Farewell Fergie: thanks for the memories

One early November morning in 1986 I was sitting down having breakfast at the Beechwood, the hotel that my mother would look after every year for three weeks whilst the owners went on holiday to Australia, when I discovered, via the radio, that the team I supported would be having a new manager.

Following an embarrassing League Cup defeat at Southampton, the previous incumbent, Ron Atkinson, had been sacked and the club were about to embark on the most successful period in its history. Well, I say about to, we had to wait a few years for things to click into place but when they did, boy did they!

I remember the bad times during those early years, particularly the home cup defeat to Nottingham Forest in 1989. Even more painful was the that the league seemed even further away than it had done during Atkinson's tenure. This prompted the infamous message towards the end of 1989 that simply said:

At least Pete Molyneux accepts he was a little premature in unfurling this banner.

The first significant step towards success came at the County Ground, again Forest were the opponents, but this time with a very different result. Thanks to a Mark Robins header from an often forgotten sumptuous Mark Hughes pass (a part of Sparky's game that is frequently overlooked). We were on our way to Wembley. And what a road that was, including some memorable games against Oldham in the semis and Palace in the final.

Then came Rotterdam a year later and Barcelona were overcome in the European Cup Winners' Cup final, largely thanks to the inept goalkeeping of Carles Busquets, standing in for the injured Andoni Zubizararreta. Another slice of luck, admittedly, but Hughes took full advantage to win us our first European trophy since 1968.

Everything was beginning to look good until the culmination of the 1991/92 season. A 2-0 defeat at Liverpool on 26 April 1992 was, and still is, the most painful defeat in all my time as a United fan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfehJzVT7-w). Why oh why?! We'd blown it. Fergie still remembers the shouts of "fuck you" from the home dressing room and the most galling moment of all for a young Ryan Giggs: outside the ground a Liverpool fan asked for his autograph and then laughed as he tore it up in front of the Welshman's face.

The tears flowed and flowed as I went to bed that night. Once again, the title seemed as far away as ever. It is funny to think that back then I genuinely wasn't sure if I would ever see us win the league.

The next twist was to come once again whilst I was staying at the Beechwood Hotel, in November 1992. When I picked up one of the resident's newspapers to discover the signing of Eric Cantona for a mere £1.2 million.

This was the catalyst.

The first league title was secured following the Frenchman's arrival and then came the next objective. The European Cup. That was the thing with Fergie, once one goal had been achieved, there was always the next one.

A steep learning curve in Europe was to follow but, in 1999, the holy grail was achieved in spectacular style, in 'Fergie time'. "And Solskjaer has won it," screamed Clive Tyldsley incredulously as the Norwegian prodded home to complete a remarkable injury time turnaround.

More domestic success followed but then came the dark years, between 2003 and 2007, when more questions surfaced over whether Fergie was still up to it. He's lost the plot, he's over the hill, the critics claimed.

As a result, winning the title in 2007 was one of the sweetest.

Winning the Champions League in 2008 was monumental and one of the things that sticks in my head the most, as I stood there in the Luzhniki Stadium on that rainy night, is the image of Sir Bobby Charlton leading us up the steps to collect the trophy, 50 years after he survived the Munich air crash, unlike several of his less fortunate teammates. Once again I began to well up.

If there is anything that illustrates the difference between United and the beaten finalists it was seeing Peter Kenyon lead Chelsea up the steps to collect their runners up medals. United chose a legend who embodied the club like no other, Chelsea chose a Chief Executive and supposed lifelong Man United fan. Fake.

No more success on Europe's biggest stage. A couple of finals where we were well beaten by Barcelona and then there was this year's campaign.

Little did I know back in March when the pain of defeat at the hands of Real Madrid meant I had to go for a long walk, late at night, to try and clear my head. That shock and disappointment pales in comparison to the news of Ferguson's imminent departure. Once again tears were apparent. Especially during his speech at Old Trafford last Sunday, but I wasn't alone in doing this. Emotional.

It was hardly surprising that Ferguson's retirement has provoked such strong emotions. This man, after all, has been responsible for some of the best moments of my life, from the Nou Camp to Moscow, from the Stadio Delle Alpi to Old Trafford. This man has caused me to travel the continent at great expense. But it has been worth it. Every single penny. Thank you Sir Alex.

Manchester United will hope to come up smelling of roses

Real Madrid - Manchester United: they don't come much bigger than this

Oh, how I love the smell of the city prior to hosting a Champions League clash of mammoth proportions.

OK so it is only the last 16 but I have not been this excited about a Champions League tie in years. Maybe not since the final in 2009. Sure, Manchester United made the final again in 2011 but noone truly believed they would prevail against Barcelona that night and those fears were realised as Messi, Iniesta, Xavi et al pummelled the Red Devils.

Tonight, however, represents a possible step towards redemption and a tantalising prospect at a fourth European Cup. Of course, there would still be the Catalan obstacle but this United side are significantly better than the one well beaten two years ago at Wembley. In addition, the belief that a victory over Madrid would provide could help them go on to lift the cup with the big ears once more.

As for the game itself, a nil nil would represent a good result to take back to Manchester, despite all the fears that a lack of an away goal would provide. More often than not, the away team ends up going through after such a result, though the memories of Monaco '98 and Madrid in 2000, where United ended up with a goalless draw, still bring back a feeling of dread as United crashed out.

However, given the porous defences on show a nil nil draw is about as likely as an imminent end to the financial crisis here in Spain.

