Sancho, the England winger, to United from German Bundesliga side, Borussia Dortmund, for €85m, before the commencement of the 2021-22 season, and after England's losing the postponed UEFA Euro 2020 Final to Italy, 2-3, on penalties, with Luke Shaw putting the home team ahead, 1-0, in the 2^nd minute at London's Wembley stadium, July 11^th, 2021, while Rashford and Sancho, both coming on in the 120^th minute, gifting the game to gli Azzurri, failed to score with the third and fourth penalties, when the game proper had ended, 1-1, a.e.t., highlighted the problem. 

 Ole's mentor and predecessor, Alex Ferguson, flew to success on the wings of England's David Beckham and Wales' Ryan Giggs, so the acquisition of Ronaldo on the right, who'd replaced Beckham at United, ironically, when he signed for Real Madrid for €37m before the 2003-04 campaign, made Ronaldo and Sancho a logical wing combination. However, instead of playing Pogba and Fernandes in center midfield, with Ronaldo and Sancho on the wings, so leaving Rashford and Greenwood as the twin strikers, Solskjaer ignored the obvious and continued to select a midfield of Scott McTominay, a driving Scot with an eye for goal, who began to figure regularly in first team plans under Mourinho, and Fred.

 Although Ole's strategy was itself logical, that is, with five or more substitutes available to deploy from the bench, wingers could be used any time if they didn't start, timing was the issue. If the substitutions needed to win games weren't made, pressure was on the manager either to play with wingers, or to explain why he didn't, when it was the United way so to do. Given the fact that United's semi defeats and inability to produce a Final climax were ultimately the result of a lack of goals, temerity could be seen as Solskjaer's major shortcoming, that is, an apparent willfulness in failing to accept his midfield options looked like over cautiousness representing fear.

 Ole had undoubtedly built a team and a squad. Aaron Wan-Bissaka's arrival from Crystal Palace on June 29^th, 2019, for £50m, filled the right back slot that had looked shaky since the departure of Antonio Valencia. On October 5^th, 2020, Brazilian Alex Telles was signed from Portugal's FC Porto for £15.4m to give England's Luke Shaw competition for the left back berth. Although Wan-Bissaka started the Europa Cup Final defeat to Villarreal, Telles came on for him in a.e.t., at 1-1, on 123 minutes, scoring the team's second penalty during the 'sudden death' shoot-out. Solskjaer made five substitutes; the others being Axel Tuanzebe on 116 minutes for Ivory Coast center back, Eric Bailly, in the side because of concern over the fitness of Maguire; Daniel James for Paul Pogba on 116 minutes; Fred for Mason Greenwood on 100 minutes, and Juan Mata for Scott McTominay on 123 minutes. It was Mata that scored the first penalty for United, while Fred and James got the sixth and seventh, with Tuanzebe getting the ninth. Of those remaining from the starting line-up, Fernandes, Rashford and Cavani scored the third, fourth and fifth penalties, while Shaw, and Sweden's captain and center back, Victor Lindelöf, got the eighth and tenth. Unfortunately, 'keeper de Gea had his effort saved by Villarreal's Argentine 'keeper, Gerónimo Rulli, so the trophy went to Spain's El Submarino Amarillo, 'the Yellow Submarine'.

 The problem with having a large squad is which players to select in order to give the team the best chance of success. Alex Ferguson's advice, after Ole's fielding a second string side had left the club ruing another early United exit from the League Cup, this time to West Ham, 0-1, in a 3^rd round tie at Old Trafford on September 22^nd 2021, where the rationale for defeat was that younger players needed to play and gain valuable first team experience, so it'd become a club tradition to sacrifice new lambs on the altar of useless principle, when the aim was to put silverware in the cabinet, 'Always play your best team.' Solskjaer isn't Ferguson, who'd have to move the European Cup, FA Cup, and Premier League Trophy, to make way for the League Cup, so it was important that Ole's team, which hadn't won anything, tried to win everything, and the omission of top scorer Ronaldo for the game against Everton on October 2^nd, which the side drew, 1-1, when a win would have put them at the top of the league table, despite losing at home, 0-1, to Aston Villa on September 25^th, with Fernandes missing a 93^rd minute penalty, was symptomatic of a false belief in looking to the future, which ignored the fact that, if today there're no trophies, it's time to stop pretending and win.

Manchester United's Famous Five, and their DOG

Alex Ferguson, former ‘Gers center forward from the district of Govan, west of Glasgow city center, Scotland, and made to play in their junior side, as a punishment for failing to mark, as detailed, Celtic captain, and central defender, Billy McNeil, who then scored in the 3^rd minute of the 1969 Scottish Cup Final, and which that season’s domestic treble winners, Celtic, went on to win, 4-0, was justifiably praised for his youth policy at Manchester United, which initially produced a group of players for the first team labeled, ’the famous five’.

 As the generic title for a series of juvenile novels, written by English woman writer, Enid Blyton (1897-1968), the first was Five On A Treasure Island (1942), so there was the obvious question for the players, who were famous for being five: ‘What about the dog?’ Although set apart from Blyton’s five, there was always a dog with them, which helps define what was going on at the club, after the emergence of Welsh left wing, Ryan Giggs, in 1991.

 Bought by Ferguson’s predecessor, ‘Big Ron’ Atkinson, from his previous club, West Bromwich Albion, for ₤1.5m on October 1^st, 1981, Bryan Robson made his England debut in central midfield on February 6^th, 1980, in a European Championship qualifier at London’s Empire Stadium, Wembley, a defeat of Ireland, 2-0, although it was German Bundesliga side Hamburger SV’s Kevin Keegan who was the then captain, who scored twice in the 34^th and 74^th minutes. However, it was Robson, going on to captain England, making 90 appearances for 26 goals, who skippered United to FA Cup Final triumph in 1983, 4-0, against Brighton, with Robson scoring the first in the 25^th minute, and the third in the 44^th, in a replay, after the first encounter resulted in a draw, 2-2, and it was Robson again at the heart of the team as United won the FA Cup in 1985, 1-0, against Everton.

 Despite Ferguson’s appointment on November 6^th, 1986, the club had to wait until the 1989-90 season’s FA Cup Final against Crystal Palace for its first success under the Scot. In a game that ended, 3-3, a.e.t., a goal on 35 minutes from England captain, Robson, equalized Palace center back Gary O’Reilly’s 17^th minute headed goal from a free kick. Heading in a long floating ball to the back post from Scot’s forward, Brian McClair, on the right wing, Robson, ‘Captain Marvel’, leveled the scores in the 1990 FA Cup Final, 1-1, and in the second half, Neil Webb, bought at the beginning of the season for ₤1.5m from Nottingham Forest, where he’d debuted for England in a friendly defeat to Germany, 1-3, on September 9, 1987, at Rheinstadion, Stockum, Düsseldorf, and would go on to make 21 (5) appearances for 4 goals, struck a cross shot that Wales’ center forward, Mark Hughes, got onto the end of in the 62^nd minute, which he struck low into the corner of the Palace net.

 However, in the 69^th minute, Palace substituted right midfielder, Phil Barber, for England center forward, Ian Wright, who took on United’s defenders in the 72^nd minute before slotting the ball calmly past Scotland ‘keeper Jim Leighton, 2-2, and in the 92^nd minute of extra time, Palace’s England left winger, John Salako, floated a ball to the back post, where Wright struck home a volley, 3-2,  but United’s left winger, Danny Wallace, debut goalscorer in the 52^nd minute, on January 29^th, 1986, in a friendly away defeat of Egypt, 4-0, at Nasser Stadium, Cairo, and never selected for England again, put through a ball for Hughes to chase in the 113^th minute, who angled the ball past the onrushing Palace ‘keeper, Nigel Martyn, 3-3.

