Next Wednesday's Champions League Final will, Sir Alex Ferguson said in one of the wisest utterances of his first pre-match discussion yesterday, provide salvation to a game which is badly in need of it.
"Football always needs a boost," the Manchester United manager said.
"We have negatives in the game that surface every year in all different ways. When we get a game of football that gives the real story of football, then we are all lifted by it. Manchester United and Barcelona can do that in this final and there's a good strong possibility of it being a very good final."
There are plenty of those negatives which he might have brought to mind. The very public manner of Carlos Tevez's falling out with the club, persistent questions about Cristiano Ronaldo's future and the storm brewing over Ferguson's team selection for Hull City on Sunday and the damage it may do to Alan Shearer and his Newcastle United.
Ferguson was indignant in the extreme when the opening question yesterday concerned forthcoming events on the Humber, not to Tiber. Sometimes the game does seem to be crowded out by its passing controversies.
But the delight Ferguson takes in playing a Catalan side whose history and principles he has always seen as a reflection of his own club's is tempered by an all-too-vivid knowledge of the attacking force United are up against and some late doubts about which of his own defenders will be available to counteract it.
Ferguson's doubts about Rio Ferdinand may see 21-year-old Jonny Evans crowning a season in which he has proved himself as the coming man with a place in the starting line-up.
For all Ferguson's belief in the the Northern Ireland international’s wonderful composure — "I'd have no problem playing Jonny Evans in the final. The kid's had a fantastic season," he insisted yesterday — he saw with his own eyes what he is up against when he watched Barca's 6-2 defeat of Real Madrid on TV a few weeks back.
"I said to myself: ‘Christ, we have to play them possibly'", the United manager admitted.
He has since taken comfort from the manner of Chelsea's display but he knows Evans, if selected, faces his sternest test against that "fantastic team and fantastic individuals."
But Ferguson has also seen Evans' development at close quarters, including his significant role at centre back during the 14 league games which United went without conceding this winter.
Evans played in six of those matches and those who fear for United without Ferdinand in Stadio Olimpico can comfort themselves that the side have lost only one game in which Ferdinand has been missing, all season. That was the 1-0 Carling Cup defeat at Derby, a result later rectified at Old Trafford.
That United have collected 2.84 points per league game without Ferdinandin the side and 2.2 with him says something and the Evans/Vidic partnership has seen Ferguson home to eight wins out of eight in the league and 11 out of 13 in Europe this season and their goals conceded record together is also slightly superior.
All that said, the importance of Ferdinand to the task of deterring the interchanging Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto'o and, possibly Thierry Henry, is indisputable.
The most challenging night of United's season — at Porto's Estadio do Dragao where the club arrived with their European pretentions so fragile on April 15, saw Ferdinand return from three games out with back spasms to offer a masterful display. Now his calf strain has seen him out of another three.
Though Vidic collected the United player's player of the year award, it is the Englishman who has committed fewest errors, the ball which dropped out of the sun allowing Darren Bent to beat him and score against Tottenham last month a rare exception.
Ferguson will need assuredness on an occasion when John O'Shea, a possible target for the Spanish and a name already inked into Ferguson's starting line-up, might find himself up against Henry, though the manager insisted that the Irishman's reputation as one who makes up the numbers for United is unjustified now.
Ferguson likened O'Shea to Denis Irwin, the defender he banked on for 12 years.
"We used to say Denis was an 8 out of 10 every week," Ferguson said.
"But he didn't get the celebrity that a lot of Manchester United players get. John O'Shea falls into that category.
"He can play anywhere for me. He's played in goal, all along the back-four, in midfield. Because of the injuries to Gary Neville and Wes Brown this year, he has become a permanent fixture. He's ahead of everyone now."
source: belfast telegraph
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