Top of The League, Why Can’t we Just Enjoy it?

I’ve been so used to my team winning that I don’t really appreciate what it means to be as great as we are. There are fans of United though who will remember 26 years without the title. Given that I’m 25 years old, I’m trying to imagine if I’d been born just after a league title that would prove to be our last for 26 years. I’m imagining that with 8 games to go I’m contemplating the first league win of my lifetime. I’d be so excited that I couldn’t move. I wouldn’t give a monkeys that one of our best performers of the season was 38 years old. I wouldn’t really be that bothered that Barcelona are probably a better team. I would just be absolutely psyched that United were in with a chance of a Treble.

Whether they get it or not, I’ve taken a vow to return to the days of shameless, utterly naïve optimism. When United struggle to a win, I’m not going to look at it as a sign that the squad isn’t good enough, or that we need massive investment. I’m not going to view it as a sign of decline, a lowering of standards when Michael Carrick plays, heaven forbid, a sideways pass. I’m going to treat a struggling win as three points closer to the title. A victory of grit and determination, substance ahead of style, not because the team lacks style, but because every other team in the league treats a game against United as a cup final, and plays accordingly. Because to beat teams now, you have to go toe to toe with them. You don’t get all the time in the World.

If I could make the Glazers go away, if I could make United’s debt disappear I would, I really would. But I can’t, so as serious an issue as it is, I’m going to stop moaning about it, and start embracing the brilliance of picking up players like Hernandez for £7m rather than players like Lescott for £24m. I’m not saying I’m going to ignore the problem, but for the next 2 months I’m going to do nothing but dream of glory and the sight of Edwin and his gigantic hands lifting another European Cup, a fitting end to a brilliant career.

When the season ends I’m going to start wondering who United will sign or push forward from the academy to try and fill the Scholes void. I’ll dream of Alexis Sanchez or Douglas Costa easing the pain of Giggs heading off into the sunset. But whilst there are a possible 15 games and 3 trophies left to win I’ve made myself the commitment that I’m going to do nothing but live in the moment. Because the thing with football is you never know when a dynasty is going to crumble.

In the 80s it would have been unthinkable for Liverpool to go more than two decades without a title. When Clough was winning the league with Derby County and the European Cup with Nottingham Forest I doubt either of them imagined where they’d be now. I’m not saying United will fall from grace spectacularly, and I hope that they don’t, but I don’t want to get 20 years down the line and regret not thinking more about the here and now, about the joy of winning, and about how much other teams would love to win as “unspectacularly” as Manchester United are this season

Oh and call me a soppy bugger, but I think Paul Scholes may even make a perfectly timed sliding tackle by the end of this season.

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