SOCCER/Uefa Champions League, Group D: Manchester United's preparations for their potentially disastrous Champions League tie against Benfica began in dishevelled fashion yesterday with two players missing the plane to Portugal and only two members of the 1968 European Cup-winning team accepting an invitation to be the club's guests of honour.
It was hardly the entrance they had hoped for and worse was to come for Alex Ferguson, who did not disguise his displeasure at questions about his job security.
Ferguson has spent a great proportion of his adult life perfecting a "let's-take-this-outside" glare and as he fixed his sights on one interrogator yesterday it was tempting to imagine the extremes of his invective had the television cameras not also been present. "I'm not answering that" was his first response. "I'm here to talk about the game, not my future."
When it was put to him that the two were directly linked he went from a dark shade of red to a Ribena purple. Ferguson's mood can generally be gauged by his ruddy complexion and here it was demanding that the subject be changed.
In Ferguson's mind these are not questions that befit a manager who would need an aircraft hangar to fit all his medals. Certainly it has been a long time since he was last subjected to the theory that his reign might hinge on one result - perhaps 15 years, when he took his team to Nottingham Forest for an FA Cup third-round tie and walked out of the tunnel to cries of "Fergie, Fergie, on the dole".
A 21-year-old Mark Robins saved him on that occasion and the issue of whether he ought to harbour such fears again would be made hypothetical with a United victory tonight, which would squeeze them into the knockout stages. Should United come unstuck, however, it is legitimate to ponder whether the Glazers will want him to remain beyond the end of the season.
The Glazer family are hardly known for their tolerance of failure, particularly when large sums of money are involved, and Ferguson is as much in the dark as anyone. One certainty is that it will have been weighing more heavily on his mind last night than the absenteeism of Gerard Pique and Giuseppe Rossi, whose non-attendance at Manchester airport was blamed on a "breakdown in communication".
Ferguson said that "our pride would be hurt, our confidence too" if United did not qualify. "No one enjoys criticism and we've had a buffeting after the defeats to Lille and Middlesbrough - rightly so, because they were bad performances. But some of our young players have had a lot of unfair criticism as well.
"In my opinion there's never a balance when it comes to the media. We're front page, back page. When we win, it's over the top. When we lose, it's over the top. And the young players don't enjoy it."
Group D has been labelled the Group of Dearth, epitomised by the fact that Lille have scored only one goal in five matches yet can still go through with a scoreless draw against Villarreal. United's own scoring problems have seen them fail to score in four out of five matches or, going back to last season, seven from eight.
Cristiano Ronaldo has yet to score in the competition and Wayne Rooney has not managed it since a hat-trick on his debut against Fenerbahce 15 months ago. Perhaps the most galling statistic is that, excluding qualifiers, United have not won away in Europe since November 2003.
There was a note of desperation, too, about Ferguson's assessment of their rivals at Old Trafford. "Lille had one shot from 45 yards and I'm sure they were just trying to waste time, Benfica had two and Villarreal had a free-kick from 30 yards. On that basis we deserve to go through. That teams are coming to Old Trafford to defend demonstrates, in my mind, that they fear us."
Ferguson clearly does not scrutinise the statistics sheets that Uefa makes available to managers after Champions League matches. They will tell him Benfica matched United with 14 shots each, Lille outdid them, 11 against 10, and only Villarreal had a deficit, six against 11. In total that makes 35 for the home side, 31 for the visitors. United averaged four shots on target per match.
Ferguson should be above trying to distort history, especially as he is so fond of wallowing in United's nostalgia. It was the manager's idea that the class of 1968 should join the official party and, privately, he may have been disappointed that only Brian Kidd and Alex Stepney joined Bobby Charlton and Paddy Crerand who, as director and MUTV analyst respectively, are fixtures on away trips. The old-timers have happy memories of Benfica, George Best et al, but for Ferguson tonight's encounter may be remembered as an infamous occasion.
Benfica v Manchester Utd Stadium of Light, 7.45 On TV: RTÉ 2, Sky Sports 2
BENFICA (4-2-3-1, probable): Quim; Alcides, Luisao, Anderson, Leo; Petit, Beto; Nelson, Assis, Geovanni; Gomes.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-1-3-1-1, probable): Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O'Shea; Smith; Ronaldo, Scholes, Giggs; Rooney; Van Nistelrooy.
Referee: K Vassaras (Greece).
