what to make of arsenal?

(it should be noted that this was written, just not published, before today's games)

so it seems that the home dressing room at the emirates was a bit of a mess on wednesday night.

clichy was in tears, gallas, silvestre and adebayor were all criticised by the manager and generally the picture painted is one of chaos.

much was made of arsenal's collapse - their supposed lack of maturity & experience, their inability to kill off the game - but i genuinely think that most people overstate this somewhat. firstly, the team is experienced. it might not be old, but a great deal of the players in the side have considerable experience in domestic, european and international football. ignoring the fact he may be the best pure central midfielder in the world at the age of 21, fabregas has made over 200 appearances for the club and has 36 caps for his country (plus one European Championship winner's medal). even gael clichy, who i would rate alongside patrice evra as the best left-back in the premier league despite his mistake on wednesday, has made nearly 150 senior appearances for arsenal and is now a member of the full france squad at the age of 22. in fact, of arsenal's starting xi on wednesday, only denilson had less than 100 senior appearances at the time of kick off; according to wikipedia, spurs had two - gareth bale and benoit assou-ekotto.

furthermore, the avalanche of criticism that has befallen arsenal since their ignominious collapse fails to recognise the sheer chance of spurs' comeback - if that game was replayed 100 times, on how many occasions do spurs come back from a frankly deserved two-goal deficit in the last 5 minutes? 3? no more than 5 i would say. fact is, at 80 minutes, arsenal were comfortable and the eventual result was utter freakishness.

however, this is not to say that arsenal's flawless performance was undone by random chance. rather substantial flaws were on display throughout the encounter, flaws that continue to suggest wenger has erred in his recruitment policy. whilst i may be the only person on the planet who doesn't think manuel almunia is especially poor, wenger could definitely do with a new goalie. that lukas fabianski is still hanging around is probably a good sign that wenger rates him - young players not making the grade are generally shipped out pretty quickly - but then again this may be his last year to make an impression before getting shipped out. but the problem that needs to be wenger's highest priority is his centre-back pairing.

specifically, the problem here is necessarily the personnel but the mixture of players that the back four contains. william gallas may be everyone's new favourite scapegoat - and his lack of leadership is far from ideal - but remains a really good centre back, with a rare mixture of pace and anticipation. certainly, wednesday was a great example of this, as the frenchman kept roman pavlyuchenko ridiculously quiet, pre-empting his movement and chasing down the occasional ball into the channels with ease. however, to be most effective, gallas needs to be paired with someone who can make up for his lack of aerial dominance; it is surely no coincidence that he experienced his best run of form in the premier league playing alongside john terry. mickael silvestre isn't john terry, that's for sure - in fact, his skillset mirrors gallas rather than compliments it (although silvstre has him beaten on the "flakiness and mistakes" scale by quite some distance). as such, the two are never going to be a particularly good pairing. what arsenal need is a skrtel or vidic, someone who will do that dirty work, bullying attackers and winning those aerial battles.

of course, the problems don't stop there. as i have been saying since my verbose, tedious premiership preview thing, arsenal need a proper defensive midfielder in their team, and nothing has happened to change that; looking back at the spurs game, it probably is no coincidence to see all four spurs goals come from the same route, with shots coming in from the edge of the penalty area, exactly where you would expect to have that anchorman breaking the play up. admittedly, for the jenas goal clichy's mistake probably would have rendered any defensive midfielder irrelevant and modric's shot that essentially set-up the lennon equaliser was contested, but it still must be a worrying pattern. alex song was inserted into the role against west ham and occasionally looked ponderous in possession, particularly in the first half, but that was indicative of a wider malaise that seemed to also envelop cesc fabregas as arsenal struggled to get into gear. probably the most worrying aspect was that even with song in the line-up west ham still looked dangerous on the counter, but that may have simply been a consequence of arsenal having almost too much possession, their midfielders and full-backs being sucked up the pitch only to then be worryingly out of position when west ham tried to play quick direct passes up to bellamy. still, the cameroonian is worth persevering with, not simply because his performances in the african cup of nations demonstrated him to be a young man of enormous potential, but also since arsenal don't really have any alternatives and probably won't until at least the end of the season, unless wenger recruits from outside the pool of champions league sides.

