Man Utd 1 Chelsea 0 / January Transfer Window

In a week where Roy Keane came out and publicly critiscised players in an aborted MUTV interview. (Named names. Scholes, Smith, Fletcher, Richardson, Ferdinand and Miller. ) Manchester United replied with their best performance of the season disposing of the runaway league leaders at the theatre of dreams on Sunday afternoon.

A day where the Glazers opted to attend the Bucanneers defeat to Carolina, it just shows where their loyalties lie. A club going through their worst week in almost twenty years with a 1-0 defeat to Lille (who?) in The Champions League and a drubbing (4-1) by Middlesboro in the premiership, the Glazers show their true colours by not attending the biggest game of the season so far as the reigning champions come to old trafford.

Nice

We won, and my week off ended on a high. But it was only a short lived high. When I planted both feet firmly on terra firma and analysed the week as a whole we still don't look like serious competitors to Chelsea. Yes, we outplayed them. Yes, we reverted to 4-42 and outfoxed them strategically. Yes, they looked ordinary. But they'll go on to Newcastle next week and win again. And United? Well, I cannot see them performing like they did on Saturday week in and week out. The bottom line is..we are short of players.

I don't mean bodies. I mean players. In the good old days, we could carry a below form Andy Cole or a Jesper Blonqvest coming in for an injured Giggs or a Luke Chadwick wide on the right for a suspended Beckham or a David May in for Big Jaap Stam or a Nicky Butt sitting in the middle for Roy Keane. This was okay because we had the core of great players. Scholes at the top of his game was frightening, the hologram that plays beneath the number 18 shirt now only resembles the Ginger maestro. Beckham is gone and Giggs' pace is gone. Roy Keane is used more for his tactical and organisational skills than his box-to-box energy in days of yore. The central defensive unit is like an under 18's version of Stam, Pallister, Bruce, and even Ronny Jonnson.

The one thing we have seemed to have fixed, after 6 years albeit is the goalkeeping problem. Schmeichel has at last been replaced by Van Der Saar and the George Lazenby's of Barthez, Taibi, Bosnich, Howard, Paul Rachubka(??), Carroll, Raimond Van Der Gouw(??), and even Andy Goram have all well and truly been sent to the great trivia bin of goalkeeping lore.

We need to go out and get the likes of Ballack in January. If he won't come there's no point hanging around. He'll want to come next year on a free if the club starts looking good. January is crucial for signings. We need a creative midfielder. someone to open defenses the way Cantona did. the way Keane and Scholes used to. Apart from Michael Ballack who's out there? Deportivo's Aldo Duscher? Perhaps. he's way ahead of his team mates at La Coruna, and his ambition far outweighs a club in decline. St Etienne's Didier Zokora? I'm aprehensive about french players making the move to the premiership. For every Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira there have been countless Louis Saha's, Antony leTallec's, Salif Diao's, El Hadj Diouf's, Bruno Cheyrou's, and Djibril Cisse's. Admittedly though, most of them ended up at Liverpool. Surely not Tomas Gravesen? Why not? He knows Rooney's style of play from his everton days. He's a good passer of the ball. But is he a United player? The jury is definitely still out on that one.

Here's my 2c. Steed Malbranque. Fulham's heartbeat. Imagine him at a good team. He has strength, vision and can play anywhere in the midfield. Just a thought.

It ain't no sweet smelling future by any stretch, but at least the news that the Glazers have dug deep into the mothballs and come up with a 25 million quid budget for players in January makes that flicker of light at the end of the players tunnel look a bit more like a halogen bulb.
It isn't the Abramovich searchlight, but it is burning that little bit brighter.