oh clouds of time, seem to rain on innocence left behind

sports columnists - next to girlfriends - have got to be the most ridiculous people on the planet.

i read an article that screamed 'WHAT NOW MAN UNITED?' detailing the problems that manchester united and alex ferguson are facing after the defeat to barcelona in the champions league.

right, so we lost a champions league final - the second successive final that we reached, and we won the first, might i add - and hence, according to the writer, its time to panic. let me put this into context, this article comes on the end of a highly fruitful campaign, yielding the carling cup and the premier league (the world club cup and the community shield do not quite count) and we lost to a very good team, arguably the best set of players in the world right now.

even more laughable were some of the points brought up.

firstly, the writer mentioned the supposed discontent of ronaldo and tevez and their probable departure in the summer. pay heed to the words supposed and probable.

both ronaldo and tevez are irrefutablely big players, able to win games single-handedly but SAF (not our armed forces but sir alex ferguson) and manchester united - the two are almost synoymous - are bigger than any player, and SAF is experienced, and willy, and ingenious enough to not lose any player that he doesn't wish to, and replace any that he feels are superfluous. just take a look at his track record: japp stam, david beckham, ruud van nistelrooy in recent times (since i started watching football), paul ince and mark hughes earlier, replacing irreplacalbe legends like bryan robson, eric cantona and roy keane among many others that i, with my limited knowledge, cannot recount. time to pan

the most absurd of the lot is to come: the claim that ryan giggs and paul scholes are "past their sell-by date".

this is because, the writer argues, xavi and iniesta domintated the midfield. he goes on, saying that should united have "the likes of steven gerrard or frank lampard... (barcelona) would not have been able to dominate as they did". wait, did chealsea not have frank lampard? and refresh my memory, did chealsea not fall to an iniesta goal? xavi and iniesta is perhaps the finest midfield pairing in the world right now, and we were playing them without darren fletcher who has matured beyond recognition this season, and owen hargreaves too.

also, what happened to evergreen just a week ago? how ludicrous. the duo have been influential throughout the entire season, and none, can hit quite as delectable a 40, 50, 60 yard pass in planet football as scholes. and how many wingers do you know have successfully converted to be a dexterous and accomplished central midfielder? giggs and scholes still have a part, a crucial part to play in this united team, with the sheer amount of experience that they possess and quite simply, their ability.

dimitar berbatov was too lambasted. admittedly, for 30 million pounds, he was a let down. but he is an indubitable class-act. his control, composure, cleverness, craft and cunning are world-class, epitomised by how he took down edwin van der sar's long punt and set up tevez for his goal against manchester city. give him one more year, and a pre-season with his teamates and it'll be more fair to appraise him then.

liverpool's pretension for the league, our debts (which frankly, i'm concerned about too) and the inevitable retirement of SAF one day were too mentioned, but really, they are but arrant bullshit (except the part about the extensive debts) conceived by a deluded individual hell-bent on putting united down - as with the rest of the article.