the worst thing for arsenal fans is that this could have so easily been averted - if wenger hadn't been so stubborn and spent the money available to him, he could have been looking at a title-winning side. instead, he's looking squarely at 4th place and the possible departure of cesc fabregas next summer.

aborted notes from arsenal & spurs

aborted?

because i left the pub after 80 minutes, the first time i've ever done so, as i was so depressed. great stuff (and i mean that both sarcastically and honestly, if that's possible).

my thoughts (up to that point):

- gael clichy and bacary sagna were really inconspicuously excellent; clichy, in particular, was absolutely great. they are without question the best full-back partnership in the premier league, some way beyond the pairing of cole & bosingwa.

- luka modric flickered, but demonstrated real quality at times. with slightly more license to roam, and the security of huddlestone and jenas behind him, he linked the play very well when spurs (rather sporadically) ventured forward in any numbers.

- gomes was just not good enough: by my reckoning he was at fault for 2 of the 4 goals. the first one was obviously his fault as he lurched into a punch he was never going to make, and the second he should have been able to save, getting in position but basically not getting his bottom hand low enough to keep the ball out. he dropped at least one other cross if my memory serves me correctly, and just didn't convince.

- woodgate and corluka were actually really good - adebayor in particular was kept remarkably quiet and only really threatened when mistakes allowed play to break down. in the end, spurs conceded 4 goals and some fatuous criticism will probably be levelled at the defence, when in actuality it was more a combination of gomes and a little incompetence from hutton that really made the difference.

- the latter sort of leads into my next point: arsenal were actually struggling to create real chances and relied broadly on spurs' errors; i can't remember a time apart from the third goal when spurs were dissected by arsenal's passing. also, it should be underlined - what a great pass for arsenal's third.

- bale really was anonymous; assou-ekotto looked a little better in terms of positioning but his distribution and touch were frequently poor. i still think bale needs to be groomed chiefly as an attacking full-back.

anyway, i just watched match of the day and the moronic pair of hansen and shearer suggested it was back and forth and both sides deserved something - nonsense. arsenal were the better side for the majority of the game, dominating possession and territory. certainly, they created little, but its not like spurs could say anything different, and they all too often combined basic errors in defence with an unnecessarily reluctant attitude towards attacking. that spurs eventually scraped the draw is fantastic for me as a spurs fan, but let us not delude ourselves that this was some sort of magic footballing spectacle - it was essentially a freak end to a match that generally would have ended as a clear arsenal victory.

grafter hall of fame inductee number one: marcus bent

marcus bent is obviously rubbish. the man has never had any real finishing ability, technically he is less than adept and he is unable to make up for this with a particularly good footballing brain.

marcus bent is also one of my all time favourite footballers. he is, as i may have mentioned rubbish - so rubbish that in 55 appearances for everton between 2004 and 2006 he scored 7 goals, less than one in every 7 games. but i love marcus bent because of his prolific workrate. in that that everton side, the embryonic moyes 4-5-1, he was played as a lone striker and was superb, playing 37 games in the 2004-2005 season as the toffees finished in a rather amazing fourth place. no support, it didn't matter: balls were pumped down the channels, bent chased; the ball was knocked back to the goalie, bent chased; the centre-backs were pinging the ball around at the back, bent chased. alright, he didn't score too many goals, but no one has worked harder or done more for their team with less talent. how many premier league teams in the past 10 years have finished in the top five playing a lone striker who scores 6 goals?

he is the iconic grafter, the grafter all others should aspire to be. marcus bent, i salute you.

the grafters hall of fame: an occasional series

well, as previously mentioned, i had another regular feature in the works - and it is this, the grafters hall of fame. (punctuation alert: do i use an apostrophe in grafters? hmmm.)

