Ferguson's job no easier after 16 years
Bill Barclay
After an indifferent start to the season Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had plenty to ponder as he marked 16 years in charge at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
United have found it heavy going on the domestic front this season and currently lie eight points off the pace in the English premier league behind leaders Liverpool.
Shorn of captain Roy Keane, whose season has been spoilt by off-field controversy and injury, Ferguson's side have lacked their usual ruthlessness against weaker opponents.
Only two of their six premier league wins have been by more than one goal and Saturday's scrambling 2-1 victory over Southampton prompted defender Phil Neville to say: "We used to win three or four nil in these sort of games."
Injuries to England defender Rio Ferdinand and Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has also magnified the fact that, compared to their main title rivals Liverpool and Arsenal, United's squad is surprisingly thin.
With clubs unable to move in the transfer market until January under new rules introduced this season, Ferguson has had to make do with what he had got, with mixed results.
On the plus side, United have qualified impressively for the second group phase of the Champions League, with the notable exception of an embarrassing 3-0 defeat by Maccabi Haifa in their last game.
Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron has profited from the absence of Keane to establish himself in midfield and in attack, Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan finally appears to have discovered his goal touch with two goals in his last four games.
Players like Irish defender John O'Shea and South African midfielder Quinton Fortune have also proved capable stand-ins.
But neither is in the world class category required if United are to entertain realistic hope of fulfilling Ferguson's dream of recapturing their Champions League crown in the final at Old Trafford next May.
Keane is still several weeks from fitness following hip surgery and fellow midfielder David Beckham is having to deal with off-field worries of his own after police foiled an attempt to kidnap his pop star wife Victoria at the weekend.
RELATIVE MEDIOCRITY
But United's relative mediocrity this season is simply a measure of Ferguson's unprecedented success during the past decade and a half at Old Trafford.
When Ferguson walked into Old Trafford on November 6, 1986, the club would gladly have settled for lying third in the league and being through to the next phase of Europe's elite club competition.
Seven English league titles, a Champions League triumph and a knighthood are just some of Ferguson's achievements over a period in which United have dominated the English game and established themselves as the world's richest soccer club.
Ferguson has another two seasons to go after this. The 60-year-old Glaswegian admits he did not expect still to be in his post after 16 years but is determined to stay the course.
"I didn't think I'd still be here. I'd just completed eight and a half years at Aberdeen which I thought was a lifetime in management terms. I've had two lifetimes here!" he told Manchester United radio this week.
"I've been lucky -- you need luck no question about that. But you need resilience, determination and stamina to see the job through. It's not an easy job."
