Fergie by Frank Worrall

Author:Frank Worrall [Frank Worrall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782197317
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2013-08-25T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

FERGIE’S NEW DREAM TEAM

After miraculously leading Manchester United back to the promised land of the League title – and breaking the hold of Abramovich’s Chelsea – Fergie heralded in a new era of optimism at Old Trafford. Now the lean years were over, normal service was resumed. The boss had seen off all those who claimed he was past his sell-by-date and re-emerged triumphant.

But there was still the little matter of the Champions League to put to bed before he finally hung up his tracksuit for good. Sure, the win in Barcelona almost a decade earlier had put him on a level playing field with Busby, but that wasn’t enough: Sir Alex wanted to win the competition again – at least once before he packed it in.

And after the previous season’s glory when he brought the Premier League title back to Old Trafford, he was seriously thinking he might never have as good a chance to do it again. In his mind, he had the players and the time was right to cash in on some more European glory.

In the close season he would throw down the gauntlet to his rivals by strengthening his squad further. First, he snapped up England’s midfielder enforcer Owen Hargreaves for £17 million and then paid similar fees for the dynamite potential of Brazilian Anderson and Portugal’s Nani.

It was astute business: Hargreaves would add further weight to central midfield, while Nani and Anderson would one day hopefully be readymade replacements for Giggs and Scholes respectively.

The campaign began as it would again: against arch rivals Chelsea. Sir Alex’s team met the Blues in the traditional charity curtain-raiser, the FA Community Shield at Wembley on 5 August 2007. It was an opportunity for revenge after the FA Cup final defeat the previous May – and this time it would be the Reds who emerged triumphant, winning 3-0 on penalties after the match ended 1-1. Ryan Giggs put them ahead on 35 minutes, only for Florent Malouda to level 10 minutes later. But in 30°C, the teams once again struggled to put on a show, just as they had in the FA Cup final.

There had been lethargy in United’s play and it would still be apparent a week later when they opened their Premier League campaign with a 0-0 home draw with Reading. The loss of Wayne Rooney in the first half with what turned out to be a fractured foot did not help the boss’s mood after the game: his team had not managed a breakthrough, even when the visitors were reduced to 10 men after substitute Dave Kitson was sent off for a disgraceful tackle on Evra.

In public at least the boss blamed the poor result on the loss of Rooney to injury, saying: ‘If he’d been on the pitch, I think we’d have won the match. In the second half, chances started to come. We had some good chances and we just didn’t take them.’

Three days later United were at Portsmouth and Fergie warned: ‘Fratton Park is not an easy place to go to.

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