basically, i love grafters, the players they don't really have much talent but work their socks off; the embodiment of a basic professionalism that is almost extinct. nowadays players are praised for working hard - "they never gave up"; "their effort was commendable"; "their flair was no match for the grit and determination of their opponents" - when this shouldn't be remarkable. playing hard should be a basic expectation for anyone paid to compete on a football field; it is almost like me being credited with replying to my client emails in an appraisal at work. but obviously, with the way many footballers are indulged - and let us not forget, premier league footballers are generally young men of average intelligence from average (or below average) backgrounds) who are lavished with millions before their 25th birthdays, so indulgence is often a fundamental part of the lifestyle - genuinely hard-work is optional. the best, as in every facet of life, can get away with jogging half the time as opposed to sprinting, but that nonchalence has trickled down into the median level as well. when jonathan woodgate tells the media that the spurs team needs a kick up the arse & needs to work harder, people - me included - see it as indictment of the manager; clearly, someone hasn't been able to make them work hard. as in every job, motivation by senior management undoubtedly impacts the level of work produced, but there also needs to be a recognition that sometimes players themselves need to do a better job of self-motivation. without wanting to sound too much like a sun editorial, you can't help but think that this mini generation of young millionaires are probably a little too spoiled.

this is where the grafters hall of fame comes in. it is recognition, in the most minor way possible, of those that have succeeded more due to hard-work and commitment - running the channels for 90 minutes, pressing, harrassing, maintaining your disclipline, staying in position, tracking back, never giving up.

i salute you all.

reading list: sid lowe on daniel levy

i don't normally do this, but i think i might make it one of two new semi-regular (i.e. when i remember to do them) features, along with a top-secret project i'm currently devising. anyway, it's essentially recommended reading; most articles will probably come from either the guardian or the times as they are the two dailies i check for sports comment, so with some simple detective work you should be able to pre-empt my recommendations with a lackadaisical ease, but occasionally i read something worth sharing so it might be of value.

first up, the guardian's sid lowe on daniel levy. it's very funny, and a good beginners guide to the kind of maniacal despotism that has been virulent within spanish football for some time.

for the record, i am no fan of daniel levy. clearly, he has mismanaged the footballing side of the club over the last few years, blundering in his attempts to install the sporting director/coach dynamic and probably playing too prominent role in player sales & recruitment (specifically how much influence he had is difficult to gauge from the confines of my sofa). certainly, it seems as if he had an unhealthy influence on the berbatov deal, and i would be very interested to find out if he had anything to do with the signings of rocha, boateng, stalteri, bent (a player i actually rate, but not for £16m), jenas (ditto, but for £9m instead) & legendary clogger (at least in my head) hossam ghaly. however, what needs to be balanced with that is that he has overseen a spurs regime that is on, as far as i am aware, a stable financial footing, with either no debt or a small, manageable amount. this is no small feat, especially given the level of money invested in player personnel across the past few years (which has been further bumped up by the compensation he's had to pay to departing managers), and something that should be envied in the current climate.

ideally, i think he could do a better job by taking a backseat and delegating a bit more (although this would include some sort of empowered recruitment executive, which isn't going to happen any time soon), but i am dubious.

pompey set to appoint tony adams

according to reports, portsmouth will announce tony adams as their new manager at 1pm this afternoon.

i like it. clearly, when he took the wycombe job he wasn't ready; no experience of a dressing room from the other perspective, let alone from the manager's. at pompey he's had a positive impact on their back four (at least last season... we'll gloss over that performance against city earlier this year) and generally seems to be better equipped now to deal with the pressures of being a premier league manager.

and ultimately, i like the idea of taking a risk on a talented younger man as opposed to giving one of the usual suspects - fat sam in this case - another job. generally i don't like the idea of just handing over the reigns to inexperienced ex-players (it would be laughable, for instance, if alan shearer were to walk into the newcastle job, and i think even a relative success story like gareth southgate would have benefitted from taking time to learn his trade before taking the boro job), but when they have demonstrated promise and earned their badges i would much rather take a risk on someone who might be fantastic than give the job to someone who you know will be average. (it is the same reason i was in favour of paul ince getting the blackburn job from the very beginning, although to be fair to ince he had worked minor miracles in the lower leagues and his promise seemed quite clear.)

so i'm not saying that adams will be a success - for the record, i certainly hope he will be - but its a hiring i'm definitely in favour of.

further reaction the the spurs situation

- first thing that redknapp needs to do on monday morning is appoint a new captain. obviously ledley king cannot continue; corluka needs to come in at centre-back on a permanent basis. hutton plays in the right, chris gunter becomes his back-up. my guess, along with everyone else in the western world, is jonathan woodgate gets the armband.

this is one of the main benefits of bringing in a new man - if the existing pair of captains had been removed by the unpopular, failing incumbent, the dressing room would have been a mess; redknapp, alternatively, has the legitimacy and authority to remove them and place another in the leadership role.

