It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day

So here it is.

A summer to reflect, come to terms with and, eventually, move on from
the turmoil of last season has come and gone. The unimportant yet often
entertaining spectacle of a biennial football tournament, followed by the
greatest sporting event in the world right on my doorstep (the benefits of
being a ‘Cockney’ red) certainly made the last three months bearable. Yet nothing even
comes close to following a team that gives me such equal unnerving measures of
pleasure and pain. So I guess with that, here it is – my one and ONLY reference
of that day. Just to show that I have
moved on (even though deep down I’m nowhere close...)

An older generation will tell me about 1995 and the 1-1 draw at Upton
Park. A generation or two before will discuss, or at least try to without
welling up, Dennis Law’s back heel in the 1974 derby. But the heartache
experienced on the 13^th May 2012 has to surely surpass every
previous on-field drama that the club has ever experienced. Spoilt with success
we may have been, sometimes even complacent, yet nothing can prepare you for
that. With moments – literally moments – left of a long, tiring season where we
battled our way out of a 10-point deficit to lead, it all
somehow...disappeared? Out of our hands going into that final day, we found
ourselves praying for a miracle. It nearly happened. Although undeserved if it had.
QPR and their angry little midfielder were not to blame, neither was a ‘dominant
City side’ as they have strangely become known even after winning the title only
on goal difference – it was our own fault entirely. From winning it because we
fought our way to the top, to losing it because we didn’t fight hard enough. Our
season was over in the blink of an eye. Equal unnerving measures of pleasure
and pain, indeed.

Yet it happened. The eternal enemy snatched what would have been our
landmark 20^th title. And so we are forced to reflect, come to terms
with and...etc etc.

However something rather magical happened this pre-season. In what
seemed a gesture of good will from Sir Alex and the Glazer’s who clearly felt our
pain – or at least the pain to their reputation (Sir Alex)/back pocket (the Glazer’s)
at missing out on the title – they answered our cries. Time is a healer? No. Far
too cliché. Money however...

Much to everyone’s bemusement, United went and made the signing of the
summer. Whereas the last four/five pre-seasons have belonged to the likes of Chelsea
and City and, on the continent, Real, Barca and upsettingly PSG, United have gone
into this season boasting world footballs hottest ‘available’ striker. The feeling
on hearing this news was one I experienced once before, when we spent
£28.1million on the world-class Seba Veron. However the significance of £24million
Robin Van Persie’s signing is far far greater.

Injury prone; 29 years old; £21.5million profit. All so-called viable
reasons stated by Arsenal fans in favour of selling Van Persie. Conveniently forgetting
the more relevant points – 37 goals last season, 30 in the league; 15 assists
and the current PFA and FWA player of the year – in the process. Delusional? Marginally,
as even the most besotted, excitable United fan cannot block their ears to the
three points listed at the beginning of this paragraph. Yet to me, a fan who
injects hearty doses of realism into the besotted, excitable mix, I see this
signing as symbolic.

Contrary to popular, tiresome belief, United don’t buy big-name players.
We have spent vast amounts of money enhancing the squad over the years, no one
can deny that, yet while we are consistently linked to many of the world’s
best, the world’s best never actually make it to the red half of Manchester.
Veron as I mentioned, along with maybe Rooney’s signing after the fantastic
tournament he had in Euro 2004, is one of the only examples I can think of
where we’ve signed someone based solely on their already-developed reputation as
a world beater as opposed to someone with bags of potential. And in this day and
age, where footballs nouveau-riche totally dominate the purchasing of these
sorts of players, United – thanks largely to the hundreds of millions pounds of
debt we find ourselves in – are often forced to make the more modest, more
risky signings.

The fact that we have signed Van Persie however over any other team is colossal.
After boldly stating a month ago that he wanted to leave Arsenal in search of trophy-winning
football, he in turn alerted the world that he was available. The Premier
League’s best player was saying ‘come and get me’, and in doing so the usual
suspects listened, monitored and discussed closely as to how they were going to
get their man. Because let’s face it, when it comes to the best, they always
do.

Yet shockingly he chose United, and Wenger was forced to embarrassingly sell
his best player to his biggest rivals. The ‘Roy Keane is a demon’ song, a
representation of how United used to sway some of footballs most wanted, can
now be reapplied. We are back. And the world knows it. No one saw this coming.

For the first time in over a decade, we enter a season with the finest
front-line in British football. That’s not to say the rest of the side has
developed and improved in tangent – with echoes of ‘what about United’s central
midfield?’ being heard loud and clear (yet unacknowledged) for around the third
season running. However with the additions that have been made to compliment
our new striker, a mix of potential (Powell) and an exciting playmaker with
Champions League experience (Kagawa), we are better equipped to take our title
back than we have ever been.

As United kick off our 2012/2013 tonight at Goodison Park, we are
instilled with an overwhelming sense of self-belief. If anyone thought United didn’t
have it in them to overcome the City storm – on the pitch and in the transfer
market – and that last season’s title win would finally signal a shift in power,
they were mistaken. Yet for once that ignorant attitude that has so often been
the driving force for Sir Alex and his team is in the minority.

To a
weaker team, the intense pressure to deliver after spending big in order to
regain the league can become too much. Not for Sir Alex. And not for United. We
go into this season with a renewed, entitled sense of desire and most
importantly: belief. It won’t be easy. And although it will offer equal unnerving measures
of pleasure and pain, I
cannot wait to experience every breathtaking minute of it.