 United won the replay, 1-0, thanks to a long run up field from left back, Lee Martin, who chested down a ball from Webb, before crashing it into the roof of the net in the 59^th minute. Ryan Giggs made a single appearance, as substitute for injured full back, Ireland’s Denis Irwin, against Everton at Old Trafford on March 2^nd, 1991, 0-2, and a single full appearance on May 4^th, 1991, scoring the only goal of the game in the 22^nd minute against Manchester City at ‘the theater of dreams’, 1-0, and though left winger, Lee Sharpe, brought from Torquay United at the age of 17 in June 1988, was preferred to Wallace, and United would win the European Cup Winners’ Cup that season against Spain’s Barcelona in the Netherlands at the Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, 2-1, with 67^th and 74^th minute goals that were typical of Hughes’ combining of strength with guile, it would be Giggs that had a future on the left wing.

 Wallace, who’d been a part of the FA Cup winning team in 1990, bought from Southampton for ₤1.2m at the outset of the 1989-90 season, would be transferred to Birmingham City for ₤250, 000 for the 1993-94 term, after making just two substitute appearances in the league, due to the emergence of Giggs in 1991-92, while Sharpe, who made his international debut against Ireland on March 27^th, 1991, in a European Championship qualifier drawn, 1-1, at London’s Wembley, and who’d go on to play 6 (2) times for his country, would often be selected at left full back to accommodate Ryan’s irrepressible genius. Although Sharpe did turn out for United on the right wing, Andrei Kanchelskis, who’d made his debut for USSR (Russia) on August 23^rd, 1989, as a 90^th minute substitute for right back, Gela Ketashvili, in a friendly draw away to Poland, 1-1, at Stadion Zagłębia, Lubin, and went on to make 54 (4) appearances for 7 goals, had the advantage of being a naturally right footed winger.

 Hughes’ first in the ECWC Final came from a free kick, taken by Robson, then arguably the best central defensive-attacking midfield player in the world, because of his combining indomitability with excellent ball playing skills. The ball from the free kick was headed on by center back, Steve Bruce, low down towards the left corner of the net, and Hughes, who made his debut for Wales in a 1984 Home International on May 2^nd at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, beating England, 1-0, and would go on to make 72 appearances for 16 goals, made sure at the goal line, 1-0, while his second came after being put through on goal by Robson, who almost on the half way line, dinked a long ball forward for Hughes to chase.

 Rounding the ‘keeper, Carles Busquets, as he came out, Hughes was forced out wide to the right where, despite the narrow angle, he struck the ball past the stranded Barca ‘keeper, into the bottom left corner of the net, 2-0. Although Barca’s Dutch midfield star, Ronald Koeman, got a late consolation goal from a free kick in the 79^th minute, hit low inside the left hand upright, which United’s ‘keeper, Les Sealey, replacing Leighton, still shell-shocked after the first encounter, could only help on its way into the net, 2-1, the ‘red devils’ held on.

 The following season Giggs came on for left back Martin in the 71^st minute of the European Super Cup Final against European Champions’ Cup Winners, Yugoslavia’s Red Star Belgrade. Because of the unrest in Yugoslavia, which resulted in war, and the break-up of the former super state into smaller independent nations; for example, Belgrade became Serbia’s capital city, only the Manchester leg of what was usually a home and away contest took place, so the United team duly won the trophy at Old Trafford, 1-0, through a 67^th minute opportunist’s goal from center forward McClair, after a strike from Webb, rebounded to the Scot off the post, while Wales’ wizard on the wing, Ryan Giggs, making 32 starts and 6 as sub for 4 league goals, never looked back.

 Although ‘the red devils’ were surprisingly beaten to the league championship that season by Leeds United, who took the title by 82 points to 78 from United, and largely thanks to their late importing of the silken skills of French striker, Eric Cantona, in January 1992 from Nimes for ₤900, 000 and 3 goals in 15 appearances, Giggs and the side did pick up a trophy, the League Cup, beating Nottingham Forest in the Final, 1-0. McClair, who’d made his international debut in a European Championship qualifier, while still at Celtic, before his transfer to United for ₤850, 000, before the start of the 1987-88 season, a defeat of Luxembourg, 3-0, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, on November 12^th, 1986, and would go on to make 20 (10) appearances for 2 goals, took another fine chance in the 14^th minute. England center-back, Gary Pallister, had played the ball midway inside the Forest half to McClair, who laid it off to Giggs. Running at the Forest defense, drawing defenders away from McClair in the centre, Giggs slid the ball sideways right to him, and McClair dribbled on into the penalty area; shooting left-footed past Forest ‘keeper Andy Marriott into the bottom-right corner of the net.

 It became clear that manager, Alex Ferguson, was looking to produce a youthful team to challenge for honors well into the future, as his predecessor Matt Busby had done with the ‘Busby Babes’ of the 1950s, and Giggs wasn’t the first of ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’, which accolade went to Sharpe, who would taste league and cup double triumph twice, in 1994 and 1996, as an intrinsic goal scoring member of an excitingly rebuilt squad, subsequent to the club’s winning of its first league title for 26 years in 1992-93. Sharpe made 27 starts that season for a single goal, and Giggs 40 (1) for 9 goals, while almost snuck onto the pitch, without anyone noticing, the great names of the future began to appear; right back, Gary Neville, who’d go on to captain the team and the club, made his first appearance, age 17, as substitute in the 1^st round 1^st leg UEFA Cup tie at Old Trafford against Russia’s Torpedo Moscow, 0-0, on September 16^th, 1992; right wing, David Beckham age 17, substituting for Kanchelskis, bought from Shaktar Donetsk on March 26^th, 1991, for ₤650, 000, at home against Brighton on September 23^rd, 1992, in the 4^th round of the League Cup, 1-0, with Giggs scoring on 75 minutes, and midfield tiger, Nicky Butt age 18, made his debut at home on November 21^st, 1992, as a substitute against Oldham Athletic, 3-0.

 However, it was Sharpe and Giggs on the wings that were instrumental in the 1993-94 campaign. Sharpe made 26 starts, and 4 appearances as a sub, for 9 goals, and Giggs made 32 appearances, and 6 as a sub, for 13 goals. The pair provided the service for France’s striker, Eric Cantona, who’d been imported from Leeds in a successful late season November bid by Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, for ₤1.2m, which had won the club the 1992-93 title, largely thanks to the Frenchman’s 9 goals from 21 (1) starts, and just as Leeds had brought Eric from French club Nimes to do the same for them in 1991-92. Cantona, who’d scored the third goal of the game in the 49^th minute, on his debut for France, in a friendly defeat to Germany away, 1-2, at the Olympiastadion, Berlin, on August 12^th, 1987, and would go on to make 45 appearances for 20 goals, struck 18 times for United in the 1993-94 season.

 Sharpe and Giggs were the young wings upon which United flew to championship victory with 92 points to Blackburn Rovers’ 84, and FA Cup Final defeat of Chelsea, 4-0, with two penalties from Cantona, who placed his spot kick low and into the right corner, as Russian ‘keeper, Dmitri Kharine, dived the wrong way on both occasions. Irwin, scythed down by English midfielder, Eddie Newton, in the 60^th minute, was avenged by Cantona from the spot, 1-0, and Kanchelskis, who’d top score in 1994-95 with 14 goals, but would be sold to Everton for the following 1995-96 season for ₤5m, was deliberately knocked over by Jamaica left back, Frank Sinclair in the 66^th minute, and Cantona duly converted the spot kick, 2-0.