- presumably, this signals the end of spurs' long-standing belief in the continental sporting director/coach set-up. at the beginning of the season, when questions began to be asked regarding such a system, redknapp was prominent in his opposition to it, the hackneyed old school manager through and through, throwing around worn out platitudes about "letting managers manage". there is absolutely no way arry signs up to work under a director of football, especially not after the velimir zejec and avram grant nonsense that he was subjected to previously.

obviously, i'm still of the belief that with most managers, a system incorporating player personnel staff with the authority to check the baseless indulgences and hunches of those foremost employed to coach is a good thing; i certainly do not want a handful of nugents, utakas, pamarots & kabouls further clogging up the spurs squad. this is not to say that the system is infallible - if the sporting director is incompetent, you just as easily end up with a squad full of rochas, boatengs and stalteris. but the idea that the qualities that allow managers to coach and motivate also allow them to judge the talent of players and assign an appropriate value, whilst being expected to carry out those other duties simultaneously, is not one i subscribe to. the sporting director, or personnel assistant, simply makes too much sense not to be used. obviously ferguson and wenger are exceptions, but as i have elaborated on previously, both have encouraged systems that benefit their recruitment abilities - ferguson learning the value of delegation and entrusting a great deal to assistants, whilst wenger has his network of super-scouts, headed up by the incomparable steve rowley, to handpick the best talents for his assessment. that is why they have better players. that is why they are better coaches.

we no longer play the 2-3-5 or the WM or even the 4-2-4. as the game changes, tactics have changed. why would recruitment be any different? why would the same rules apply for eternity as the system evolves into a different beast altogether?

what it means to manage has changed; those that fail to recognise that are doomed to mediocrity.

- i am interested to see who comes in as his assistant. arry has made it clear that tony adams will not follow, and joe jordan will be "making his own mind up" or something. this is clearly crucial.

- i am also interested to see what approach spurs take today and whether arry has any influence on the selection. clearly, along with the captaincy issue, arry needs to do a better job balancing the midfield, generating an appropriate level of support for the lone striker whilst retaining a better defensive element. no easy task. the best thing is that we don't have the playing staff to implement that godawful 3-5-2 he's been flirting with the season.

although saying that, gareth bale would probably be the ideal wingback.

uh oh.

- finally, the thing to watch in the coming months is the make-up of his preferred xi. clearly, some players will not be to his liking and will be shipped out in january; it can also be assumed that levy will again back his manager in the transfer market during the window, especially if spurs are still flailing around in the relegation zone. that arry knows the financial situation well at pompey might be something to remember - if rumours of financial difficulties are true, and his comments this morning about them needing to "sell the manager" are indicative of anything, then lassana diarra may be available at a decent price. and although the man may be reasonably objectionable, he would be an excellent addition to the spurs midfield. also worth a bet - what are the odds of him bringing back jermain defoe to white hart lane? defoe had a great relationship with the fans, was clearly fond of the place himself, and arry rates him; not entirely beyond the realms of possibility i think. also welcome - niko kranjcar. spurs need another attacking midfielder, and the croat would potentially be a good partner for the compatriot that will surely be the fulcrum of any spurs side under arry. (or at least should be the fulcrum of any spurs side under arry.)

so, thats all for now. i'm probably going to be watching some of chelsea liverpool and west ham arsenal later, so there may well be further ramblings in the coming hours.

