There was a surprise waiting for the players of Roma when they turned off Via Mario Vinciguerra and sped up the slope to their training ground in Trigoria, to the south of the capital, one day last week. They had endured a difficult couple of weeks and Roma supporters had scattered 50 kilograms of carrots by the roadside to demonstrate what they thought of the 6-1 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League, following on from losing against Atalanta in Stadio Olimpico. Never mind the fact the giallorossi beat Lazio last month in the Rome derby, or that Rudi García’s team were top scorers in Serie A. “Buon Appetito Conigli,” read the accompanying banner. Translation: “Enjoy your food, rabbits.”
In comparison, Manchester United’s supporters have been pretty restrained during those awkward periods under Louis van Gaal when they have felt underwhelmed with their team. Yes, it has threatened to boil over on a couple of occasions, most notably in the Champions League tie against CSKA Moscow when there was loud, almost mutinous opposition to one of Van Gaal’s substitutions. Overall, though, the crowd at Old Trafford do not like to turn on their own. Nobody has dumped several crates of vegetables outside Carrington and, for the most part, they have shown a great deal of tolerance when they have had to endure so much blandness. United have now racked up five goalless draws in their last nine matches, four of them coming on their own ground in little over a month.
Something doesn’t feel right about the modern United and it would be understandable if their supporters feel slightly unsettled about the latest Pep Guardiola news and, specifically, the growing acceptance inside Old Trafford that the Bayern Munich coach, formerly responsible for producing football of butterfly-beauty at Barcelona, is likely to pitch up elsewhere for his next assignment – and, quite possibly, at Manchester City.
United’s information is that Guardiola will leave Bavaria next summer, rather than signing a new contract, and at that point it is a matter of timing as much as choice. Van Gaal would still have another year to run on his contract and as a snapshot of how he is regarded by United’s directors – and whether his job might be vulnerable in the way that perhaps could be said of Manuel Pellegrini at City – I was privy to one conversation in the last few days where the Dutchman was described as “a genius manager”. It didn’t feel like flannel and the praise was so emphatic it eliminated any lingering thought they might think Guardiola was an upgrade or that they were in any way dissatisfied with the current manager. In terms of Van Gaal’s position, it was clear. He has the job for as long as he wants it.
A genius? Van Gaal, one imagines, would nod along to that in the manner of someone appreciating a fine piece of classical music. Yet it is fair to say there have been only sporadic glimpses of it so far. Iain McCartney, the author of 21 books on the club, told me a few weeks back that fans were suffering many performances, rather than revelling in them the old-fashioned way and that Van Gaal needed to be acquainted with the United Calypso, the song that is played before every game at Old Trafford, lauding the team’s exciting style and “football taught by Matt Busby”. The editorial in the latest Red News, United’s oldest fanzine, puts it another way. “It felt like the players would run through a brick wall for [Sir Alex] Ferguson. With Van Gaal, it feels like the players are running into one and we, the fans, are watching one for 90 minutes.”
They have scored seven goals in their last 10 matches and it must be slightly disconcerting for those supporters to think of the way City might take off if United’s suspicions are correct and Guardiola joins their neighbours.
Likewise, nobody can ignore the way Jürgen Klopp has reinvented Liverpool in his short time at Anfield, transforming a drifting team into one capable of inflicting City’s most grievous home defeat since leaving Maine Road, walloping six past Southampton (their worst beating on their own ground since 1960) and winning 3-1 against a Chelsea side that, lest it be forgotten, still have a flag fluttering from their stadium to remind us they are the current Premier League champions.
Klopp’s early work at Anfield revives memories of Kevin Keegan’s old quote about playing for Bill Shankly and the way “he made you feel any mountain could be climbed”. In the process, it no longer feels utterly ludicrous to ask whether Liverpool, like United in 1993, might yet have aspirations of ending their run without a league title at the 26-year mark. But even without swinging the hype-meter too wildly the Klopp effect must perturb those Old Trafford matchgoers who remember when it was their team who bewitched crowds and left opponents in need of smelling salts. Liverpool are, in essence, playing precisely the way United’s supporters crave for their own club.