 The game was already effectively killed off as a contest, before a slip by Sinclair allowed Hughes to run through and strike the ball into the left corner on 69 minutes, 3-0, and Cantona, wide on the right, found Hughes infield, who put the ball through in the 92^nd minute for central midfielder, Paul ‘the guv’nor’ Ince, to chase. Ince, who’d made his England debut in a friendly defeat to Spain away at the Estadio El Sardinero, Santander, 0-1, in 1992, and would go on to make 50 (3) appearances for 2 goals, rounded the ‘keeper, which took him deep into the penalty area, and as the remaining defender went across to deal with the scoring position, Ince instead squared the ball unselfishly, so making it a more than simple task for McClair to stroke the ball into the net directly in front of goal in the 92^nd minute, 4-0, which put the trophy firmly out of the reach of the London club from Fulham, and gave the Trafford area of Manchester its first ever league and cup double.

 With midfield goal-getter, Bryan ‘Captain Marvel’ Robson, appointed player-manager at Middlesboro’ for the 1994-95 term, aged 37, the season of ‘the nearly men’ was 1994-95, when the team, finishing runners up in the league championship on 88 points to Blackburn’s 89, and to Everton center forward Paul Rideout’s 30^th minute headed goal from a rebounding Graham Stuart shot that hit the bar in the 1995 FA Cup Final, 0-1, began to look tired and in need of rejuvenating youthful talent. Giggs made his scoring debut in the 67^th minute, for Wales’ second of a European Championship qualifier, a defeat, 2-0, of Albania on September 7^th, 1994, at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, and would go on to make 58 (5) appearances for 12 goals, while Nicky Butt, 11 (11) appearances, Gary Neville, 16 (2), doggedly replacing England’s right back, Paul Parker, signed from Queens Park Rangers for ₤2m on August 8^th, 1991, who’d made his England debut in a World Cup qualifier, a defeat of Albania, 5-0, at Wembley on April 26^th, 1989, and would go on to make 18 (1) appearances for his country, and Neville’s brother and left back, Phil, 1 (1), who made his debut on January 29^th, 1995, in an FA Cup 4^th round home defeat of Wrexham, 5-2, while replacing the volatile ball winning aggression, and passing game of Paul Ince, signed from West Ham for ₤1m at the outset of the 1989-90 season, and transferred to Inter Milan for ₤7.5m in the summer of 1995, tough tackling, creative midfielder, and opportunist striker, Paul Scholes, 6 (11) and 5 goals, emerged to give the side fresh impetus, which bore fruit in 1995-96, when the club again won the English league and cup double.

 David Beckham, who’d made just 2 league appearances, and 2 as sub, in his right wing role in 1994-95, in the vacuum created by Kanchelskis’ departure for Everton, broke through into the first team, making 26 starts and 7 as sub for 7 goals, leaving Gary, 30 (1) and Phil Neville, 21 (3), Butt, 31 (1), and Scholes, 16 (10), to give enough of a boost from talented young boots to striker Cantona, 14 goals, and England center forward, Andy Cole, 11 goals, who’d made his England debut in a friendly at Wembley against Uruguay, 0-0, on March 29^th, 1995, and would go on to make 9 (6) appearances for 1 goal.

 Bought in January 1995 from Newcastle United for ₤7m, Cole lifted the team into a top spot out of the reach of the aging Hughes, 8 goals, in his last 1994-95 season, before being transferred to Chelsea for ₤1m, with Giggs also on 11 goals for the 1995-96 season, securing the points and sweeping all before the Manchester club on the wings of Beckham, 26 (7), who’d made his England debut in a defeat of Moldova away at the Stadionul Republican, city of Chişinău, in a World Cup qualifier on September 1^st, 1996, and would go on to represent his nation 101 (14) times, scoring 17 goals; Sharpe, 21 (10), and Giggs, 30 (3), whose youthful determination won the championship by 82 points from Newcastle’s 78.

 Liverpool were defeated in the FA Cup Final, 1-0, after Cantona’s snap volley through a crowded penalty area on 86 minutes, with Phil Neville, who’d make his England debut away in a defeat of China at the Workers’ Stadium, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 3-0, on May 23^rd, 1996, and would go on to make 36 (23) appearances for his country; Nicky Butt, who’d make his England debut as a 68^th minute substitute for Liverpool winger, Steve McManaman, on March 29^th, 1997, in a friendly defeat of Mexico, 2-0, at Wembley, and would go on to make 27 (12) appearances for his country; David Beckham, and Ryan Giggs starting, and Paul Scholes, who’d make his debut for England in a friendly defeat, 3-0, of South Africa at Old Trafford on May 24^th, 1997, and would go on to play for his country 64 (2) times, scoring 14 goals, on for Cole on 64 minutes, and Gary Neville, who’d make his England debut in a friendly defeat, 2-1, of Japan at Wembley on June 3^rd, 1995, and would go on to win 80 (5) caps, on for Beckham in the 90^th minute.

 A more apt description of the young United stars responsible for the club’s resurgence could have been taken from the generic title of Enid Blyton’s detective series for juveniles featuring ‘the secret seven’, the first of which was indeed titled, The Secret Seven (1949), that is, Sharpe, Giggs, Gary and Phil Neville, Butt, Beckham and Scholes. However, the ‘famous five’ label stuck, and the odd man out came to be discernible as the dog.

 As the British have a tradition of ‘death or glory’, which belongs to the Royal Lancers, a former cavalry regiment of the British army, who’re known as DOGs, determining which of the seven was the dog, and when, wasn’t a degrading pastime: and then there were six! Lee Sharpe left for Leeds United on August 10^th, 1996, for ₤4.5m, and the 1996-97 season began on August 11^th with the traditional opener to the campaigning, the Charity Shield at Wembley, contested between the 1995-96 league champions, and the FA Cup holders. However, as United held both, championship runners up, Newcastle, were the opponents. Cantona, Butt, Beckham, and Irish midfield dynamo, Roy Keane, who made his debut for Ireland in a friendly draw, 1-1, against Chile at Lansdowne Road Stadium, Dublin, on May 22^nd, 1991, got on the score sheet. Keane would go on to make 65 (2) appearances for 9 goals, and ever since being brought from Nottingham Forest for ₤3.75m for the 1993-94 season, had captained United in the absence of injury-prone Robson.

 Beckham won vital possession to surge forward in the 24^th minute and, finding Cantona unmarked to his right, the Frenchman side-footed the ball past ‘keeper Pavel Srníček, 1-0. Following a long-range pass from Ryan Giggs, Cantona's cheeky back-heel landed perfectly at Beckham's feet in the 30^th minute, and his cross was diverted into the corner by Nicky Butt's diving header, 2-0. A glorious pass from Cantona allowed Beckham to break forward in the 85^th minute, and lob the ball over the too advanced ‘keeper Srníček, 3-0, and on 87 minutes Giggs laid off a free kick for Keane, who blasted a shot through the keeper's hands into the net, 4-0.

 United were to win the league that term with 75 points from Newcastle’s 68, and although Cantona hung up his boots for the last time age 30, the 18 goals scored by Norwegian striker, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, signed from Molde before the start of the 1996-97 season for ₤1.5m, meant that United’s future, after the French striker’s decision to retire, remained bright. Tottenham Hotspur center forward, Teddy Sheringham, arrived for ₤3.5m, as Cantona’s replacement for the 1997-98 season, but Cole was the only player to reach double figures in terms of goals, 15, and the title went to Arsenal’s 78, with United finishing on 77, and defeat away at ‘the marble halls’ of Highbury on March 14^th, 1998, 0-1, was instrumental in the Manchester club’s losing it.