ramos is sacked: i am happy; redknapp is appointed; i am sad

first things first then. juande ramos has been sacked as spurs manager. at this stage, this is undoubtedly a good thing: jonathan woodgate's comments in the wake of yet another defeat, this time a comprehensive mauling by udinese, made it imperative. clearly the side was a mess, and whatever plan ramos had at the beginning of the season had fallen to pieces. in any case, the existence of any sort of plan is something that appeared doubtful once the season was underway: ramos chopped and changed, never allowing the side to settle, never allowing new players to properly acclimatise to the premiership, and most crucially never sending out a particularly complimentary or balanced line-up. the root of the problem was the mess in central midfield - without a proper defensive player consistently picked to anchor the side, the team was invariably inept at the back and imbalanced in attack, especially with modric, probably the most talented member of the squad, being played too deep. similarly heinous was his treatment of david bentley, who excelled on the right for blackburn yet found himself shuffled around match to match until he ended up on the bench and out of the england squad. to misuse one £16m player is probably unwise, but to misuse two is probably sackable. there is also the farcical ledley king saga to factor in, as the de jure captain is wheeled in and out for a game every 3 weeks, leaving jermaine jenas to lead the side in his absence. and say what you will about jermaine jenas, but one would presume even his biggest supporters wouldn't be suggesting him as captaincy material. because ramos refused to deliver a proper solution to the matter - the proper solution being to strip king of the captaincy and hand it to jonathan woodgate, the only senior player who is guaranteed a place in the side at this point - spurs have lacked any semblance of leadership on the pitch.

clearly, as the side lurched from defeat to defeat against a plethora of sides with inferior talent within their ranks (apart from chelsea, and potentially aston villa, that applies to every premier league outfit spurs have faced so far this season), the buck needed to stop with ramos. there can be no doubt, however, that he had been dealt a poor hand by damian comolli, who handled the berbatov departure poorly and failed to recruit a proper replacement or a true defensive midfielder of any quality. he has consistently misused the vast resources at his disposal - younes kaboul for £7m or kevin-prince boateng for £5m anyone? - and has generally proved a reasonably dismal judge of talent, which is a problem for a man whose job it is to judge talent. he too now finds himself quite rightly sacked.

what is likely to be said in some quarter tomorrow is that comolli and comolli alone should have been held accountable - from the departure of jol to the end of this season's summer transfer window, he has done an appalling job as sporting director of tottenham hotspur. this isn't in doubt, but spurs are rock bottom of the league and surely not even comolli's detractors would have the gall to proclaim that he has provided ramos with a championship-quality squad. regardless of the shenanigans behind the scenes, this spurs team has grossly underperformed on the pitch this season, and that can only be attributed to the manager.

so, unequivocally, i believe that sacking ramos was the right thing to do. some may quibble at the timing - it has come, in classic spurs fashion - a mere 16 hours before the club's next game, but one can only imagine that the implicit discontent emanating from various players in recent days turned into a full blown dressing room mutiny, undermining ramos and making the timing irrelevant.

what is more worrying, however, is the appointment of harry redknapp. simply put, there is no more overrated manager in the premiership than redknapp, a man whose ability to hypnotise public and media alike to ignore the stunning mediocrity of his record, including relegation with southampton and near-relegation with portsmouth that can both be placed squarely on his shoulders , is one of the most amazing things in english football. paul doyle summed up the case against harry better than i ever could at ten to one in the morning, and i agree: redknapp is nothing to be excited about. his achievements at portsmouth are negligible - the flukiest fa cup triumph in recent history is not being counted as a particular achievement here - and their football isn't particularly good, with a rather poor goalscoring record last season that served to illustrate the rather stodgy, narrow approach they generally seemed to take. and this season, pompey have been a defensive shambles (uh oh) only saved really by the efficacy of that defoe-crouch strikeforce against middling sides (double uh oh). which, if i need to make it any clearer, is an approach that doesn't really play to tottenham's current strengths.

let me be clear about this: i didn't think tottenham would get relegated this season, even after the stoke game, and i still don't now. the side is simply too good, and you got the sense that levy would bail out whoever was in charge with extra funds in january. nevertheless, be prepared for a rather radical scaling back of ambition for spurs - i don't think the combination of redknapp and the current playing staff would be anywhere near good enough to qualify for europe, even if they could wind the clock back 8 games. what is odd is that when martin jol departed, i was almost overjoyed; ramos was the last piece of the puzzle, a man who would sort out a rather ill-disciplined, unfit squad and marshal them perhaps into the top 4, a rarefied atmosphere jol was always going to struggle to reach. yet the 12 months in which juande ramos has been in charge have instead resulted in the end of all hope; the brief, wonderful time during which being a spurs fan wasn't such a problem, in which we achieved something of real value (and yes, regardless of what anyone may say, consecutive 5th place finishes in the premier league is indeed an achievement - one that i would genuinely place far above a spurious fa cup triumph), now seems as if it has definitively ended.

bugger.

