Alex Ferguson has built a new team - in response to Chelsea's rise - which is based on defensive solidity and players who have yet to reach their prime
SOME WOULD claim that Alex Ferguson has already achieved enough in his time at Manchester United to be regarded as the greatest of all British managers, and when you add up the trophies he has won, consider the quality of teams he has produced and the style of football they have played, you have to accept there's some strength in that argument.
There is, though, no question that just one European Cup/Champions League in 22 years at the club is a blot on an otherwise perfect CV, something he has conceded himself.
But, for me, if Ferguson wins that trophy for the second time next Wednesday then he will, very definitely, be out there on his own.
Winning the treble, of course, was the most spectacular of his achievements, but in many ways what has been even more impressive has been his success in building a new team to respond to the challenge of Chelsea, just at a stage when it seemed their wealth would ensure they would dominate English football much as United had done before.
When United went three years without winning the league it looked as though that might be that for Ferguson. He had, after all, already come close to retiring from the job, and many doubted he would have either the energy or the desire to build yet another team.
But he did, to extraordinary effect. And so young is this team it makes me doubt the theory that Ferguson might even retire if they win next week. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney aren't even close to their peak; Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra will be around a while yet; Carlos Tevez is only 24, Nani 21, Anderson 20, and so on.
Why would he choose to hand over that potential to someone else? It's keeping him young; his enthusiasm is boundless. What else would he do? Sit in an office at Old Trafford as life president or something? I don't see it.
You can also sense that he believes this will be his greatest ever United team. Is it already? Well, I think it's very close.
Ferguson has more match-winners now than he's ever had in one squad. He has defensive depth. Yes, maybe in a couple of positions he had better players in the past - Peter Schmeichel and Roy Keane, for example - but for me it's the sum of the parts that makes this team so outstanding.
Ferguson might well have been going for his third or fourth Champions League next week if United had been stronger defensively in recent years; ultimately that is what cost them in the latter stages of the competition.
That has changed. Defensively they are as strong as, maybe stronger than, they have ever been under Ferguson; they rarely give goals away cheaply in Europe any more, as they often tended to do. For me the man who has made all the difference is Vidic. Rio Ferdinand tends to get the plaudits, but I would say Vidic is more important to United.
He is the kind of Steve Bruce figure they've been missing for a while. He just loves defending, he's strong in the air, he's quick, his tackling is very, very good and clean.
Edwin van der Sar's forte isn't particularly coming out for crosses but Vidic deals with those situations. He's taken the lead; he gives the team purpose and direction defensively. Ferdinand has followed and has become a better player as a result.
Evra, too, has turned out to be an outstanding left-back. It is that unit that the success of this United team has been built on.
As we know, there was a near obsession with the need for United to find a replacement for Keane. Basically, I believe, Ferguson stopped trying to find one, instead bringing in a collection of largely interchangeable midfielders - Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves, Anderson - who just go about their business, play with their heads - clever footballers, good passers, hard workers with plenty of energy. None of them, of course, has as dynamic an influence on the team as Keane had, but they do their jobs, and they're all very good players.
Anderson has terrific potential, but for now Carrick stands out - watch the number of interceptions he makes in a game. It's amazing. He just quietly does his job, no fuss about it.
As for Paul Scholes, well, he's simply been the best midfielder in the Premier League for the last 10 years. People complain that he's reckless in the tackle . . . well if he didn't have one flaw he'd be God.
Anybody who has played against him or managed against him will tell you he is a top, top player. There won't be many who would begrudge him a winner's medal on Wednesday after he missed out in 1999.
I tend to laugh when I hear it said that "Ronaldo doesn't do it in the big games". He's certainly done it with Portugal, and I don't think he's done too badly for United in the Champions League this season. But it's always the way; people generally acknowledge that he's fantastic but we must always find a chink.
Look, even on a bad day Ronaldo needs to be marked by two players, so whatever he's doing on the pitch the team is benefiting. Of course he doesn't bully opponents in the big games like he does so often in the Premier League, but that's hardly a surprise - the "big" games have the better players.
He has completely overshadowed Rooney for the last two years and as a result of that it's often said that Rooney is struggling to develop as he should. Wayne Rooney is 22; in football terms the fella is still a baby. If Ronaldo hadn't been scoring his 40-plus goals we'd still all be raving about Rooney. He can play anywhere, he is the ultimate team player, he's got such a fantastic football brain - he is, in my book, the complete footballer.
Tevez, too, will do any job asked of him. His work-rate is fantastic and he's integrated really well into that team. He offers United something different; he'll get you a goal out of nothing, scrappy ones too. I wonder, though, if he'll make the starting line-up in Moscow. Park Ji-Sung took his place when they played Roma away. I'll be interested to see if Ferguson goes down that route again. But we'll talk more about that on Wednesday.
"Football? Bloody hell," was Ferguson's immediate post-match response to United's extraordinary comeback against Bayern Munich in 1999. He might use the same line should the much maligned and endlessly ridiculed Avram Grant match his success rate in the Champions League on Wednesday, in what might well be his only season as a Premier League manager.
But if Ferguson prevails he will, in my book, become the greatest British manager of them all.
" Defensively United are as strong as, maybe stronger than, they have ever been under Ferguson; they rarely give goals away cheaply in Europe any more, as they often tended to do. For me the man who has made all the difference is Vidic
