Man Utd: An Empire About to Crumble?

Hello folks, well Spurs made us laugh for 45 minutes, Eduardo made us cry happily for 45 minutes, Arsenal won 5-1 over 90+ minutes and I need to sleep in 10 minutes. However, today is not about any of those. Unless you click on blogs for the fun of it you probably have read the title, and so then without much more mindless babbling lets get to it.

We have all read now that Wayne Rooney has his mind set on leaving Old Trafford whenever that may be and we have all chuckled (if we’re not United fans) and we’ve all pondered where he’s likely to go. However, that is not strictly all of this blog either. I have a vision now that this could see the end of this major empire built by Fergie, like any empire it has to cease and collapse, and like Liverpool, this empire is about to implode.

Let me set the scene, in 12-18 months, Scholes, Giggs, Gary Neville and Edwin Van Der Sar could all have hung up their boots/gloves and called it a day. Now, that’s alright, 4 players who in any team other than United would probably get 10-15 games between them each year (other than Van Der Sar depending on who the other goalkeeping options are). Now I’m not slagging off Giggs, Scholes and Neville, we all know how good they are, I just assume they wouldn’t be in every game outside United. But I digress, these are 4 players who are the spine of this United team. Then, add in Rooney who’s off too that makes their best player and goalscorer. 5 KEY players, now they could buy people in, but they have no money. We all know that £5m of that £50m transfer on Rooney goes to Fergie and the rest to servicing the debt left by the Glazers. Here’s the major problem, who would United have left? Who right now could fill a void left by Giggs, Scholes, Neville, Van Der Sar and Rooney? You could argue Fletcher and Carrick, but I don’t rate Carrick and Fletcher is one man. Even then, who’s a good full-back, I can only think of Wes Brown, and he’s probably a few years from retirement too. Up front you have Berbatov and Hernandez, Berbartov despite his form is not as good as Rooney. When you draw up your World XI’s Rooney (in form) makes the Staring XI’s every time or at least is on the bench. Berbartov is lucky if he even gets a call to come train with them. As for Hernandez, I don’t think he can carry United to much. In goal, their sub (sorry I don’t want to attempt his name) wants to go and he’s no Van Der Sar, errors aside he’s in the Top 5 keepers in the world.

However, I also see, as I always imagined, that when these 4 greats have retired, I see Fergie calling it time too. Now with no Fergurson, how many of those players do I see perhaps wanting to go over to sunny Real Madrid? A few. Who is Fergurson’s replacement? I don’t think Jose will leave Madrid until he’s won everything there, so it has to be someone who’s below Fergie and Mourinho. I don’t know? Mick McCarthy? But he’s at Wolves.

I’m not saying this is a definite, I just have a feeling that in the near future this could be the end. United are already slipping behind the likes of Chelsea and City, even Arsenal should finish ahead of them this season, this wont be an overnight thing but a soon thing. If they finish outside the Top 3 this year, even Top 4, be afraid.