MSI want £27m for Carlos Tevez. Why would you ever dream of paying that?

when carlos tevez and javier mascherano first signed for west ham on that crazy transfer deadline in august 2006, there was that hubristic chatter about champions league football. these were the two players to transform the ambitious hammers into real challengers - the sophisticated negativity of mascherano would add bite to the midfield whilst the joyous flair of tevez would supplant the otherwise mundane harewood and zamora in order to play off the revelatory dean ashton. perfect.

except it didn't quite work out that way. mascherano didn't seem to quite grasp the premier league, and successive west ham managers certainly didn't grasp him: he was out of the first xi with startling rapidity, playing in the reserves, the team wholly incapable of accomodating him. there was more perseverance with tevez, despite a torrent of those horrible, peering-through-your-fingers misses, of the sort diego forlan used to specialise in, when you recognise that sympathetic concoction of talent and a total lack of confidence. at one point he was even played out on the left wing by alan curbishley, the second manager of that fateful season, but through the sheer force of his ability managed to pull himself back into his rightful position, scoring a series of obscenely significant goals that helped west ham stay in the premier league.

of course, that would not be the end of the torrid affair. mascherano had already left for liverpool by that stage, and in the process of signing him rick parry noticed a few choice sentences in his contract that would signal the beginning of a (still unresolved) legal saga concerning both argentinians, west ham, and the clubs who felt most wronged by the situation. tevez departed for manchester united, always a slightly unconvincing move as despite his obvious qualities there was a suspicion he offered little that wayne rooney and cristiano ronaldo weren't capable of themselves.

perhaps that was the point; with the tactically flexibility that united adopted in the prolonged absence of supposed lead-striker louis saha, tevez, rooney and ronaldo were interchangeable. each could expect to play as much through the middle as they could on the flank. it was certainly the making of cristiano ronaldo, as the portuguese evolved from goal-scoring winger into perhaps the best offensive player in the world, a symbol of the new tactical amorphousness, the player without no fixed position beyond "attack". nevertheless, at times, especially when united stationed a solitary ronaldo up-front against barcelona, you felt that united needed more presence in the final third, a player around which the others could orbit around.

eventually, alex ferguson signed dimitar berbatov, a signing in which my faith is long and very clearly established. with him in the side, ronaldo has been inconspicuously effective, scoring a handful of goals since his return in an inexplicably low-key manner. it is rooney that has soared, allowed back from the ancillary, sparking into life and justifying the esteem in which many (including myself) continued to hold him. and in this new line-up, carlos tevez has drifted out of the spotlight.

the problem is, carlos tevez simply isn't a footballer of the highest class. he's quick without being electric, skilled without being daunting; a decent finisher, capable of flashes of genius without ever really conveying the impression that he could ever really transform that into consistent production. if anything, his most outstanding attributes are physical - quietly terrifying strength coupled with perhaps the most impressive stamina you could ever wish to see. the way he refused to cease chasing in the champions league final was, frankly, spell-binding. but one cannot help but feel that without his latin heritage this would be a considerably less valuable footballer; a skillset almost at odds with la nuestra, that most religious of footballing creeds, his presence has always felt more anglo-saxon than anything else. like dirk kuyt, the less talented brother plying his trade half an hour down the road, the unceasing commitment, the willingness to sacrifice seemingly any and every joule of energy within his body, places him within that canon of english footballing heroes more than any other. and the point is, united already have the superior version of carlos tevez, the carlos tevez with added virtuoso talent: his name is wayne rooney.

given all of this, the price tag that the more-or-less despicable kia joorabchian has placed on his head - supposedly £27m - is preposterous. you can see why ferguson would want to keep the argentine, but at that price he shouldn't even contemplate it; for £27m you should expect more than physical freakishness, the right attitude and capricious talent. depending on the progression of nani, united should be more concerned with that 3rd attacker behind berbatov, and the tendinitis that still hampers owen hargreaves might mean united need to try again at recruiting a midfield anchor. for a substitute, no matter how well suited, £27m is largesse that even chelsea would scoff at. united can get their man, but not for that price.

