UNITED UNDER PRESSURE: The Champions League failure against Porto made it feel as if the lights had been dimmed on Manchester United's season, yet the result also casts a pall over the past.
Once the piercing regret has eased, the disappointment will invigorate arguments over the policies that have been pursued in recent years.
Alex Ferguson wanted to ward off that morbid introspection on Tuesday night and there was a case for presenting United as victims of happenstance. Why, he implied, should anyone despair when a team are strafed by semi-random events in the last minute of a game that had until then gone well? Phil Neville need not have committed a foul, Tim Howard would usually have done better than to paw Benni McCarthy's free kick down into the goalmouth, and the ball fell with uncommon convenience into the path of Costinha. Riveting as that scene was, however, the gaze has to be torn away from it.
United, by Ferguson's account, had been very fortunate to lose only 2-1 in the first leg, so there is no overall injustice to the outcome. It emphasised that, since the 1999 success in the Champions League, the team have become high-class drudges. There have been only three honours for them.
Almost any other club would be delighted by three Premiership titles in that period, but United had set themselves for an assault on greatness. It was Ferguson himself who insisted a single Champions League trophy in one period does not embed a team in the history of the game.
Five years on from that Nou Camp night against Bayern Munich, the record books still depict United as a noteworthy and consistent side who cannot, however, stand comparison with the likes of Milan, let alone Real Madrid. Ferguson is a man thwarted and the supporters will be disappointed with him.
Since 1999, United's money has gushed into the transfer market as never before, but the standards of a team who are lagging in the Premiership at present have dipped as the influence of the homegrown element becomes less pronounced.
Although every leading chairman shudders at the potential impact of Chelsea's means, Ferguson has not been at a disadvantage so far.
He shrugged upon losing out to the Stamford Bridge club for the signature of Arjen Robben, hinting it was folly to spend £13.5m on the PSV youngster. Ferguson, all the same, has come up with similarly Abramovichian sums for Louis Saha and Cristiano Ronaldo, with far greater outlay previously on Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand.
So far, of recent headline acquisitions, Ruud van Nistelrooy is alone in showing himself worthy of his fee. The United manager is trying to implant a youthful vibrancy in the line-up, by plucking fresh faces out of the reserves or, more commonly, the transfer market.
Ferguson would appreciate patience, but the daily pressures hustle the club. Though the fightback that took United to the league championship a year ago merited deep respect, it is significant that Arsenal, United's opponents in next month's FA Cup semi-final, remained a far more popular side with neutral observers.
People were transfixed by the potential of Arsene Wenger's team, which is now being realised in an enthralling manner. Only once, in the 6-2 thrashing of Newcastle United at St James' Park last season, have United generated such awe.
The comfort for Ferguson lies in the fact that David Beckham was not in action that day, demonstrating that the player who was then sold to Real Madrid was never the single guarantor of brilliance. The difficulty does not arise from losing him so much as in the shaky effort to reorganise without him.
Ferguson has brought in commonplace midfielders such as Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba, gambled on the promise of youth and has looked less shrewd than Wenger.
The Frenchman's small budget stimulated his ingenuity and when there was an influx of money he got the player he wanted most, Jose Antonio Reyes, despite rival interest from Chelsea. At Old Trafford, they are left to wonder what might have been had the flabbergasting collapse of the Ronaldinho deal been prevented.
As Barcelona gradually recover, the worth of the mercurial Brazilian is being illustrated. His brilliance might well have restored the sheen to United's build-up. Ferguson's dispute, now settled, with John Magnier was a distraction and he could be faulted for not bringing in a mature defender such as Gareth Southgate in the transfer window, but the frustrations go deeper.
The past five years have not turned out as Ferguson dreamed. There is no present threat to his position but another blank season to follow the one United endured as recently as 2002 will make it easier for the directors to envisage life without Ferguson.
