forever UNITED

AsSalam wrh. wbt. and hola everybody,

Now that the season has effectively ended with Chelsea's FA Cup Final win over Everton at Wembley last night, it's that time again for reviews to be made and performances scrutinized. The major talking points for United fans, which I'm pretty sure, still revolves around that fateful night in Rome. In the blogosphere, social networking sites, not to mention your friendly neighbourhood mamak joints, it's all about what might have been for the Red Devils.

So-called 'experts' of football popped out everywhere and soon enough we'll be seeing and reading stories or reports from 'close sources' of a United player quoted liberally. One thing that really gets on my nerve is this, before United's defeat to Barcelona, I was reading ad nausea about "This is the greatest United side", or "Scholes and Giggs can go on and on", or "This United team will conquer everything in the next few years"... you get the idea. Post-match, things are looking rather different if you ask me, that includes United fans and haters.

Even some quarters of the United fans are calling for Sir Alex Ferguson's resignation ! Just hang on a minute, I love this club as much as the next United fan and I know just how high the standards are when players come and play for Manchester United Football Club, but surely we can be grateful enough for what United has achieved this season. I bet, if you ask those pesky Scousers or the cocky Gunners if they would like a FIFA World Club Cup, thrown in together with the Carling Cup and the Barclay's Premier League trophy in their list of winnings this year what would their response be ? You be the judge ! And to think that Fergie has taken us to another UEFA Champions League Final for the second year running, you really have to draw a line somewhere. I could sense the general feeling of the Malaysian Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal supporters when United made it to the final, they would instead support Barcelona just as an act of revenge or loathe for the successes that United has achieved this season, what else can you say when on average, the viewers at the mamak restaurant that I went to celebrated Barcelona's first goal outnumbered the United fans by a ratio of 5 to 1. Surely, Barcelona would have to open their first Malaysian Supporters branch if those were 'genuine' Barca fans.

It hurts when the fans felt that they've been letdown by the players, but Barcelona just got everything right that night...the tactics, the players, the strategy, the gameplan, the motivations, the breaks, you name it they have it. The majority of the pundits, critics and commentators alike felt that Fergie has got it all wrong with the tactics he employed, fair enough to me. For all its worth though, I just think that United will rise again from this, Fergie will accept the challenge again because that is exactly what he's thriving for all these years. It used to be that Juventus side in the late 90's that includes the likes of Cico Ferrara, Zinedine Zidane, Edgar Davids, Didier Deschamps and a young Alex Del Piero that everybody wants to emulate and beat, Juve was the benchmark then. Barcelona is the benchmark now. Let's do it again lads...