Airtricity League XI v Manchester Utd:THE DECISION by Alex Ferguson to only fly his players in today for this evening's game at the Aviva Stadium combined with Wayne Rooney's after-hours socialising in Manchester on Sunday night suggests that not everyone associated with the English club sees the pre-season clash against the Airtricity League as a priority.
As the local players were put through their final paces at the stadium yesterday, though, it was at least clear they and their manager are up for a game Damien Richardson hopes can restore a little of the shine taken off the league by the disappointing European defeats suffered by Bohemians and Dundalk.
Ferguson, of course, has bigger fish to fry, with even this weekend’s rather more high-profile clash with Chelsea at Wembley of little consequence when compared to the start of the league campaign itself next week.
Given the proximity of the big kick-off, indeed, the Scot may even take the pictures of his star striker smoking and, it seems, urinating on a street in Manchester the other night as confirmation that avoiding an overnight away was for the best really.
He may even take some small consolation from the suggestion the 24-year-old might have regained an ability to multi-task when doing even one thing well appeared to be completely beyond him while he was on international duty with England in South Africa.
Richardson, needless to say, was deeply respectful of his opposite number and philosophical about Ferguson wanting to minimise the disruption this evening’s game will cause to his preparations for the new campaign.
“They’ve been away in the United States for football or commercial reasons and now they’re coming here and I can understand completely they want to take whatever chance they have to do some work on the training ground, that’s of critical importance for them at this stage of the pre season.”
He is, however, hoping that with such a strong squad to choose from, Ferguson starts with a strong team.
“I hope Manchester United play the very best team they can and that their team plays the very best football that it can,” he said. “It is very important that we, as a group, do ourselves justice and give the public the chance to discuss the team in those sorts of terms.
“We won’t be doing a damage limitation exercise against United. That would not do anybody any favours. We won’t be trying to impress people by saying we kept the score down by parking the bus in front of the penalty area, that we got away with a 2-0 defeat. That would be an admission of inferiority.
“I want these players to show their best talents and potential and take United on on level terms. We want our players to live up to their potential and there’s no point in bringing United over here and then spending the whole night trying to soak up pressure.”
While a handful of United’s bigger names, including Edwin van der Sar, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand will, for one reason or another, be absent, the party is still sprinkled with very major stars. In addition to Rooney, Nemanja Vidic and Michael Carrick are both set to make their first appearances, while John O’Shea is set to captain the side and Darron Gibson is also likely to feature.
Bohemians midfielder Paul Keegan, the Irish side’s captain this evening, was looking forward yesterday to meeting up with the northerner again three years after a spell together in the Ireland under-21 midfield.
He recalled yesterday a game in the Netherlands when the pair both did well against a side that would go on to become European champions. Ireland had apparently been the better side but they lost narrowly and the two midfielders returned to rather different club set-ups.
“Yeah, he’s doing all right, I suppose,” he said with a laugh, “but I’m not doing too bad either. I’m delighted for him, that he’s broken into the team. It’s the same with (Darren) Fletcher (who Keegan played against on a number of occasions during his time in England). You can only be delighted for the players that have done that.”
Being out there with them, playing in the first football match to be played at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road and representing the league is, Keegan recognised, an honour, although he is keenly aware he is only available for the match because of Bohemians’ catastrophic defeat by TNS in the Champions League qualifiers.
Asked if he would prefer to have progressed to the next round where Bohemians would have been paired with Anderlecht, Keegan had no hesitation:
“Absolutely,” he said, “but I’m not so I’ll play against Manchester United instead. You can’t really compare the two.
“We’ve got to learn from the game against TNS and the only way to put that right is by winning the league again and coming back next year to play in Europe.”
In the meantime, Richardson insisted, he and the other players have the opportunity to show an anticipated 40,000 football fans they are worthy of sharing a stage with tonight’s opposition and, perhaps, ensuring that representative teams from the league get the opportunity to feature in such games again.
Some of the League of Ireland’s fans might well question just how desirable that is but few of the players, it seems, are likely to turn their backs on the chance if it presents itself.
AIRTRICITY LEAGUE XI: Rogers (St Patrick's Athletic); Shelley (Bohemians), Powell (Bohemians), Peers (Sligo Rovers), Oman (Bohemians), Guy (St Patrick's Athletic), Keegan (Bohemians, capt), Williams (Sporting Fingal), Ndo (Sligo Rovers), Brennan (Bohemians), Madden (Bohemians).
MANCHESTER UNITED SQUAD: Kuszczak, Amos, R Da Silva, F Da Silva, Vidic, Smalling, Evans, O'Shea, Carrick, Fletcher, Gibson, Nani, Park, Valencia, Berbatov, Owen, Rooney,