 Dutch center half, Jaap Stam, who made his debut for Holland as an 80^th minute substitute for Ajax’s John Veldman on April 24, 1996, in a friendly defeat to Germany, 0-1, at De Kuip Stadion, Rotterdam, and went on to play 66 times for 3 goals, arrived from Dutch club PSV Eindhoven for ₤10m, because of uncertainty about the fitness of center half and/or defensive midfielder, Ronny Johnsen, who made his debut for Norway at Ullevall Stadion, Oslo, while playing for second tier Eik-Tønsberg, in a friendly defeat to Sweden on August 8, 1991, 1-2. Ronny went on to make 56 (5) appearances for his country for 2 goals, and had signed for United from Turkey’s Beşiktaş, J.K., Istanbul, for ₤1.2m before the 1996-97 season.

 The quality of England’s David May, who’d been signed from Blackburn Rovers, age 24, at the outset of the 1994-95 season for ₤1.2m, as central defensive cover for England’s Steve Bruce, then aged 34, who’d leave for the 1996-97 season at Birmingham City, and as cover for Bruce’s partner in defense, England’s Gary Pallister, then aged 30, who’d made his England debut in a friendly, 0-0, with Hungary at Budapest’s Népstadion, Istvánmezὅ, on April 27^th, 1988, and went on to make 20 (2) appearances, remained under scrutiny.

 Although central defender, Wes Brown, who’d be at right full back against Chelsea in the 2008 UCL Final, made his debut, as what Ferguson described as a ‘natural defender’, coming on as a 19 year old substitute against Leeds on May 4^th, 1998, yet untried on the world’s stage, he wouldn’t make his England debut until 1999, when selected for a friendly away game against Hungary at Budapest’s Népstadion, resulting in a draw, 1-1, on April 28^th. Wes would go on to make 16 (7) appearances for his country, scoring 1 goal, against the Czech Republic on 20^th August, 2008, in a draw, 2-2, at London’s Wembley, while his last appearance was against Egypt in a friendly won, 3-1, at Wembley on March 3^rd, 2010.

 1998-99 became Manchester United’s great season, with future hero Brown making 11 league starts and 3 from the bench, as the club won the league on 79 points from Arsenal’s 78; the FA Cup, 2-0,  against Newcastle United, and in which May played in Stam’s position, as Ferguson took no chances with injuries before the UCL Final; the European Champions’ Cup against Bayern Munich, 2-1, and the Intercontinental Cup against Brazil’s Copa de Libertatores winners, that is, South America’s champions, Palmeiras, 1-0.

 Trinidad and Tobago striker, Dwight Yorke, who made his international debut in a 1989 Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Championship qualifier, a draw, 1-1, with the United States of America, on May 13^th at Murdock Stadium, Torrance, South Bay, L.A. County, California, age 17, and went on to make 53 (3) appearances for 15 goals, bought from Aston Villa for ₤12.6m, and partnering Andy Cole up front, got 18 goals to the England striker’s 17, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got 12, and Sheringham, who made his England debut aged 27 in a World Cup qualifier, a draw with Poland at Śląski Stadion, Chorzów, 1-1, on May 29^th, 1993, and who went on to make 30 appearances (21) for 11 goals, but who scored only twice in the league all season, opened the scoring in the 11^th minute in the FA Cup Final against Newcastle, and got the 91^st minute injury time goal that equalized right sided German midfielder Mario Basler’s 7^th minute free kick strike for Bayern Munich in the European Champions Cup Final, before deadly Solskjaer’s 93^rd minute close in strike. After a Beckham corner, the ball was nodded on by Sheringham across the face of the goalmouth to where the Norwegian stuck out a boot and poked the ball high into the net, 2-1. United’s manager, thereafter knighted by England’s Queen Elizabeth II, was to be known as, ‘Sir’ Alex Ferguson.

 Against Palmeiras in the IC Final, on 35 minutes Keane ran almost the length of the field to steer a long cross from Giggs out by the left corner flag in at the far post, 1-0. Although the IC Final took place on November 30^th, 1999, it more properly belonged with the previous season’s trophy haul, that is, a quadruple. United won the league with 91 points from Arsenal on 73, a record 18 point margin, and scoring 97 goals, with Dwight Yorke netting 20 times, Cole 19, and Solskjaer, who’d scored Norway’s opener on his November 26^th, 1995, debut away to Jamaica in the 80^th minute of a friendly draw, 1-1, at Independence Park, Kingston, and went on to make 58 (9) appearances, scoring 23 times, finished the 1999-2000 season on 12 goals. Mikäel Silvestre, who’d make his debut at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, Paris, on February 27^th, 2001, as a 76^th minute substitute for Marcel Desailly in a friendly defeat of Germany, 1-0, and go on to make 28 (12) appearances for 2 goals, arriving from Italy’s Inter Milan for ₤4m in September 1999, didn’t immediately threaten Phil Neville’s position, as first choice substitute for Denis Irwin at left back, but the famous five would break up.

 French ‘keeper Fabien Barthez was bought from Monaco for ₤7.8m to replace Australian, Mark Bosnich, who’d been a free transfer from Villa, after the legendary ‘Great Dane’, Peter Schmeichel, retired on the club’s winning the European Cup in 1999. Although 2000-01 saw United gaining their 3^rd successive league title with 80 points to Arsenal’s 70, and Sheringham top scored with 15 goals to Solskjaer’s 10, Irwin, who’d made his debut for Ireland in a friendly defeat of Morocco, 1-0, on September 12^th, 1990, at Dalymount Park, Phipsborough, North Dublin, and went on to make 54 (2) appearances for 4 goals, would only make 10 (2) league appearances in 2001-02, before retiring after 12 seasons, and joining from Oldham Athletic for ₤625, 000 on his 25^th birthday, October 25^th, 1990, while center forward, Diego Forlán, who made his scoring debut on 4 minutes for Uruguay in a friendly defeat to Saudi Arabia, 2-3, at the Prince Mohamed bin Fahd Stadium, Damman, on March 27^th, 2002, would go on to make 97 (15) appearances, scoring 36 goals, and made 6 (7) appearances for United, after being signed on January 22^nd, 2002, from Argentina’s Independiente for ₤6.9m.

 At season’s outset, Ferguson had bought from Lazio for ₤28.1m, Argentina’s midfielder, Juan Sebastián Verón, son of Ramon Verón, La Bruja, ‘the witch’, a left winger with 4 appearances for Argentina, after his debut  on April 9^th, 1969,  in a friendly draw away to Paraguay at the Estadio Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, 0-0, who’d scored against United when the team, then managed by Sir Matt Busby, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, subsequent to the club’s winning the ’68 European Cup, lost, 1-2, to Estudiantes de La Plata in the 1969 Intercontinental Cup Final. However, despite that addition of ‘Seba’ Verón, who made 63 (8) appearances for Argentina, after his debut as a substitute on 53 minutes for center forward, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, on September 1^st, 1996, in a World Cup qualifier, a draw, 1-1, with Paraguay in Buenos Aires’ Belgrano district at the Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, and ₤19m center forward import from Dutch Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, scoring 23 league goals to Solskjaer’s 17, United could only finish 3^rd in 2001-02. The club also lost the semi-final of the European Champions Cup to German side Bayer Leverkusen, 3-3, after a 1-1 draw away at the BayArena in a second leg that saw Leverkusen through on the rule that, in the event of an aggregate draw, away goals count double, and the Bundesliga team had drawn the first leg at Old Trafford, 2-2.

