IT'S seven years since Sir Alex Ferguson's side won in Chelsea's back yard – and ending that poor run won't be easy, he tells Phil Shaw
THE SCENE IS Manchester United's training ground during the build-up to today's summit meeting at Stamford Bridge. Sir Alex Ferguson has just revealed he resisted offers to work abroad and reflected upon Carlo Ancelotti's penchant for diamonds. But
his face lights up as he drools over a Chelsea winger with wickedly deceptive pace and old-fashioned touchline trickery.
The player in question is Scottish, although happily for United's currently vulnerable defence as they prepare to confront Chelsea on the 23rd anniversary of their manager's first match at the helm, three decades have passed since Charlie Cooke befuddled a full-back in earnest. Ferguson recalls Cooke's heyday as a time when the Football League was "flooded with Scots". He adds dryly: "It was about the only time English football has had any credibility."
The 67-year-old's reverie about those bygone days arose from a query about the fitness of Darren Fletcher, one of few compatriots appearing regularly in the Premier League. The Scotland captain took a knock in the 3-3 draw with CSKA Moscow but will take his place in United's engine room for a game which, for all his manager's caveats about it being too early in the season to be seen as decisive, is one they can ill afford to lose.
Going into Ferguson's first competitive encounter with Ancelotti in domestic football, the champions are two points behind the leaders. If any team can bridge a five-point gap it is United, as they demonstrated last season in overhauling Chelsea to retain the title by seven points. And yet, after defeat at Liverpool in their most recent tussle with one of the so-called Big Four, Fletcher and company will be aware of the potential dangers of their rivals' ascendancy in this fixture being extended.
Of the past seven games between them in west London, Chelsea have won four and United none; indeed, they are without a win in the last five away fixtures against Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool. True, they drew 2-2 with Ancelotti's new charges at Wembley in the Community Shield in August, but their last success at the Bridge was in 2002. So long ago that Laurent Blanc filled one of United's centre-back berths and Claudio Ranieri's line-up featured Emmanuel Petit, Jesper Gronkjaer and Samuele Dalla Bona.
Listening to Fergie, one has the sense that in Ancelotti, he feels that Chelsea have found an adversary for him who is in the class of Jose Mourinho. The United manager got the better of Ancelotti when his team overcame Juventus in the Champions League semi-finals of 1999, but in 2005 and '07, the 50-year-old's AC Milan side prevailed on each occasion.
Had he hoped Ancelotti would take longer to settle? "He has done a really good job quickly, helped by the fact that he has experienced players around him," Ferguson said. "They can understand the change of tactics better than younger players. If you look at (Michael] Ballack and Deco, they come from countries where tactics are more of an issue. (Nicolas] Anelka and (Didier] Drogba also played abroad, so it's not surprising that they've adapted.
"He has operated with a 'diamond', the same as he did with Milan, the only difference being that there he had Kaka. That made a hell of a difference and the point I'd make is that they're still looking for someone in the most advanced midfield role to balance their team better. They've tried (Frank] Lampard there, they've tried Deco. They even tried (Florent] Malouda and now they have brought in Joe Cole. But they've got the experience to cope."
Ferguson believes that Ancelotti – the co-connoisseur of fine wine to whom he often refers as "Carlo" – is undaunted by the spectre of the ever-popular Mourinho. "He has his own CV and it's impressive. His European pedigree is beyond question, as a player and a coach. He was at Milan longer than we expect of Italian coaches; longer than (Marcello] Lippi spent at Juventus. Maybe he needed a new challenge, and apart from England, where was there? Real Madrid, maybe. Barcelona, maybe."
This prompts the question of whether he has ever been tempted to work overseas himself. "Not really. I've had offers but never been tempted by them. I'm not telling you (the media] what they were, though you would be surprised. It flies over your head and you get on with life."
Life, of course, keeps throwing out awkward challenges. When Govan's finest first blew in from Aberdeen, watching his new team succumb 2-0 to Oxford on this day in 1986, knocking Liverpool off their perch was his ambition. Having done that, he found Arsenal had emerged to vie with them. Then, armed with Roman Abramovich's millions, along came Chelsea.
"They have replaced Arsenal as our main competitor for trophies," he said, a statement calculated to interest Arsene Wenger. "We've faced them in FA and European Cup finals and they or us have been first and second in the League a number of times. They may play a different system now, but they're the same side, with (Petr] Cech and (John] Terry, and they will not be easy to beat."
Mention of Terry – whom Ferguson "never thought" would defect to Manchester City – is a reminder that United have lacked the solidity he brings to Chelsea's back line. Rio Ferdinand remains injured, making it likely that Jonny Evans will partner Nemanja Vidic against Anelka and the rampant Drogba.
"We won't be as open as against CSKA," Ferguson promises, as if seeking to reassure himself. "It's not going to be easy for either team. It'll be intense and feisty, with moments of terrific play."
All the more important, then, that the indefatigable Fletcher is fit to try to stifle the Chelsea supply line. "Darren is a big-game player and he has proved that so many times," asserts Ferguson. "It took a long time for the public and the press to acknowledge that, but we know what his impact in these matches can be."
Elaborating his point, he concludes with a fascinating admission. "Every Manchester United game is harder than anyone else's. Everyone lifts their game for United. The pace of the games is incredible, so you can't play the same people all the time. Ten years ago, Roy Keane, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs were young, fresh and determined. They could run all day. Paul Scholes was a different type of player, of course. They were blessed with such things and we don't have those types of players now."
Which brings us back, after a fashion, to Charlie Cooke, who made his Aberdeen debut on the day in 1960 when Sir Alex first played for St Johnstone. "Most people didn't realise Charlie was much quicker than he looked," Ferguson remembers. "When he first went to Chelsea they had sprints for money and he'd win by half a yard. Next week he won by half a yard again. Then they doubled the money and he won by five yards. Scottish enterprise!"
United are counting on the title race being a marathon, as the time-honoured cliche has it, and not a sprint.
