End of a Season

Another season comes to a close and let's be frank, as a Manchester United fan, it was hard to be too disappointed with what happened on Saturday night. Barcelona are as good as the hype and we're not actually that good, compared to previous years at least. If you'd said to me in November that we would win the league and reach the Champions League final, I'd have assumed you'd been sniffing the glue.

As for the final, I'm not sure we ever stood much chance. We needed them to have a major off day and for us to play beyond our best. It didn't happen. Perhaps if we'd invested in some kind of cloning machine to make up versions of Bryan Robson circa 1984 and Mark Hughes circa 1991, we'd have been able to make a better fight of it but, alas, science still has a lot to do.

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
1) Javier Hernandez emerging as a potentially world-class striker. When the news came through prior to the World Cup, I doubt most fans had much idea of what would happen. He got the team out of jail several times, notably at Stoke and West Brom, and his winner against Everton kept us on track for the title after the wobble at Newcastle.

2) Chris Smalling turning out to be a handy defender, which was just as well after Jonny Evans seemed to forget how to play football with any degree of confidence. Smooth on the ball in the tradition of McQueen, Pallister and Ferdinand, he can only get better by learning from the latter of those and Vidic. In his first couple of appearances, he looked hopelessly lost on the big stage, but he's proven to be a quick learner and bar the odd mistake we can put down to lack of experience, I'm never worried to see his name on the team sheet.

3) Having watched the FA Youth Cup final 2nd leg last week, we've got a few young lads who look like they could make it in Ravel Morrison, Paul Pogba and Ryan Tunnicliffe, assuming the first of those can stay out of jail. With Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck both impressing in their loan spells, you'd hope next season will see them given the chance to shine, especially with Giggs and Scholes getting older and Darron Gibson just not being good enough.

REASONS TO WORRY
1) The Glazers potentially preventing the kind of investment the squad needs to stay on top, especially with the Money Pit up the road finally breaking their trophy drought and making it into the big boys league. Whoever gets the poisoned chalice of the Chelsea hotseat will also doubtless have big bucks to spunk on whoever they fancy either. Luckily, Arsenal will do their usual implosion next season, so no need to worry about them.

2) Edwin van der Sar retiring. Before the 1990s, United teams usually had a pretty decent keeper who was just short of top class (Stepney, Bailey, Sealey) or a bit ropey (Roche, Leighton). Thankfully, we've been blessed with two of the best in the big Danish guy and Mr Ed. But with the Dutchman taking a well deserved break at the age of 40, the worry is that we'll go through the same fiasco we did after 1999. If we'd signed Eddie then, I reckon we might have won another European title or two. Still, thanks for the memories, big fella, and take it easy.

3) The lack of quality in midfield. Owen Hargreaves has been binned off, itself a great shame as we've sorely missed a proper ball winner in the middle of the park. Capitulations against Liverpool, Arsenal, City in the cup and Barcelona were not helped by the lack of someone to spoil the other's teams play. In the past, we've had Robson, Ince and Keane, three of the best. Here's hoping Fergie has identified a solution.

To conclude, any season we win the league is a good one by my standards. When I was a kid, I always wondered whether we'd win more championships and European Cups than Liverpool. We've done half of that, and if not for the fact of one insanely good team, we might have even equalled them on the other. Always next year.