4-o vs. Wigan after the disappointing draw against Everton. Rio breaks his duck. Keano does a medical at Real Madrid and then signs for Celtic. All this and more. One doesn’t know whether one is coming or going anymore as a Man Utd. fan. Plus, when you look at the draw the other three English clubs got in the Champions League, you have to wonder what the Football Gods are up to. Chelsea vs. Barcelona? Arsenal vs. Real Madrid? It’s all too much to contemplate.

So how it is going to play out? We’re going to kick Villa in the …and Ji-Sung Park will score his first hatrick for the club (wasn’t it a bit strange RVN took the penalty against Wigan and didn’t give Rooney boy the chance to keep the match ball?). All this pushing O’Leary over the edge, of course. Chelsea will lose to the Arsenal, so we’ll be just 6 points behind- a gap which will close further over the holiday fixtures. Come the New Year, an undercover reporter sensationally reveals a in-depth exclusive on the John Mikel Obi affair– about how he has been a passionate lifelong Man Utd supporter and was desperate to join, only to be blackmailed and threatened by the Russian Mafia. FIFA launches the largest investigation into a football club ever and in the wake of the endless negative press, the ever-paranoid Mourinho quits as Manager of Chelsea, to join Real Madrid. It’s the beginning of the end of Chelsea‘s good fortunes, as Abramovich turns his interests to Formula One instead- buying the beleagured Minardi team and looking to sell his investment at Chelsea, as first reported in Pravda. Meanwhile, Man Utd, on course for a domestic treble, get Google as their sponsors and make a signing to dwarf all others- capturing the signature of Ronaldinho from Barcelona for 25m cash, plus Cristiano Ronaldo and RVN, as well as signing the teenager Theo Walcott from Southampton.

Well….one can dream…can’t one? Something has to give- that is for sure. Manchester United are the greatest team in the world– as even now they can sometimes show- but there is too much mediocrity in our squad and not enough killer instinct. Nevertheless, hope is eternal and just a few things going our way could paint a very different picture. In essence, buy some quality in January and hope that Chelsea slip up. Napoleon once said upon being told that a particular General was “good“-: “Yes. But is he lucky?” The truth is that we have an absolutely awesome strike force in RVN and Rooney, backed up by Saha, Rossi and Smithy. Plus attacking midfielders who can score at will- Ronaldo, Scholesy, Giggsy and Park. There is just no reason why we shouldn’t be killing teams off that we are drawing against, or even losing to. It’s that small, almost indefinable gap in what we call “luck“- a deep, inner self-belief that is shared by the whole team. That was the difference in the remaining minutes of the 1999 Champions League Final and that was something that we were infamous for- getting something out of games with just seconds remaining. When you look at the Benfica, Villareal and Everton games recently- our energy in these last minutes were just lacking in this respect. This is what we need back and why we need players like Park in our team: non-stop energy and a never say die attitude.

Given all this, we’ll not just be the greatest team in name, but in achievement as well- as it should be!