Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL: If the team Fergie built is doomed we should all be truly grateful...
The history of football is the history of powerful men messing up.The manager, maybe, or an expensive new signing: more often than not,the owner. He loses Brian Clough or fails to harness the Premier Leagueboom. Perhaps he takes a £100million punt with money he does not have.And these mistakes echo through time.[LNB]There will be a reason it began to go wrong for Huddersfield Townafter 1926, why Wolverhampton Wanderers have never recaptured theirBilly Wright era heyday and the first championship and FA Cup double ofthe 20th century turned out to be the last league title that TottenhamHotspur won.[LNB]In recent times two significant things happened to usher in theManchester United years: Sir Alex Ferguson left Aberdeen toreinvigorate Old Trafford, and Liverpool lost direction and economicclout, making errors of judgment from boardroom to boot-room. One clubrose, the other fell. That is the narrative of football. If it werenot, we would quickly lose interest.[LNB] The boss: Ferguson presides over his squad - but how long will he stay on his perch?[LNB]Some years ago, after running United close in a game at OldTrafford, Gerard Houllier, then Liverpool manager, looked around thestadium with a half-smile. 'The wonderful thing with football is thatnothing lasts forever,' he said. And while for a Liverpool supporterstill waiting for that first title of the modern era it might not feelthat way, what Houllier said is true.[LNB] More from Martin Samuel... MARTIN SAMUEL: Rafa cuts and runs for cover in European classic15/04/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: Briatore is turning Rangers job into mission impossible12/04/09 MARTIN SAMUEL: The drip, drip denigration of Ian Tomlinson, an ordinary man 09/04/09 EXCLUSIVE: Martin Samuel meets under pressure boss Gareth Southgate09/04/09 Martin Samuel: Marathon men hit the wall as they enter the final stretch07/04/09 Martin Samuel: The Saints, the sinners... and the Lord above07/04/09 Martin Samuel on Manchester United: Untouchables resume their rule of fear05/04/09 Martin Samuel: Why this legend can never be a Messiah to the Julio Geordios05/04/09 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEOne day Ferguson will leave, or somebody at Manchester United willmess up big time, and then it will be the turn of another club.[LNB]Ferguson's achievement, in his words, was to knock Liverpool 'right offtheir ****ing perch' and there are now managers plotting to do exactlythe same to him.[LNB]That chance may come sooner than expected if the dark speculationconcerning United's financial future is correct. The jury is out onjust how much trouble the club are in, largely because there are partsof the Pyramid Texts that are easier to decipher than ManchesterUnited's accounts, but the most doom-laden interpretations paint theGlazer administration as emblematic of the global banking system, acastle built on sand, laden with unsustainable debt and vulnerable tothe whims of the market.[LNB] And while this may be bad news for United and those who care forthem, if a spokesman was appointed for the 91 other clubs, the ones whodo not get 75,000 fans through the gate, are not champions of England,champions of Europe, as the song goes, and have not come to dominate amoment in football like none before, that mouthpiece would say: Good. [LNB]Just as the rest of football did when Liverpool faltered conveniently ignoring the fact that part of that misstep was a reactionto the Hillsborough tragedy. Just as it did when Roman Abramovich'sinvestment in Andriy Shevchenko blew up in his face by forging the riftwith Jose Mourinho, the former Chelsea manager.[LNB]This is how football evolves. It is not always fair and the supporters of a club that loses a good manager, a good player or puts a fool in charge of the company float are the sorry collateral damage, but this has to happen for there to be progress.[LNB]The most destructive element of the Champions League is that UEFA's money, given to disproportionately few, makes it even harder for a big club to fail. It requires something that is, in sporting terms, truly catastrophic for evolution to occur; something like saddling a club with unmanageable debt, maybe. [LNB]The reason it is hard to damn the Glazers on all fronts just yet is because they have presided over fantastic sporting success as custodians of Manchester United. They have let the football people run the football, kept their heads down, their mouths shut and paid up when asked, often in circumstances when others would not (when buying Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves, for instance).[LNB] Happy families: Bryan, Avram and Joel Glazer have overseen incredible on-field success at United[LNB]The Glazers are negatively compared to United's plc board becauseEnglish football has this bizarrely nostalgic idea that there was agolden age of club ownership, but the plc would not have sanctionedexpensive bids for two English squad players operating in basically thesame position, as Malcolm Glazer did.[LNB]Quite probably, it would have sold Cristiano Ronaldo last summer, given an £80m offer, and hid behind responsibility to shareholders and the player's desire to leave. (Yes, the plc board always fended off interest from Italy in the young Ryan Giggs, but to accept the money at that stage would have meant selling the player against his will and probably losing Ferguson in the process. Whatever was on offer, there was no option but to resist). [LNB] Des Kelly: The hidden horror of Glazers' UnitedCharles Sale: United's cold calls hunt capital gains MANCHESTER UNITED FC
