Champions League, you're having a laugh etc
Unbelievable scenes this evening as both Manchester teams failed miserably to qualify from the group stages of the Champions League - a tournament, lest we forget, whose chief function these days is as a cash cow for the bigger teams, and whose deck is massively stacked in their favour.
City's exit was no surprise, the damage having been done by their failure to beat Napoli. You could argue that Mancini's men were unlucky to land themselves such a tough group - obviously as debutants they had to start in pot 3, but they probably would have been happy be paired with anyone from pot 4 bar the Italians, with the possible exception of Dortmund.
Cynics will point out that the Azzuri were making their first group stage appearance too, but the vast sums spunked by City in the last couple of years created a unique kind of pressure which the team patently struggled to deal with. Napoli's position is more akin to that of Spurs last season - not expected to qualify, and thus able to play with more freedom and reap the rewards.
Meanwhile, the red half of Manchester will be joining their rivals on ITV4 or (shudder) Five on Thursday nights. Theirs is a very different story though, the club arguably becoming victims of the Premier League's success as well as their own. All the big English clubs would agree that the Prem is too big and that we play too many games in this country. Alex Ferguson's response to this has been very canny, moulding a team who can start the season in second gear and grind out results before peaking at the business end of proceedings. Central to this seems to be negotiating the group stage of the Champions League whilst expending as little effort as possible.
Nobody bar the worst types of wind-up merchants and Liverpool fans would seriously suggest that United are a worse team than Basel or Benfica, but seeing as those clubs enjoy shorter seasons and far lower expectations they can afford to really go for it at this early point in the season. This is also the reason Arsenal qualified comfortably from a group that looked harder on paper - after such a calamitous start, including that shambles at Old Trafford, they've simply had to play hard to get any sort of momentum going.
So, for Fergie it's very much a case of living by the sword and dying by the same pointy implement. He will doubtless look on in envy at Real and Barca, who get to play in a smaller league that's arguably less competitive and certainly less physical, and who of course are allowed to trouser most of Spain's TV money for themselves into the bargain. Still, United are not remotely near to crisis and will finish second in the Premier League at the very worst. It's just unfortunate that their noisy neighbours, already awash with more dosh than they know what to do with, now don't have the Champions League to worry about either. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the old devil.
City's exit was no surprise, the damage having been done by their failure to beat Napoli. You could argue that Mancini's men were unlucky to land themselves such a tough group - obviously as debutants they had to start in pot 3, but they probably would have been happy be paired with anyone from pot 4 bar the Italians, with the possible exception of Dortmund.
Cynics will point out that the Azzuri were making their first group stage appearance too, but the vast sums spunked by City in the last couple of years created a unique kind of pressure which the team patently struggled to deal with. Napoli's position is more akin to that of Spurs last season - not expected to qualify, and thus able to play with more freedom and reap the rewards.
Meanwhile, the red half of Manchester will be joining their rivals on ITV4 or (shudder) Five on Thursday nights. Theirs is a very different story though, the club arguably becoming victims of the Premier League's success as well as their own. All the big English clubs would agree that the Prem is too big and that we play too many games in this country. Alex Ferguson's response to this has been very canny, moulding a team who can start the season in second gear and grind out results before peaking at the business end of proceedings. Central to this seems to be negotiating the group stage of the Champions League whilst expending as little effort as possible.
Nobody bar the worst types of wind-up merchants and Liverpool fans would seriously suggest that United are a worse team than Basel or Benfica, but seeing as those clubs enjoy shorter seasons and far lower expectations they can afford to really go for it at this early point in the season. This is also the reason Arsenal qualified comfortably from a group that looked harder on paper - after such a calamitous start, including that shambles at Old Trafford, they've simply had to play hard to get any sort of momentum going.
So, for Fergie it's very much a case of living by the sword and dying by the same pointy implement. He will doubtless look on in envy at Real and Barca, who get to play in a smaller league that's arguably less competitive and certainly less physical, and who of course are allowed to trouser most of Spain's TV money for themselves into the bargain. Still, United are not remotely near to crisis and will finish second in the Premier League at the very worst. It's just unfortunate that their noisy neighbours, already awash with more dosh than they know what to do with, now don't have the Champions League to worry about either. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the old devil.
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