Patience is a virtue...

Will this season be a failure if we don’t win the Premier League?

The media will say so, calling for Mancini’s head in banner headlines whilst secretly penning their stories berating Sheikh Mansour’s lack of patience if he does bow to their mass induced hysteria.

The papers are already dancing to the tune of the Evil Empire, rolling out all manner of has beens and hangers on with connections to utd, quoting verbatim the party line….’United know how to win titles’ … ’dressing room full of winners’…. ’City will bottle it’….. ’the pressure will be too much for them’ etc and so on.

Alan Hansen even decreed on Match of the Day that we were a team on the verge of capitulation… and we didn’t even have a game that weekend! United beating Wolves 5-0 seemed to indicate some kind of lack of moral fibre on our part.

However, let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good headline.

But let’s look at some of these facts (real ones, not Rafa ones).

United won the league by nine points last season and only amassed 80 in total – that wouldn’t even have got second place in any of the previous six seasons.

We’ll end up, probably, with around 88-90 points. Is that a poor season? Really??
90 points would have been enough to secure eight of the last ten Premier League titles.

The season isn’t over yet, despite what the papers say. We may slip up. They may slip up. Everything’s still up for grabs so don’t despair.

If it was them that were three points behind and us having to go there on April 30th, do you think they’d be writing off their chances? Not a cat in hell's chance.

And there is the reason, the sole reason why this season is not as cut and dried as it should have been. If we don’t end up winning the title it won’t be for the lack of trying. It won’t be because we lost at Sunderland or couldn’t win at West Brom.

It will be because United would not let go. For all the media hype about them, there is something to be said for their mentality. They really don’t know when they’re beaten, or when they’re shit. They just haven’t gone away.

For every swashbuckling win we had, they were there, scraping a last minute winner at Norwich, or grinding out 1-0 wins at Everton, Villa, Swansea, even coming from 3-0 down to draw at Chelsea.

You don’t win everything going for 20 odd years without picking up a trick or two. They are drawing on every ounce of experience, summoning up reserves that they didn’t think they had. Whilst calling Scholes out of retirement was a sad indictment on the state of their youngsters, it has to be said he has added greatly to their squad.

And all in an attempt to slow down the raging juggernaut that is Manchester City FC.
This is the best City team that I have ever seen (I’m 43) and has delivered some of the best football ever seen, not just from a City team, but from any English team.

There’s a certain 6-1 demolition at the swamp.

Champions League football.

So don’t be downhearted if we don’t manage to win the title this year. It will have taken everything United have – and then some – to stop us. No, not stop us……delay us. Because we’re not going away. We’re going to come back bigger, better and stronger.

Six of United's regulars are over 30 - only two of ours are.

In two years time Richards, Kompany, Milner, Dzeko, Johnson, Kolarov, Aguero, Nasri, Silva, Clichy, Hart and Balotelli will all still be 27 and under. Yaya Toure, Zabaleta and de Jong will still be under 30. Lescott, Kolo Toure and even Barry will be younger than Ferdinand is now!

Over at The Swamp, they have an ageing team and no money to replace them with.

Our day will come, and many more to follow, whether that be this season or next.

We’ve waited 44 years for a title. I don’t know about you, but I can wait another year.