In the crammed press room at San Siro, the old man’s eyes misted over and his voice briefly quivered. “A great player, the best in the world,” Sir Alex Ferguson said without fear of disagreement, in tribute to the Manchester United prodigy whom he allowed to follow his dreams to Real Madrid.
This, to judge from the pre-match hype, is supposed to be all about David Beckham, but Ferguson was, of course, talking about Cristiano Ronaldo, the man who succeeded him in the United No 7 shirt and, after a faltering start, went on to surpass him.
The United manager also spoke in glowing terms about Kaká, the talismanic playmaker whose move to Real last summer is still lamented by supporters of AC Milan, and about Wayne Rooney, the young forward who has done more than anyone to minimise the impact of Ronaldo’s departure at Old Trafford.
In other words, things change. When Beckham left Manchester in 2003, Rooney was a 17-year-old who had enjoyed his first season at Everton; Ronaldo was a gawky 18-year-old at Sporting; Kaká was a little-known 21-year-old en route to Milan from São Paulo; and Milan had just been crowned European champions for the sixth time, having overcome Juventus in a final at Old Trafford that seemed to reassert Italy’s superiority over Spain as the world’s most dominant leagueAs recently as 2007, United endured a chastening night at San Siro, being crushed 3-0 in the Champions League semi-final, second leg as Kaká and Clarence Seedorf showed Ronaldo and Rooney just how much they still had to learn about playing at the highest level. But at some time over the past three seasons, English clubs seem to have shaken off their inferiority complex — or, conversely, a misplaced overconfidence — against Italy’s finest and, if United have been weakened by the loss of Ronaldo, the same applies to Milan post-Kaka.
“They [Ronaldo and Kaká] are two great players,” Ferguson said. “When you lose a great player, there’s always a sense of loss, but you have to get around that, move on and look at your team differently. You can’t sit and complain about not having him.
“Regarding Milan, I watched them in their derby game against Inter Milan the other week and Inter played absolutely fantastic. I think there’s a big improvement in Inter. They have a very good team. I think there’s improvement in the Italian teams. In the last few years the English teams have dominated in terms of getting three teams in the semi-finals. In 1999-2000 it was Spain who had three teams in the semi-finals. Maybe it goes in cycles and maybe the cycle has gone towards England at the moment, but with the quality Barcelona have, you can’t call say English teams will be dominating.”
A Spanish journalist asked whether he thought Real were stronger than Barcelona. “Barcelona have experience of winning it and they have a settled team, so you have to go with Barcelona,” Ferguson said. United or Chelsea? “At the moment Chelsea are one point stronger than us [in the Barclays Premier League],” he replied, “but they don’t score as many goals as we do. Seriously, though, there’s nothing between Chelsea and Manchester United.” Milan or Inter? “I think Inter are stronger.”
Ferguson hardly sounded awe-struck when talking about Milan’s threat, preferring to focus on the experience of Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo, Marco Ambrosini and Seedorf than on the attacking flair of Ronaldinho or Alexandre Pato. Whatever the tactical modifications that Leonardo, the Milan coach, has made this season, the collective high tempo — as distinct from individual pace — that devastated United in the semi-final, second leg in May 2007 is no longer there.
Remarkably, United have lost only once in 17 matches away from Old Trafford in the Champions League since that night, the solitary setback coming against Barcelona in last season’s final. They were winners in 2008, losing finalists last May and have to be considered serious contenders again this time, even though, whatever was said about his occasional tendency to fall short on the big nights in the Champions League, they looked a far more potent team with Ronaldo in their line-up than they do without him.
The laments for Ronaldo have never been too far away this season, with Ferguson adding to the sense of nostalgia with his regular references to “the best player in the world”, and defeat by Milan over the two legs would inevitably reignite the debate as to how the money was spent — or rather how it was not spent — on replacing him. But this is an opportunity for players such as Antonio Valencia to perform on one of Europe’s biggest stages and for Darren Fletcher and Rooney to show the confidence that has underpinned the dramatic improvements they have made this season.
With a little encouragement, Ferguson gushed about Rooney last night, even if he did add, a touch spikily, that “the way you lot write about him, he must be God”. He used to make similar complaints about the way the English press revered Beckham.
There is no doubt he resents the idea that this tie is all about the artist formerly known as Goldenballs. For Ferguson, it is almost as much about the two departed superstars, Ronaldo and Kaká — and how these two European heavyweights are coping without them.
Source:The Times