 Before the outset of the 2002-03 campaign, United manager Alex Ferguson bought Leeds United’s central defender, Rio Ferdinand, for ₤29.1m, who’d made his England debut, as a 39^th minute substitute for Gareth Southgate, in a friendly defeat of Cameroon at Wembley, 2-0, on November 15^th, 1997, and would go on to make 75 (6) appearances for 3 goals, and the move paid off. Bolstered by the emergence of Ireland’s John O’Shea who, after making his United debut, age 17, in a League Cup defeat to Villa, 0-3, on October 13^th, 1999, and being on loan at Bournemouth, and Belgian club, Royal Antwerp, returned to play full back, center back, or defensive midfield for United, and would excel in the utility role, until transferred to Sunderland for the 2011-12 season. The club won the league with 83 points to Arsenal’s 78, and Nistelrooy, who made his debut for Holland on November 18^th, 1998, in a friendly away draw with Germany in Gelsenkirchen’s Parkstadion, 1-1, and went on to make 55 (15) appearances for 35 goals, top scored with 25 goals to Scholes’ 14.

 Diego Forlán’s 6 league goals in 7 starts, and 18 substitute appearances, were invariably invaluable; notably in an away defeat of Liverpool at their Anfield stronghold, 2-1, on December 1^st, 2002, when Polish ‘keeper, Jerzy Dudek, allowed the ball to slip through his hands from defender Jamie Carragher's headed back pass in the 63^rd minute. Diego was there running in behind him to stick the ball in the net, 1-0, and after a surging run from left wing, Giggs, in center midfield, finding Forlán in space there on the right, the Uruguayan again struck, right footed from the right of the area, and to the ‘keeper’s left in the 66^th  minute, 2-0.

 Against Villa at home on October 26^th, 2002, Forlán headed in a late equalizer from a Silvestre cross on the left in the 77^th minute, 1-1, and on November 2^nd, 2002, a right footed shot curled into the top right corner of the net in the 86^th minute, 2-1, after coming off the bench in the 78^th minute to replace Phil Neville and score the winning goal in the home defeat of Southampton. On January 18^th, 2003, Diego scored late on in the 90^th minute, after coming on as a substitute for Silvestre in the 85^th, stabbing high into the roof of the net, a long through ball into the penalty box from Verón in central midfield, who had come off the bench to replace Nistelrooy in the 71^st minute, to defeat Chelsea at Old Trafford, 2-1.

 Ferguson had also brought much admired French center half, Laurent Blanc, Le Président, from Inter Milan, age 35, who’d made his debut for France in a friendly draw with Ireland, 0-0, at Daleymount Park, Dublin, on February 7^th, 1989, and would go on to make 90 (6) appearances for 16 goals, as replacement for 30 year old Dutchman, Jaap Stam, a much criticized transfer to Italian side Lazio for ₤15.3m because, with Stam at the heart of the defense, United had won the treble and three consecutive league titles. The League Cup Final was lost to Liverpool, 0-2, and Verón, La Brujita, ‘the little witch’, played alongside Beckham, who’d be transferred to Spanish giants, Real Madrid, to the chagrin of most United supporters, for ₤25m before the commencement of the 2003-04 season. The famous five had lost one among their number, but there were still five left of the secret seven.

 Despite Scot Darren Fletcher’s emergence as a right sided midfielder for the future, who made his Scotland debut on August 20^th, 2003, as a 60^th minute substitute for right back, Morris Ross, in a friendly with Norway at Ullevall Stadion, Oslo, 0-0, and who’d go on to make 71 (8) appearances for 5 goals, Beckham was replaced in the line-up by 18 year old Portuguese right winger, Cristiano Ronaldo, who arrived from Sporting CP ‘Lisbon’ for a then English record ₤12.24 for a teenager. José Kléberson, bought for ₤6.5m from Brazilian Serie A team, Atlético Paranaense, and who most commentators believed the driving midfield force behind Brazil’s winning the summer’s 2002 World Cup Final against Germany, 2-0, at the International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan, was initially seen as a long-term replacement for the aging Keane, and US’ Major League Soccer’s New York MetroStars ‘keeper, Tim Howard, arrived for $2m, as replacement for what was perceived by soccer journalists as the match losing antics of an increasingly erratic ‘keeper. Barthez, for example, raising his hand in an attempt to psych out West Ham’s Italian forward, Paolo Di Canio, and make him believe he was offside in the FA Cup 4^th round at Old Trafford on January 28^th, 2001. Put through on goal in the 76^th minute, Di Canio, ignoring the stationary ‘keeper with his arm raised in appeal, slotted the ball past him, 0-1.

 Kléberson, dislocating his shoulder in only his second game, and United’s fourth of the league season, an away defeat at Southampton, 0-1, made only 10 (2) appearances in 2003-04 for 2 goals, and didn’t figure in Ferguson’s 2004 FA Cup winning squad, while Keane played in the Final. French striker, Louis Saha, on 15 goals for Fulham, was bought by Ferguson for ₤12.4m in January, 2004, and made 9 (3) appearances for 7 goals. Nistelrooy, however, top scored with 20 league goals, and the team won the 2004 FA Cup, 3-0, against Millwall. With right sided Fletcher in central midfield, Ronaldo, who’d made his debut for Portugal, as a 46^th minute substitute for right wing, Luis Figo, on August 20^th, 2003, in a friendly defeat of Kazakhstan, 1-0, at Chevas’ Estádio Municipal Eng. Manuel Branco Teixeira, opened the scoring with a header in the 44^th minute, and Nistelrooy increased the lead from the penalty spot on 65 minutes, after a flying Giggs was brought down by Millwall’s central midfielder, David Livermore, before Ruud wrapped it up with a strike from three yards out on 81 minutes, following another run and cross on the left from the Welsh wing wizard.

 Diego Forlán left for Villareal of Spain’s 2004-05 season, after making 10 (14) appearances for 4 league goals in 2003-04, and two of those were in the 90^th minute of a home defeat of Aston Villa, 4-0, on December 6^th, 2003. Wayne Rooney, who was to become the club’s record goalscorer, arrived from Everton for ₤27m age 17, and Nicky Butt, who’d made 12 starts with 9 subs appearances in 2003-04, was transferred to Newcastle for ₤2.5m pre-season. Wayne, who’d debuted as a 46^th minute substitute for England in a defeat to Australia, 1-3, at the Boleyn Ground, London, that is, West Ham’s Upton Park, on February 12^th, 2003, and would go on to make 109 (11) appearances for 53 goals, top scored in 2004-05, but with only 11 goals. Without Scholes, now one of only four remaining members of ‘the secret seven’, contributing 9 goals, United would have struggled more. Saha made 7 (7) appearances for only a single goal; the second in the 69^th minute of a 3-1 defeat of Aston Villa at home on January 22^nd.

 In 2004-05 the club again finished 3^rd, and after losing the semi-final of the League Cup, 1-2, to Chelsea, despite the ₤7m purchase of relegated Leeds United’s England striker, Alan Smith, who’d make a less than indelible impression, scoring 6 times that season in 22 starts, and 9 substitute appearances, and Argentina’s Gabriel Heinze for ₤6.9m as a left back, who could also play center back, lost the Final of the FA Cup to Arsenal, 0-0, a.e.t., and 4-5 on penalties. Kléberson made only 6 (2) league appearances, and on August 6^th, 2005, signed for Turkish club, Beşiktaş, for €2.95 million: ‘I have come from one big club to another so I am very happy.’1 Ferguson now saw Smith as Keane’s successor in central midfield.