is paul scholes' injury a hidden blessing for alex ferguson?

at this point in his glorious career, expressing admiration for paul scholes is almost demanded; his fabulous footballing ability has long been praised, but never has the reverence with which he is currently treated by the public and media alike been so high. but let me be quite clear: i love paul scholes. he has been a quite superb player since breaking into the united side, playing the kind of simplistic, visionary football that belied the usual cliches about english football. this was a player just as capable technically and mentally as the great continental midfielders of the time. the combination of him and ryan giggs in the same team meant i could never bring myself to actually dislike man united, even as a kid, when your instinct is to hate just about anything that dares to be dominant. he will go down as one of my favourite all-time players.

it is a shame then, that alex ferguson - of all people - seems even more intoxicated by this powerful nostalgia. for it is he that has kept paul scholes as the fulcrum of the manchester united midfield, despite the quite obvious wane in his powers. as last season wore on, you could see scholes slipping, his efforts clearly undermined by his advancing years. there can be no better symbol than the champions league final: a promising opening that declined very rapidly into anonymity. scholes couldn't get a grip on the game, and was one of the main reasons that chelsea got better and better as the clock ticked down. it wasn't as if this came as any surprise - ferguson's admission he would definitely play scholes in the final was shocking, especially after similarly anonymous performances against barcelona in the semis. admittedly, the goal he scored to settle that tie was absolutely vintage paul scholes - a swerving, venomous strike from 20 yards out bringing back hazy memories of the turn of the century when he would seemingly score 10 of them a season - but other than that there was a real lack of influence from him. that, and that alone, could be no greater indictment of his play.

at this point, the hub of manchester united's passing game is michael carrick. i remember watching the team struggle in the manchester derby last season, listless and lacking that metronomic rhythm that carrick brings. the ex-spurs man is an underrated defender - about twice as good as scholes ever was in that facet of the game - and combines that with an excellent range of passing and tremendous awareness. undoubtedly, united have sorely missed him at times, none more so than against liverpool when they completely lost any grip they had on the game when he was finally forced off with an ankle injury. that day, javier mascherano hassled, harried and dominated the midfield on his own, particularly in the second half, and scholes trudged off, two-thirds of the match completed, a man who had singularly failed to cope. obviously, his midfield partner anderson was also culpable, but scholes in particular was powerless to stop the argentine running riot. but this season, there has been no coronation, no changing of the guard: fergie had simply played them both. this was always a flawed strategy, as now scholes is essentially the defensive deficient version of carrick, who despite his better-than-perceived defensive skills, still is primarily a ball-playing midfielder. both sit deep, and can't offer the workrate or dynamism that you would really want in the two-man partnership.

and now, scholes is out, injured with knee ligament damage. not a tear, which would see him sidelined until at least the beginning of next season, but a sprain or some other tweak that will rule him out for around two months. with scholes playing the way he is this certainly isn't a loss, and given who will replace him united may well be better off.

so who will replace him? with carrick also out and owen hargreaves struggling with his chronic tendinitis, anderson will continue, ryan giggs may get some playing time and rodrigo possebon might also have a bigger role to play, providing that he isn't still feeling tha after-effects of emmanuel pogatetz's assault on his ankle. but the crucial figure here is the much-maligned darren fletcher.

having spent the early part of his united career essentially viewed as a clumsy oaf never really good enough to be wearing the shirt, fletcher has developed into a very fine player indeed. he combines a superb workrate with good defensive abilities, and although his passing will never see him confused for a playmaker, he has developed his technique to the point where he is absolutely deserving of a place in the same team as his more illustrious contemporaries. as his early-season cameo against portsmouth demonstrated, the scot also possesses great movement and surprisingly good timing and instinct around the box. for united, he can help by doing the dirty work that no one else is capable of - the pressing & harrassment of the opposition - whilst managing to keep up in other facets of the game. combined with anderson, all long, fluid strides and stunning assuredness, his presence will undoubtedly be of benefit to a side that seemed to lack a real sense of purpose and determination in a few games earlier this season.

and this is why paul scholes being out could end up helping ferguson. by removing the clearly fading veteran, united are now looking at a midfield with considerably less romance, greatly reduced recognition and markedly increased effectiveness. well, in theory.