• Premier League

Swaggering United are the kings of flash once more

Alan Tyers
September 15, 2014
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney has been joined by a host of foreign stars at Old Trafford this season © Getty Images
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Manchester United's mauling of QPR was a flashback to the club's 1990 glory years, and a warning of dark days to come for the Anyone But United brigade.

Yes, it was only QPR. Or something pretending to be QPR - who definitely aren't as bad as this every week. But Manchester United, for the first time in over a year, actually looked like Manchester United.

The swagger was back.

The years when United dominated the Premiership were characterised not just by being better than other teams, but by being flashier, more exciting, richer, more powerful and more arrogant. The massive signings of late suggest that those days could return.

Of course, this was only one match, it was only QPR, sadly the rules of football mean that the other side is allowed to try and score too, even if Harry Redknapp's team chose not to exercise this right. The United defence is still deeply suspect. But hinted it definitely did, at a return to the good times. Great news for United fans, fun for neutrals, horrorshow for the ABUs.

Van Gaal had called for a fresh start, and this match may prove to have been it. A shame, really: Clown Car United was fun.

Radamel Falcao will form a fearsome trio with messrs Rooney and Van Persie © Getty Images
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What had made the Moyes disaster unbearable was not just that United were losing matches. That can happen to anyone. It was that they seemed smaller, cowed, lessened. They looked like they thought they could lose any game, rather than assuming their quality, verve and helpful collection of radio-controlled referees would win the day. Last season, for the first in many years, other teams travelled to Old Trafford with genuine expectation of points. Manchester United, suddenly, were ordinary.

After the orgy of success in the Ferguson years, that was what the fans could not forgive.

And the United suits, the absolute trailblazers for the idea of football as a business, an entertainment product, a money-maker? They definitely could not allow that to carry on.

The seventh place League finish was a serious threat to the club's "global brand", that dismal and formerly absurd concept that United invented and others crawled over themselves to copy. All those worldwide commercial deals with mobile phone companies and fast food joints and official partner cat food and Phil Jones duvet covers are reliant on success and style on the pitch.

Richer than Croesus, meaner than sin, and uninterested in football, the club's owners paid little attention to the ageing squad or the obviously doomed replacement of the greatest British football manager ever with his wee mate who had done OK at Everton. Only when the bottom line was seriously threatened by the Moyes fiasco did United dip into that well of leverage-financed lolly and spend.

"Maybe there would have been no point in allowing Moyes to spend £150million. Have Everton even got that many players to sell to him?"

It turns out that one way to have a good football team is to spend £150million on players over a summer. Who would have thought it? In Marcos Rojo and Di Maria, they now have the full-back and the left-winger from the Argentina first XI. Daley Blind could be the intelligent, grown-up midfield holder they have coveted since Owen Hargreaves turned out to be made of biscuits. They have Falcao, the bazillion dollar loan man, to play with Rooney and Van Persie. They've even bought an Englishman, in Luke Shaw.

And in Louis van Gaal, they have a manager to make it happen. Maybe there would have been no point in allowing Moyes to spend £150million. Have Everton even got that many players to sell to him? By moving away from his 3-5-2 formation, Van Gaal suggested a flexibility and a humility not always associated with this haughty autocrat. He will get the best out of this battery of attacking talent.

Clearly, there are still major issues with the defenders, many of whom are extremely fortunate to be on the same pitch as Di Maria and Falcao. But perhaps United can bring back the years of "We'll score one more than you".

Even in their most unlikeable days, the era of surrounding the referee, Fergie Time, the prawn sandwiches, ditching the FA Cup to play in the Club World Club Cup World Club World Cup Cup Club Championship in Brazil, United apologists could always say: look at the home-grown English talent we have produced for our first team. Binning off Danny Welbeck is an unwelcome step away from that - but maybe a sign that United are going to use their huge financial muscle on stars, not building very good but not great English players. Not the United tradition, but the modern way.

The new era has arrived. Manchester United, the kings of flash on the pitch and corporate greed off it, have finally spent some of their money on top quality players, and they have a manager who knows how to use them. It will be an exciting time for them, and a worrying one for the rest.

Alan Tyers writes for the Daily Telegraph, ESPNcricinfo and is the author of six books, the most recent of which is 'Tutenkhamen's Tracksuit: The History of Sport in 100ish Objects'

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