Come gawk at the larger-than-life scorer of the winning goal from the unforgettable 1999 Champions League-winning match in his very own display cubicle. Or indulge yourself in another fantasy as you feast your eyes on that other magnificent goalscorer from that momentous 2008 Champions League final limbering up in his own display area. Meanwhile, other intriguing exhibits are being planned for a later release …
Welcome one and all to the recently-remodeled United Wonderland!
Complete with a fascinating display of nostalgic installations and amazingly realistic-looking, waxwork museum-type, resurrections invoking the Casper-like nostalgic ghosts of familiar faces from the past still wistfully haunting a ghoulish theatre of dreams – there’s assuredly something in this theme park for all Manchester United fans to enjoy as one is entrancingly lulled into the hazy enchantment of reliving the giddying glories of yesteryears.
It’s truly a magnificent montage juxtaposing stars from an older world way past their playing years, some superstars in transit in their twilight years and the new superhero marvels of the new football universe being forced into a seemingly convincing snug fit as jigsaw puzzle pieces in an all-out endeavor for the maverick Old Trafford raconteurs to spin new tales from the mesmerizing yarns of old. Come one, come all.
Once upon a time, clubs invariably found jobs for former players in slots like corporate hospitality as a gesture of true appreciation and gratitude for services rendered in the past. In the case of Manchester United, the once austere club seems to have gone much further, judging from their most recent, ludicrous shenanigans.
With old trustees like John Murtough fittingly and deservingly spruced up as the new Director of Football and the ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – recently re-affirmed as manager and self-appointed impresario –eagerly trying to show they indeed have the chutzpah needed to reassemble their current squad of misguided misfits that could, at a casual glance, actually be mistaken as pre-ordained apostles in the new playing formation, the whole spectacle is actually turning out to be a farce desperate retrofitting players past and present in this Old Trafford tale of befuddling, albeit amusing, endeavors to recycle past glories from the massive United treasure chest and awkwardly transport them to the present.
A harsh and unfair indictment on the powers that be at the grand old club that is as much of a venerable English institution as the Big Ben?
Hardly, in fact this is a true Shakespearean tragedy of present times after the legendary and true grand knight of the club, Sir Alex Ferguson, got onto his magnificent steed and cantered off into the magical, dusky sunset in 2013. Today the place of the great knight has been usurped, despite all the best intentions, by a Don Quixote on a mule, besotted and beguiled with the fantasy of trysting with windmills morphed into villainous, metaphysical dragons and demons to be purged out with his pitchfork.
Let it not be misconstrued at this juncture that there is anything wrong with pursuing new, meteoric rising stars like Jadon Sancho or proven, vastly-experienced luminaries like Raphael Varane who are still performing at their peak. On the contrary, these are highly-laudable achievements that truly deserve meritorious applause.
In fact, the slick summer transfer window chessboard moves by the United management were near immaculate and actually gave a glimmer of hope of an Old Trafford awakening from slumber and perhaps finally moving in a new direction with a clear road map for the future, breaking away from the mundane, colorless transfer inactivity of recent years – until the latest episode trumpeting discordantly the reintroduction of a visibly jaded Cristiano Ronaldo, although still delivering the goals but undeniably an aging asset that is even now beginning to be compromised with diminishing marginal utility from a commercial viewpoint.
If the United top brass are now indeed patting themselves on their backs with gusto because of their latest ‘catch’, their self-delusion certainly runs much deeper than expected. The Red Devils bagging and tagging Cristiano Ronaldo is certainly not an achievement in any way at par with Paris Saint-Germain’s epochal union with Lionel Messi.
The Parc des Princes club’s signing of Messi, despite being totally unplanned and serendipitous stemming from the Argentine’s unexpected departure from Camp Nou, coincided perfectly with a plan the Parisians had meticulously and laboriously concocted well in advance even prior to their acquisition of the Parisien club as part of the MasterPlan for their future economic amelioration and glory. To all intents and purposes, it is a total win-win situation for both parties, Messi n the Qatar owners of the club, and certainly not a wave-an-imaginary-wand-and-let’s-see-wtf-happens disparate move without any premeditated cognizance or machination, if you get the drift.
Undeniably, Messi and Ronaldo are both in their mid-30s, with the former two years younger. The main point of differentiation demarcating the value of these two titans – from both a purely performance-oriented point of view and also in terms of commercial value are the two years separating them in terms of age. In the super competitive, body-pummeling world of pro football where it’s the survival and ascendancy of only the fittest, that two-year age gap ultimately makes all the world of difference that really matters for those perched at the pinnacle.
Lionel Messi was grandly heralded, most warmly welcomed and adoringly feted by all and sundry not only in all of France but also by his legions of fans worldwide as the ultimate gladiator championing the Parisien juggernauts for the new era…. while Ronaldo’s return to replant his Manchester United roots was announced on a much quieter scale minus the attendant pomp and the pageantry.
In all honesty, the ones who are now truly beaming with the unbridled joy of sheer relief on their faces are the owners and fans of the Italian juggernauts, Juventus, as the Bianconeri are now finally rid of the massive burden that had been lumped onto their backs for some years now.
(Please wait for our Part 2 of this 3-Part Series)