Man U Wins Again

Despite the BS over what Speaker Pelosi knew and when did she know it, and forgetting Governor Huntsman becoming ambassador to China, the real news this week-end was Manchester United locking up the Premiership title yet again. If there is proof positive that Satan is winning, it's MU's victory. Nothing is worse to right thinking people than the victory of evil, but MU has done the business, and credit is due where credit belongs.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all had a shot at the title. In terms of talent, each is the equal of Manchester United. Indeed, there's more Russian money on Chelsea's payroll than there is on that of the City of Murmansk. What one gets for money is talent. However, what one does with that talent is another story. Rafael Benitez, Arsene Wegner and Guus Hiddink are simply out-classed as managers by Sir Alex Ferguson. As much as one hates to admit it, he's the best manager in soccer bar none. His Scottish Premiership win for Aberdeen and that side's glory in the early 1980s proved this long before he went down south.

Out of the 38 league games every season, the head-to-head matches among the giants are always the most popular, the most covered, and the least important. This year, as in the past, the premiership title was won not when Arsenal played Liverpool or when Man U visited Chelsea. The title was decided on those cold January afternoons when the big boys played Newcastle, Bolton and Hull. The almost-champions like Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal left points on the table with draws against teams they should have beaten easily but didn't. Man U won those games and the title.

A few years ago, this journal noted that Man U had no silverware to show for its efforts that season. Happily but incorrectly, the demise of Manchester United as a force in English football was predicted. Now, Man U has its third Premiership in a row, and signs are that next year could make it four. With guys like Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney (who's got more talent than David Beckham ever imagined) and Gary Neville, they are the equal of any side in Europe. With Sir Alex in the mix, they are quite simply the best side on the planet – that's how they won the FIFA Club Championship this year.

The New York Mets baseball team has a motto “You gotta believe,” and for fans of Liverpool, Arsenal, and this journal's side Chelsea, that isn't a bad way to view next year. Here at the Kensington Review, Stamford Bridge remains the center of the soccer world, and “blue is the colour and football is the game.” But Manchester United has had an amazing year, and one hopes that one is enough of a gentleman to acknowledge that. However, to borrow the unofficial motto of a different New York baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, “Wait till next year!”

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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