Manchester United Rises

“Greed is good” said Gordon Gekko. It is a line I am sure a lot of United fans would have agreed with before our home leg against Madrid last month. We were dreaming of the treble, and rightly so, cruising in the league by a dozen points, a home quarter final against a supposedly hapless Chelsea (how wrong were we?) and a superb showing in the first leg in Madrid; banishing all fears over our ability to perform in Europe following a string of embarrassments last season.

Success is a funny old cuisine; the more you eat it, the hungrier you are for more! For a team which at the start of the season wanted nothing more than getting the title back from the grasps of the ‘noisy neighbours’, two knockout blows in the cup competitions have left us with a sense of doom and gloom. The reason is not very hard to explain, it is in every United fan’s DNA to see the team competing in all competitions till the latter stages of the season. In the Champions league, we were keen to undo the nightmares of 2009 and 2011. Winning the most number of domestic titles in England is not enough for us; somewhere in our hearts we want to reach 6 European titles, the one perch left for us to conquer (knowing Liverpool fans, I will bet you this – once we do that, they we will claim glory in having won more UEFA/Europa league cups. We should let them have that, they need something to hold on to, right?).

Having been knocked out, a domestic double seemed the least we deserved. Nine years without winning the FA cup is also not acceptable at a club like United. It has been the most heartbreaking of tournaments for us and unfortunately, on April Fool’s day, Benitez was the ‘joker’ who did us in!

Now, all we want to is to win the league by a record margin. We United fans can sometimes set the bar so high that when we achieve it, we experience ecstasy; else it seems the world has come crushing down upon us. Whenever we lose, most of us fans just want to go into a shell; it is so obvious that the people around us can tell the result just by looking at our faces! It is a bad habit we have and our beloved team has taken us to some unprecedented heights to ensure that we stick to this habit. In fact, we see a 71 year old man on the touchline every weekend having more desire, more ambition than all his younger adversaries put together. Perhaps that is what drives the team on; it is definitely what drives us to dream big. But, we must remember that lofty ambition alone can be a heady cocktail. Ambition matched by pragmatism is the true recipe for long term success, a recipe perfected by SAF and engrained in the very fabric of this great football club.

So, let’s look at facts. We finished last season trophyless but with a silver lining of some fine young players coming through. From playing and getting hammered in the obscurities of the Europa League, we were 25 minutes and a bad referring decision away from doing something we have never done before – knocking Madrid out of the Champions league. From a 4th round exit in the FA cup, we were one half away at Old Trafford from a Wembley semifinal with City. Yes, we self-destructed against Chelsea in the home tie, but that is a lesson for the future. This team showed this season that it was back on the road to being a top class cup side, but there are still some holes to be plugged. (And if any rival fan pokes you regarding your record in the FA cup in the last decade, ask them to point out the last time we got a non-premier league opposition and point out how every team to have won the cup since 2004 have faced at least a few lower league sides in the knockout stages.)

And most importantly, for a team that lost the league on goal difference last season, we are now leading that by 10 goals, not to mention a phenomenal 15 point advantage. The team that couldn’t defend according to the pundits, has now gone over 600 mins without conceding a goal. A team that was accused of being over reliant on RVP has won 7 on the bounce without him scoring. A midfield that was not considered good enough to beat the top sides has won away at City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Do I even need to mention the record 25 wins from 30 league games, the innumerable number of comebacks from 1-0 or 2-0 down? For a team whose two top defenders in Rio and Vida play selectively, our defensive record in the second half of the season has been outstanding. A much unfairly maligned goalkeeper has shown his class at the grandest stage. And what has slipped quietly under the radar has been the fact that four academy graduates in Rafael, Evans, Cleverley and Welbeck are now first team regulars. And they say we can’t replicate the class of ’92! The more you look at the squad the more positives you will find.

But this doesn’t mean, we should be content. We have significantly improved on what was a mediocre show by our own lofty standards last season. For now, our title is coming home. Knowing us, we would still find a way to do it the hard way, but then that is the way all us fans enjoy the most, right? Come next season, those ‘bad habits’, that greed, must return; for the manager and the players would be hungry for more, so why should we fans be any different? Just like the Dark Knight, Manchester United will always RISE!