2-1 to Los Blancos is this observer's prediction, which would still give Sir Alex Ferguson something to cling onto ahead of the return at Old Trafford next month.

Ferguson's line up is even harder to predict than the score but here goes. De Gea, Rafael Rio Evans Evra, Jones Carrick Cleverley, Valencia Van Persie Rooney.

This is not the most attacking of line ups which is the norm for United in Europe against heavyweight opposition. This formation could even morph into a 4-4-2 with Tom Cleverley and Phil Jones moving out to the wide midfield slots. The clearest advantage to this line up would be, effectively, three players being available to help quell the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo (Jones and Cleverley abley abetted by Valencia). Furthermore, Rooney maybe designated with the job of pressurising Alonso, when in possession, in a way not too dissimilar to the job Mario Goetze unselfishly performed in Dortmund's impressive results against Real.

The trouble is, these tactics will neglect the threat offered by Karim Benzema, Mesut Ozil and Angel di Maria. Furthermore, they will inevitably negate any attacking threat that United have of their own, though the possibility of pinching a goal always remain when matchwinners like Robin van Persie and Rooney himself remain on the pitch.

No doubt Jose Mourinho will have some tricks up his sleeve but it is the selction of his opposite number that is of greater intrigue.

Such negative tactics or not, nothing can quell the sense of anticipation I have in the pit of my stomach right now.

From the index to his captain having sex: the stumble and fall of Fabio Capello

It is almost two years to the day since the now ex-England boss Fabio Capello's decline began with the ill-fated 'Capello index'. This was a weird notion where points would be awarded for the overall performance of each player, then even more bizarrely making that information public.

It is as if ever since that day things just seemed to have gone from bad to worse for the former Real Madrid boss.

He was a hugely successful manager with a CV as glowing as you could possibly want, titles in Spain and Italy, not to mention a Champions League winner. He had spells with something not too dissimilar to a who's who of European football (Roma, AC Milan, Juventus and Madrid).

For the first two years it looked like the English Football Association had finally found their man. A proven winner who was continuing that rich vein of form for his new employers.

England qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa with consummate ease and Don Fabio could do no wrong. Then came the index and it all began to unravel just prior to FIFA's showpiece event.

Bad preparation

After the index, there was the decision to play England at altitude in their friendlies prior to the last World Cup, as well as base them at a training camp in Rustenburg 1500 metres above sea level in South Africa and not giving the players sufficient rest from the rigours of a Premier League season.

Graeme Souness was highly critical of such preparation. He told  The Sun: "Your body is demanding oxygen.

Your brain is telling your kidneys 'I need more EPO' which is a growth hormone which helps you produce more red blood cells, which enables you to push more oxygen through your body.

"So, for three or four weeks that's happening, so you're going down and down and down. After that, you start to recover."

The players looked laboured throughout the debacle in South Africa and Capello has to take some repsonsibility for that.

The wrong squad in South Africa

There was immense surprise and disappointment at the decision to omit Theo Walcott from his squad for the 2010 World Cup. Then news filtered through that he wanted to take Owen Hargreaves who had not started a game for nearly two years. Sir Alex Ferguson ridiculed the idea of taking his non-playing crippled midfieler. Capello eventually plumped for Gareth Barry, who also looked well short of fitness having not played for the last two months of the season.

The wrong goalkeeper

Then we had the lamentable situation regarding the number one jersey in South Africa. It was clear to all and sundry that the most talented goalkeeper in the squad was Joe Hart. Capello claimed he lacked experience, but it was the manager's fault for that lack of game time for not picking him prior to the tournament, particularly in the friendly against Ghana three months before the World Cup began.

The wrong formation

We had one decent striker going into that World Cup - Wayne Rooney (albeit his performances never lived up to expectations). The best thing to have done would be to have played Rooney up front with Steven Gerrard in support. From Gary Lineker to Michael Owen, it was clear to all the experts the way to go but our £6 million a year head coach could not spot it.

Capello claimed that English players only new how to play 4-4-2. The 65 year-old clearly hadn't watched much football in recent years as he would have seen English clubs dominate the Champions League with just one up top in something that could be described as anything but 4-4-2. Furthermore, Rooney had performed remarkable feats as the lone frontman, and Gerrard had had a similarly successful season playing as an attacking midfielder (behind Torres).

Captain not so fantastic

What I just do not get with this whole John Terry business is it was Capello who was angry with JT after his now infamous press conference in South Africa, undermining the Italian with his comments about standing up to the coaching staff.

It was also Capello who stripped Terry of the captaincy for a far less serious issue (sleeping with the ex-girlfriend of a former team-mate) than we are currently dealing with.

Then we see the Italian gifting him back the armband soon after the World Cup, and now apparently resigning as he did not want to see the Chelsea centre-half lose the captaincy once more.

Just to add to the confusion, Capello has always stated his amusement at the English fascination with the whole importance of who the captain is.

Finally on this whole JT story: why on earth has the trial been postponed until July anyway? Ron Gourlay, Chelsea's chief executive, informed the judge it would be impossible for all the necessary witnesses to appear in court due to work commitments. First of all that's rubbish. And even if it were true, completely irrelevant. You cannot skip a court appearance due to such frivolous reasons.

Anyway, I digress, Fabio's reputation, at least in England, is in tatters and the guy who accused him of 'killing' Gerrard a couple of years ago for playing the Liverpool man out of position has a stock that could not be any higher. Maybe Paul Gascoigne calling him 'Sir' Harry earlier this evening on Sky Sports was not so ill-placed afterall.