Does this bother the people in charge? Not unduly, judging by what I’ve heard, with the distinct sense they ascribe far more value to the team’s league position rather than to the smaller details, such as the statistics recently that United had made the highest number of backward passes in the league, the lowest percentage of balls forward and, perhaps most surprisingly, the fewest number of shots apart from Sunderland.
At the same time, there is an acceptance among the people above Van Gaal that the team lack dynamism in these days when Wayne Rooney is no longer the player he was and that it is unsatisfactory for a club with United’s history and ambitions not to have a player who would be close to the top 10 candidates for the Ballon d’Or.
The stories about Ed Woodward being attracted to Cristiano Ronaldo are accurate but that has been the case for a long time and United’s chief executive has always been aware the chase might never lead anywhere. As always with Real Madrid, there are all sorts of complex politics that might mean Ronaldo and United continue to flirt with little end-product. For now, they are still playing the role of two third-formers at the school disco – lots of eye contact, and plenty of gossip, but remaining on the opposite sides of the dance floor.
Woodward’s view is that if one of the sport’s authentic superstars did become available then United, by nature, have to be at the front of the line and that seems reasonable enough as long as it is not just doing it for the sake of it. United initially expected Ángel Di María to tick the relevant boxes and, if Ronaldo remains out of reach, there will continue to be conversations to explore whether Gareth Bale or Neymar might ever become available.
Again, that seems logical when Bale, for instance, would be an ideal wearer of United’s colours. Yet there is no sense either that the club are as desperate, perhaps, as some supporters for a little more stardust. At board level, they noted recently how in the 2008-09 season Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov were all on the payroll, along with a more jet-heeled Rooney, but the team won the championship that year with 68 goals, one of the worst totals of the Ferguson era. It was nine fewer than Liverpool in second position and six more than the team, managed by Van Gaal, that finished fourth last season and stand accused of repetitive dreariness.
The moral of the story: it wasn’t always spectacular in Ferguson’s time either, even if they did, more often than not, win the league.
On the flipside, there was one season when Ferguson’s team racked up 97 goals and their average over 20 seasons was 78 once the championship trophy started finding its way to them like a homing pigeon. McCartney has been watching United since the late 1960s and has missed one weekend home game in the past 29 years. “Today’s United seldom excite and do little to entice supporters into going to watch them as they are no longer something special,” he said. “Supporters no longer enjoy watching them and teams no longer fear them.”
At Chelsea, Roman Abramovich has always longed for a team that can bewitch their audience. Abu Dhabi expects the same from City whereas United once considered it mandatory, too. But that was then and this is now. Van Gaal isn’t going to bend for anybody and the impression I get is that the people in charge are backing him all the way. Anyone who finds the blandness unappetising will have to like it or lump it.
Enter Clough for second coming
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s installation as the latest manager tasked with restoring some sanity to Queens Park Rangers has opened the way for Nigel Clough to resume his managerial career at Burton Albion, where he has already been an integral part in laying down the foundations for a club that look a decent bet to be playing second-tier football next season.
Good luck to him, too. Clough was dealt a rotten hand at Sheffield United, where he took a team that was in the relegation zone of League One to seventh- and fifth-placed finishes, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup, only to discover that the people in charge at Bramall Lane considered that was not good enough.
His sacking was harsh in the extreme and it would be no surprise here if he were to pick up on the fine work undertaken by Hasselbaink and take Burton into the Championship for the first time.
It was slightly startling, however, to discover that the original “nice young man” was approaching his 50th birthday. For those of us who remember his neat centre-forward play, boyish smile and the Sultan of Pings FC track in his honour, it can suddenly make you feel very old.
City always miss surge of Sergio
There is a bar in the newly enlarged South Stand at Manchester City paying homage to arguably the greatest forward who has ever worn the club’s colours. It is called the 93:20 bar, because that was the time when Sergio Agüero won the Premier League title with their final kick of the 2011-12 season, and the words to Martin Tyler’s commentary on Sky are all over the walls in large capitals. Agüero is a formidable player but he was missing again from the defeat at Stoke City on Saturday. It is a recurring theme and that, more than anything, is jeopardising his team’s title chances.