McClaren's formula a winning one

There is an interesting advert running in Manchester United's various publications. It is for the club's television channel MUTV and it features, from left to right, David O'Leary, Arsene Wenger and Gianluca Vialli sitting on a settee together. The lights are off and their expressions are anxious - they are watching a programme called `The McClaren Formula'. "Some people will go to any lengths to uncover the secrets of United's world beating success," says the blurb underneath.

The McClaren in question is Steve McClaren, Alex Ferguson's right hand man, and as likely a contender as any to be Ferguson's successor when he steps down in - count `em - 20 1/2 months' time.

Whoever does follow Ferguson will face an awesome task but then McClaren has already been given one job that many thought impossible - replacing Brian Kidd as United's main day-to-day coach. Kidd had a relationship with the players at Old Trafford that was part friend, part uncle and very definitely very close. His was the shoulder they cried on after a stern word from the Scotsman upstairs.

McClaren will have known this and must have viewed the job with a mixture of appetite and apprehension. He need not have worried. While Kidd guided Blackburn Rovers out of the Premiership and into a position which they do not look like recovering from quickly, McClaren set about the gentle imposition of his beliefs and strategies at Old Trafford.

At 39, and after a playing career at Hull City, Derby County, Bristol City and Oxford United, McClaren had come to the attention of Ferguson because of his innovative work as Jim Smith's assistant at the Baseball Ground. His last match in that role was a defeat at Old Trafford in February last year. A day later McClaren was coaching the opposition.

It could be said he is something of a success. In the 58 Premiership matches McClaren has prepared Ferguson's players for since then, United have lost three. Twelve have been drawn, the other 43 have been victories. As it stands this morning, McClaren has neat bookends: his first game was an away win, 8-1 at Nottingham Forest and on Saturday, 3-1 at Everton.

Ferguson wins Manager of the Year, Roy Keane wins Footballer of the Year, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wins United Player of the Year; Beckham, Giggs and Scholes all win plaudits. McClaren, meanwhile, has won quiet admiration. Certainly O'Leary and Wenger would appreciate McClaren's motivational qualities. If Vialli was around still, he would too.

Vialli would also nod approvingly, and perhaps ironically after last week, at McClaren's mission statement as a coach: "What we're after is a `we' and not a `me' mentality. It is a fascinating subject and not at all simple." Another McClaren favourite is: "The coach's best friend is the bench." After saying that McClaren adds: "Brilliant." At United it is, on Saturday at Goodison Park Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke were among those sitting on it.

Though he says it is not simple, the effect is. United are currently playing with such crushing simplicity that the rest are in danger of being obliterated before Claudio Ranieri learns to say: "A top six finish will be a good first season for me in England." As Ranieri surely will at some stage.

Ranieri will have a swift opportunity of meeting the powerful McClaren influence behind the Ferguson dictatorship when he oversees his first away match as the eighth Chelsea manager since 1986, the year Ferguson became United boss.

Because Chelsea visit Manchester next Saturday morning. It is the beginning of what should be a daunting United fixture list. There is a trip to Arsenal the next week, then Ferguson takes his side to Filbert Street after the international weekend. The following week it is Leeds at Old Trafford. Before October is out United could be almost assured of their seventh title in nine years.

In between there is the weekly grind of the Champions League - that's how Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville see it anyway.

Considering their form, no matter how many games they play they'll still win them. Part of the McClaren formula is to analyse each match afterwards on video. But not just from a conventional camera angle, from aerial ones he has had installed. Somehow the thought of the United coaching staff looking down critically from above feels very appropriate this morning.