 Edwin van der Sar was signed from Fulham to replace Howard for ₤2m, and Phil Neville, who’d made 29 starts with 2 appearances as sub in 2004-05, was transferred to Everton for ₤3m pre-season: and then there were three! Nemanja Vidić, who made his debut for Serbia in a draw away to Italy, 1-1, at Stadio Olimpico, Rome, on October 12^th, 2002, in a European Championship 2004 qualifier, and went on to make 54 (1) appearances for 2 goals, arrived from Russia’s Spartak Moscow for ₤7m to partner Ferdinand in the center of defense on Christmas Day 2005, while Patrice Evra, left back, who made his debut for France in a friendly draw at Roazhon Park, Rennes, with Bosnia Herzegovina, 1-1, on the left wing, on August 18^th, 2004, and went on to make 74 (4) appearances, arrived in January 2006 from AS Monaco for ₤5.5m, because of injury to Gringo (blonde) Heinze, who’d made his debut for Argentina on 30^th April, 2003, as a 46^th minute substitute for right winger, Lucas Castromán, in a friendly away defeat of Libya at Tripoli International Stadium, Tripoli, 3-1, and went on to make 69 (3) appearances for 3 goals. The French full back experienced the salutary pain of being runners up to Chelsea in 2005-06, as ‘the Blues’ took the title on 91 points to United’s 83.

 Elegant and industrious, central passing midfielder, Michael Carrick, bought from Spurs for ₤14m in August 2006, had made his England debut on May 25^th, 2001, at The Pride Park Stadium, Pride Park, Derby, Derbyshire, replacing David Beckham, in a friendly defeat of Mexico, 4-0, and went on to make 22 (12) appearances. Carrick was to be the key to United’s 2006-07 championship triumph. Roy Keane broke a bone in his left foot on September 20^th, 2006, in a draw, 0-0, at Anfield, ruling him out for at least two months, and Smith began a prolonged run in the midfield 'anchor' role. However, despite making 15 (6) appearances, he scored but 1 goal, the first on November 19^th, 2005, in the 37^th minute of a 3-1 away win over Charlton Athletic, and on February 18^th, 2006, during a defeat to Liverpool, 0-1, at Anfield in the FA Cup 5^th round, Smith broke his leg and dislocated his ankle, while attempting to block a free kick from Liverpool defender, John Arne Riise, and a week later United beat Wigan Athletic, 4-0, in the League Cup Final without him.

 Injury caused Roy Keane to lower his sights in terms of industry and strength, and leave for Hampden Park and Scots’ club Celtic in December 2005. Park Ji Sung, who’d made his debut for South Korea at the Seoul Olympic Stadium, on April 5^th, 2000, in an Asian Cup qualifier defeat of Laos, 9-0, and went on to make 92 (7) appearances for 13 goals, bought from PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivisie for ₤4m, took his position in the Final line-up, and the captaincy went to Gary Neville, while Saha, 12 (7) for 7 league goals, was surprisingly preferred to Nistelrooy in the Final, who’d scored 21 league goals that term. However, it was Saha, who made his debut for France on February 18^th, 2004, in a friendly defeat of Belgium away, 2-0, at the Roi Baudouin Stadion, Hysel, Brussels, and who’d go on to make 11 (9) appearances for 4 goals, who starred.

 Flicking on Dutch ‘keeper Edwin van der Sar's long punt downfield in the 33^rd minute, Saha left Rooney with the simple task of slotting clinically past Wigan’s Australian ‘keeper, John Filan, after their Dutch center back and captain, Arjan de Zeuuw, had collided with France right back, Pascal Chimbonda, to leave the United center forward a clear run through on goal. Rooney directed the ball right footed, and to the right of advancing ‘keeper, Filan, on for the injured English ‘keeper, Mike Pollitt, in the 14^th minute, and into the right corner of the net. Saha got the second in the 55^th minute, after he struck a cross from Gary Neville directly at the ‘keeper, before bundling the rebound in with his knees, and it was Saha again who slid the ball across from center midfield for Ronaldo to strike home a third from the right side of the ‘keeper’s area, and into the left bottom corner of the net on 59 minutes, while Rooney got his second in the 61^st minute. A free kick on the right, left footed into the box from Giggs, was followed by a knock down to Rooney from United center back, Rio Ferdinand. Rooney, turning onto the path of the ball, struck it on and into the net.

 Finishing runners up in the league, Nistelrooy, often criticized for his lack of contributing to the team’s overall play, despite his goals, and to the disappointment of the fans, who loved to see the Dutchman score, was transferred to Spain’s Real Madrid for ₤10.2m, before the start of the 2006-07 season. Smith made only 6 (3) appearances, and was signed by Newcastle United for ₤6m in August 2007 for their 2007-08 season. Although Evra had replaced the injured Heinze in 2006-07, the Argentine returned briefly to the team, in the role of center back, before being transferred to Real Madrid for ₤8m the following season, and with Carrick and Scholes in midfield, while Ronaldo got 17 goals to Rooney’s 14, United finished the league season on 89 points to take the title from Chelsea on 83.

 However, the London club from Fulham beat the reds in the Final of the FA Cup, 0-1, a.e.t., with a goal from center forward, Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast, in the 116^th minute. Drogba had taken the ball with his back to goal, just outside the 20 yard box, and had stroked the ball right footed over to England midfielder, Frank Lampard, to his left, before turning and running into the United area to receive the right footed return pass from Lampard, which Drogba then directed over United’s advancing Dutch ‘keeper, Edwin van der Sar, and into the net. United also lost the semi-final of the European Champions Cup to A.C. Milan after winning at home, 3-2, before losing heavily at the San Siro in Italy, 0-3.

 Owen Hargreaves, right midfielder, was signed from Bayern Munich for ₤17m on July 1^st, 2007, while Portuguese winger, Luis Carlos Almeida da Cunha, ‘Nani’, bought from Sporting CP ‘Lisbon’ for €25.5m, who made his debut for Portugal in a friendly defeat, 2-4, to Denmark at the Brøndby Stadion, on September 1^st, 2006, and went on to make 81 (31) appearances for 24 goals, and Brazilian midfielder Anderson Luis de Abreu Oliveira, ‘Anderson’, bought from Portugal’s Porto for €30m, who made his debut for Brazil, at the Copa América, on June 27^th, 2007, as a substitute for attacking midfielder Elano on 45 minutes in a defeat, 0-2, to Mexico at Estadio Cachamay, Ciudad Guayana, and went on to make 4 (4) appearances for Brazil, had been introduced to the press the day following.

 However, it was the addition of center forward, Carlos Tevez, who made his debut for Argentina at Estadio Monumental Antonio V. Liberti, Belgrano district, Buenos Aires, in a World Cup qualifier, a draw with Ecuador, 1-1, as a 46^th minute substitute for right midfielder, Mariano González, on March 30^th, 2004, who went on to make 43 (13) appearances for 13 goals, and was on loan to United from West Ham for two years from August 2007, getting 14 league goals that 2007-08 season, which provided that extra firepower, alongside Ronaldo’s 31 league goals, and Rooney’s 12, to capture both the English title and the Champions Cup of Europe.

