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What went right
Glory, glory Man United.
In the early spring, this column suggested a measure of greatness: that the less luck required to achieve your successes, the greater you are. At the time I was suggesting that winning the double that was in prospect could make this United team a greater team than their Treble-winning predecessors. In the end, United 2008 needed luck at crucial moments - away to Blackburn and then in Moscow - that could have tipped everything against them, just as was the case with United 1999.
But there is nothing wrong with luck and it took a truly exceptional team to be in the position for fortune to carry them over the finish line. The strength of the challenges from Arsenal and Chelsea they overcame makes it all the more remarkable. This United side are candidates for the unresolvable debate about who have been the greatest vintage in English club football.
More than anything else, and despite his penalty blunders in the semi-final and final of the Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo once again made an overwhelming case to be Footballer of the Year, a title he took in a landslide. With Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney, he formed an attacking trio that few could handle. They came up with the goals by which the title was effectively clinched (Chelsea would surely not have dropped points against Bolton on the last day had they been in with a shout).
Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were superb in a defence that conceded just 22 in the Premier League and kept Barcelona scoreless for 180 minutes.
Ryan Giggs has had his detractors as time starts to tell, but he scored a famous goal at Wigan. Then, after Ronaldo's miss in Moscow, he - along with Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson - kept his nerve to score from 12 yards. Cue Nicolas Anelka v Edwin van der Sar...
What went wrong
Portsmouth's controversial FA Cup win at Old Trafford denied United the chance of a Treble - a defeat that United took with little dignity.
Injury reduced the impact of Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville to the role of cheerleader-in-chief, while Louis Saha was as reliable as ever.
Paul Scholes came up with the winner in the Champions League semi-final, but he still can't tackle and scored just one goal in 22 league starts - against Portsmouth on 15 August.
Reasons to be cheerful
Fergie is carrying on, putting off the day when someone has to follow him.
The Glazers - unlike so many new owners - have resisted the temptation to meddle on the playing side and realised that success pays for their debt repayments. Success may mean backing the manager in the transfer market and adding to the debt, but that's a risk they are willing to take.
Doom and gloom
The fans who actually go to games are bearing the brunt of the financial demands imposed by the Glazers' hire-purchase plan. As long as the success continues, the noise of celebration will drown out the complaints; if United falter and still the demands for more money continue, there may be trouble. And all good things come to an end.
United are not a one-man team, but one man has made a substantial difference. Before Ronaldo became the principal source of goals, United endured three barren seasons in the Premier League and Europe, having to take consolation in one FA Cup and one League Cup. His dual role, as the sorcerer and the scorer, has enabled his team to close the substantial financial advantage Chelsea have: the assumption some fans have been making, that he could simply be replaced, is belied by the fact that the Blues have not managed to find someone similar.
In one sentence: United are not a one-man team but it would take two men to replace Ronaldo.
And the moral is...
Never a borrower nor lender be, unless your manager is a winner.
Philip Cornwall
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