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Danny Welbeck of Manchester United celebrates with team mates Michael Carrick and Ryan Giggs after scoring a goal during the match between the A-League All-Stars and Manchester United at ANZ Stadium on July 20, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
And every single one of those times in the past, the answer has been one and only one. Youth. That’s not an answer every club reaches to. But that’s how Manchester United roll. And they roll pretty well. So Wayne Rooney might leave United for Chelsea (or wherever) and United might end up not signing a central midfielder after all.
Both Robin van Persie and Michael Carrick might get injured sometime this season and they might make an early group stage exit from the Champions League, possibly even end up in the Europa League, or worse, face the same fate as City. And you know what, that’s still okay.
Moyes keeps saying all the right things and I’m happy he does. He admits he has to set his trophy record straight right away and that’s true. But it’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t, certainly not his and certainly not Manchester United’s. We’ve been here before, remember?
And from here, we’ve also been at Camp Nou, where Beckham, Sheringham and Solskjaer would combine and take the team to the promised land. And the road that took them through those uncertain, thorny wilds was again, the road of youth. And this is where the intelligence in Ferguson’s gamble comes into the picture.
He might have gone, but has left the incoming manager a squad of champions. Young and hungry champions. And to cap it all, there are such luminous little lights blinking madly in the background – Januzaj, Lingard and Zaha. Throw in a bit of Michael Keane, Nick Powell and Angelo Henriquez and factor in the incoming young Fabio and you have a bunch a crazily talented youths who have what it takes to climb the ultimate summit and build their home there.
All they need is time. And that’s what Ferguson’s last gamble was all about. Moyes is ready to give them that time. Marquee signings and rampant money-spending can give you a pretty cool camp on top of that footballing summit, but Manchester United were never about camps. They want the entire summit to themselves and for their castle, something that’ll last a lifetime.
And unlike others, they have always been patient in climbing the summit so as to be able to carry the maximum supplies to last an era. And I hope that continues this time as well. In fact, I’m sure it will. It may not be this season, it might not even be next season or the season after that, but when it does happen, that’s going to be the only thing that’ll be on everybody’s lips.
As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And who knows, maybe we could still find the wily old man, with his rusty futuristic binoculars, intently peering at the footballing world and cackling away like always, in years to come. It’s his final gamble after all.