 It was Chelsea again that United faced in the European Champions Cup Final of 2008 at Russia’s Luzhniki stadium, Moscow, and which was eventually won, 6-5, on penalties, after the game finished, 1-1, a.e.t., and a Lampard strike on 45 minutes had cancelled out Ronaldo’s 26^th minute headed goal from a cross by central defender, and this time right full back, Wes Brown, on the right. Chelsea center forward, Didier Drogba, was sent off for striking Vidić in the face in the 116^th minute, and despite Chelsea center back, John Terry, having the chance to win it for ‘the Blues’, he fell on his arse in the rain and missed, so leaving Ryan Giggs to step up and convert the spot kick for United’s third European Cup triumph to follow then manager Matt Busby’s defeat of Benfica, 4-1, at London’s Wembley stadium in 1968, and Ferguson’s own victory over Bayern Munich, 2-1, in 1999.

 Receiving treatment for a patellar tendonitis knee problem, and pain killing injections to allow him to play, both before and after specialist surgery in the US, tenacious midfielder Hargreaves tragically left Manchester United, after making but a few appearances during the term of his contract, and despite offering to play for free during the 2011-12 season. The Brazilian twins, Rafael, who’d make his debut for Brazil, as a 72^nd minute substitution for right back, Danilo, on May 26^th, 2012, in an away friendly defeat of Denmark, 3-1, at the Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany, and would go on to win 2 caps in 2012, and Fábio, who’d make his debut for Brazil on October 7^th, 2011, at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, San José, in a friendly away defeat of Costa Rica, 1-0, and would go on to win 2 caps in 2011, had been signed age 17 from Fluminense in January 2008, where Rafael, a striker, had been converted to left full back, while his brother was at right full back, although they wouldn’t be able to perform in the first team until 2008-09, when they were 18, would make a tremendous impact, and Rafael would be nominated for ‘Young Player of the Year’, along with Jonny Evans, who’d replace Wes Brown, who’d joined Sunderland ‘Black Cats’ pre-season, in United’s defensive thinking.

 Jon, impressing in his Northern Ireland debut in a European Championship qualifier, a defeat of Spain, 3-2, on September 6^th, 2006, at Windsor Park, Belfast, went on to make 88 (1) appearances for 4 goals, after making his league debut, in place of the injured Vidić, in a draw, 1-1, against Chelsea on September 21^st, 2008, away at Stamford Bridge. Dimitar Berbatov, a striker, who made his debut for Bulgaria, as a 65^th minute substitute for attacking midfielder, Aleksandar Aleksandrov, in a friendly defeat away to Greece, 0-1, at Dimotiko Stadio Kozanis, Kozani, on November 17^th, 1999, and went on to make 73 (5) appearances for 48 goals, signed for ₤30.75m, as a replacement for the injury prone Louis Saha, from Tottenham Hotspur on September 1^st, 2008, made his debut in an away defeat at Anfield against Liverpool, 1-2, and was credited with the assist that allowed Tevez to open the scoring in the 3^rd minute, 1-0. However, Tevez would score only 5 league goals that season, and was allowed to leave for Manchester City the next, after his loan period from Upton Park expired. Berbatov would find the net 9 times that 2008-09 term, and Ronaldo would top score with 18 goals to Rooney’s 12, as United became league champions again with 90 points from Liverpool on 86.

 The World Club Cup had already been won on December 21^st, 2008, at the International Stadium Yokohama, Japan, against Peru’s LDU Quito, despite Nemanja Vidić being sent off in the 49^th minute for elbowing Argentine forward, Claudio Bieler, after a clash that left both on the turf, and Vidić felt he was being held back by Bieler to prevent his returning to the fray. United, reduced to ten men, and having to play a canny game of counter attack, led to the only goal of the game in the 73^rd minute from Rooney’s lurking on the edge of the LDU Quito area waiting to strike. When Ronaldo collected the ball in the ‘D’ with his back to goal, turned and slid it right footed to the inside left forward position, Rooney was there to strike a low shot past Quito ‘keeper, José Francisco Cevallos, into the bottom right corner.

 The squad also won the 2009 League Cup Final on penalties against Spurs, 4-1, a.e.t, when the game proper had ended, 0-0, although the match was most noticeable for the appearance in the United side of players that, if it hadn’t been for the pressures on the squad of competing in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) and the FA Cup, otherwise wouldn’t have been included, that is, central midfielder, Darron Gibson, who made 13 (13) appearances for 1 goal for Ireland, after making his debut on August 22^nd, 2007, in a friendly defeat of Denmark away at Ceres Park & Arena, Århus, 4-0, coming on for winger, Steve Hunt, in the 46^th minute, and future England and Arsenal center forward, Danny Welbeck, who made but 1 league appearance and 2 as sub for 1 goal that season, coming on for Park Ji Sung in the 63^rd minute to score in the top right corner of the net with an 84^th minute 30 yard curling shot; the last goal in a 5-0 defeat of Stoke at Old Trafford on November 15^th, 2008.

 Welbeck, who made his England debut, as an 81^st minute substitute for left wing, Ashley Young, on March 29^th, 2011, in a friendly draw with Ghana, 1-1, and went on to make 26 (16) appearances for 6 goals, also scored 2 goals in United’s FA Cup run, but they were beaten in the semi-final by Everton, 2-4, on penalties, after the game proper ended, a.e.t., 0-0. Failure against Barcelona, 0-2, in the UCL Final at the Stadio Olimpica, Rome, Italy, dampened a great season, and questions were raised amongst fans as to why Scholes, the player most feared by Barca, after his UCL semi-final winning goal from distance on 14 minutes, and on aggregate, 1-0, in the second leg at Old Trafford the previous season, wasn’t in the side from the start, and only came on in the 75^th minute, when United were already down, 0-2, and why Tevez and Bebatov were on the substitutes’ bench, while Park Ji Sung and Anderson were preferred to having Scholes and/or a second striker alongside Rooney?

 Before the 2009-10 season began, Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7), was sold to Real Madrid for ₤30m, and Antonio Valencia, who made his debut for Ecuador in a friendly away draw with Honduras, 1-1, at the Lockhart Stadium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United Sates of America, on April 28^th, 2004, and went on to make 91 (7) appearances for 11 goals, arrived as Cristiano’s replacement for ₤16m from Wigan Athletic. However, the surprise was the arrival of Michael Owen, former Liverpool center forward, on a free transfer from Newcastle United. Owen, who’d made his England debut at Wembley on February 11^th, 1998, in a friendly defeat to Chile, 0-2, and went on to make 77 (12) appearances for 40 goals, had been in the Liverpool team that won the UEFA Cup Final, 5-4, against Spanish side Deportivo Alavés in 2001, and hopes that the scoring instincts of the striker were still strong enough remained to be proven.

 Despite only 5 league starts, with 14 substitute appearances, for just 3 goals, it was Owen who got the equalizing goal in the 12^th minute against Aston Villa in the 2010 League Cup Final. Villa had gone ahead through a penalty awarded on 5 minutes, and converted by midfielder James Milner, after Nemanja brought down England striker, Gabriel Agbonlahor. Dispossessing Irish center back, Richard Dunne, Berbatov made a surging run, which took him to the right corner of the area, before he was tackled by Dunne, and the ball broke to the left, where it found Owen, who struck with his right foot past United States’ ‘keeper, Brad Friedel, into the bottom left corner of the net. Rooney, who was United’s top scorer in the league that season with 26 goals to Dimitar’s 12, got United’s second on 44 minutes, when Park Ji Sung, from the right edge of the area, clipped a ball over onto the head of Rooney by the edge of the penalty box, and his powerful header found the top right corner, 2-1. However, without Ronaldo’s goals, and a home defeat, 1-2, to Chelsea on April 3^rd, 2010, United didn’t have enough to win the league title, and finished runners up on 85 points to Chelsea’s 86.

 On February 2^nd, 2011, Gary Neville retired, after making 3 league starts: and then there were two! However, by then United had adequate cover and replacements in Rafael, Fábio, O’Shea, who made his Northern Ireland debut, as an 84^th minute substitute for right sided defender/midfielder, Gary Kelly, at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, on August 15^th, 2001, in a friendly draw with Croatia, 2-2, and went on to make 110 (6) appearances for 3 goals, and Valencia, who then played as right back and/or right wing, depending on the team’s needs. In an attempt to provide defensive cover, and restore firepower before the 2010-11 season’s  commencement, United had signed Spurs’ central defender, Chris Smalling, who made his England debut at right back in a European Championship qualifier, a defeat of Bulgaria, 3-0, away at the Vasil Levski National Stadium, Sofia, on September 2^nd, 2011, and striker, Javier Hernández, who made his debut for Mexico at Estadio Azteca, El Coloso de Santa Úrsula, Mexico City, and scored twice; the third in the 12^th and fourth in the 20^th minute, in a friendly defeat of Bolivia, 5-0, on February 24^th, 2010, while still at C.D. ‘Chivas’ Guadalajara.

 The squad won the title with 80 points from Liverpool’s 71. Berbatov top scored with 20 to Hernández’s 13, and Rooney’s 11. There were disappointments, however. United lost the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City, 0-1, and the Final of the UCL again to Barcelona, 1-3, in London, at England’s national Wembley Stadium, and again the fans wanted to know why Scholes didn’t come off the bench until the 77^th minute, and how it was that top-scorer Berbatov wasn’t even among the substitutes?! Scholes’ response was to retire: and then there was one! Or almost. Paul was persuaded out of retirement, and resumed in the 3^rd round FA Cup tie against Manchester City away on January 8^th, 2012, and united won, 3-2, so demonstrating that Ferguson knew when to eat humble pie.

 Scholes got United’s opener in the 45^th minute of a defeat, 3-0, at home to Bolton Wanderers on January 14^th, 2012, and went on to make 14 league starts from a possible 18, but taken together with his 4 appearances from the substitutes’ bench, for 4 goals, he didn’t miss a game. Moreover, preferring Danny Welbeck at center forward, who made 23 starts for 9 goals, compared to Berbatov’s 5 starts for 7, cast doubts on Ferguson’s continued ability to manage; as City beat United to the 2011-12 title on more goals scored. Despite the clubs both finishing on 89 points, City scored 83 goals to 29 against, a goal difference of + 64, while United had scored 89 to 33, a difference of + 56, so City were champions.

 Manager Alex Ferguson had bought ‘keeper David de Gea from Spain’s Atlético Madrid for ₤18.9m, to replace retiring Edwin van der Sar, and England center back, Phil Jones, who made his England debut, in a European Championship qualifier, an away draw with Montenegro, 2-2, on October 7^th, 2011, at Podgorica City Stadium, from Blackburn Rovers for ₤16.5m, and who made 25 starts for United to Vidić’s 6. The writing was on the wall for the Serb, who’d sign for the 2014-15 season with Italian side, Inter Milan, when his contract expired, despite making 18 (1) appearances in 2012-13, and 23 (2) in 2013-14, while Villa’s left winger, Ashley Young, who’d made his debut for England, as a 46^th minute substitute for central midfielder, Steven Gerrard, on November 16^th, 2007, in a friendly away defeat, 0-1, to Austria at Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, arrived for ₤17m to cause some concern to Giggs, the last of the secret seven, who’d succeeded to Bobby Charlton’s mantle. After his scoring debut for England, in the Home Championship, a twelve yard right footed 66^th minute volleyed third, from a cross by left winger, Tom Finney, in an away defeat of Scotland at Hampden Park, Glasgow, 4-0, on April 19^th, 1958, Charlton went on to make 104 (1) appearances for 49 goals, and was the player with the most starts for Manchester United, until Wales’ Giggs made his 757^th appearance in a defeat, 0-3, to Newcastle on January 4, 2012, away at Saint James Park.

 Scholes continued to play until Ferguson’s retirement at the close of the 2012-13 season’s campaign, making 8 starts and 8 as sub, for a single goal; the first in the 51^st minute of a defeat of Wigan, 4-0, at home on September 15^th, 2012, before the England midfielder hung up his boots for the last time at season’s end. Tom Cleverley, who’d joined United age 12 in 2001 from Bradford City’s youth team program, and who’d make his England debut on August 15^th, 2012, in a friendly away defeat of Italy, 2-1, at Stade de Suisse Wankdorf, Berne, was the midfielder Ferguson had determined would replace Scholes in 2010-11.

 Aware that insufficient striking power had been his team’s weakness in failing to beat City to the title in the previous campaign, for ₤24m Ferguson brought from Arsenal prolific striker, Robin Van Persie, who’d made his debut for the Netherlands at Stadion Feijenoord, Rotterdam, on 4^th June, 2005, coming on for Ruud Van Nistelrooy on 62 minutes in a World Cup qualifier, a defeat of Romania, 2-0, and went on to make 90 (12) appearances for 50 goals. Persie top scored with 26 goals to Rooney’s 12 and Hernández’s 10, as the club won the league championship for the 13^th time under Ferguson’s stewardship, which had begun with the appointment in November 1986 of the Aberdeen FC manager, and former Glasgow Rangers’ striker (1967-69), as replacement for outgoing ‘Big Ron’ Atkinson, whose FA Cup successes in ‘83 and ‘85 weren’t deemed sufficient by the Manchester giants. United took the 2012-13 title with 89 points from Manchester City on 78.

 Everton’s David Moyes, whose only success at Goodison Park was in keeping ‘the Toffees’ from being relegated, was appointed as manager for the 2013-14 season, but defeat at home in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final on penalties, a.e.t., 1-2, with only Scots’ midfielder, Darren Fletcher, finding the net for the reds, led to the April 22^nd appointment of the last of the secret seven, Ryan Giggs, as interim manager, and who as player coach made 6 starts and 6 as sub that 2013-14 season, during a career that finally totaled 672 league appearances for ‘the red devils’ and 168 goals. Giggs subbed himself on for his last league appearance, aged 40, in the 70^th minute for debuting 19 year old Welsh winger, Tom Lawrence, in the penultimate and last home game of the 2013-14 season, when United were up against Hull City, 2-1, through a brace in the 31^st and 61^st minutes from English striker, James Wilson, also on his senior debut, age 18, and the side would go on to win, 3-1, with another on 86 minutes from Van Persie, after a Giggs’ through pass, from central midfield and well outside the area, found Persie at the left edge of the ‘D’, and his quickly struck right footed shot, blocked by a defender, rebounding, was volleyed right footed by Persie low into the left bottom corner of the net.

 The World Cup that 2014 summer saw Dutch national team boss, Louis Van Gaal, whose team beat host nation Brazil, 3-0, on July 12^th, 2014, for third place at Estádio Nacional de Brasília, approved for the 2014-15 season, and with Giggs’ appointment as non-playing assistant manager to Van Gaal on May 21^st, 2014, the fans again applauded the reds eleven.

1 ‘Kleberson completes Besiktas move’, BBC Sport, Football, Monday, August 8^th, 2005, 10:23 GMT, https://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/4130796.stm .