Champions!

With the 3-0 win against Villa, United won their 20th league title.  It is United's 13th league title in 20 years!  Wonderful!  We knew it was coming, but nevertheless, this is a day for us United fans to celebrate and be proud of our team.  The match itself was good fun, and 5-1 would probably have been a more fitting result.  Robin Van Persie showed once more what a fantastic player he is, with a hat-trick.  If Suarez is voted Player of the Year ahead of Van Persie, there must be something seriously wrong, say no more.  I think Liverpool fan too would rather have Van Persie than Suarez in their team, even though they may not want to admit it. 

This United season has had two halves, in some ways.  In the first half of the season, our attackers often bailed out our defenders, who were even called "clowns" by some observers.  However, since Vidic's return in January, our defense has been outstanding.  It has been great to watch de Gea grow into the role of United's goalkeeper.  He is still very young, but already among the best goalkeepers in the world.  With more experience and confidence, his consistency will grow further.  Rafael has also made great progress this season. And Kagawa and Jones have shown great potential, despite injuries.  All in all, we have a young, winning team, which is well positioned to further improve next season, also in Europe.

Rooney is not leaving

The media is full of stories these days about Wayne Rooney leaving United over the summer, possibly to PSG. I do not trust these dubious reports, whose main purpose is to generate more income for the media. News about Rooney leaving United sell well, of course, but that does not make it true. Remember all the media reports a couple of years ago about Wesley Sneijder coming to United? The stories generated a lot of interest among fans, and were good business for the media, but turned out to be false, or at least misleading.

Rooney has not had a good season, this is true. However, as recently as last season Rooney was probably United's best player overall (together with Valencia, whose form has also dropped this season). And the season before that he was outstanding. What concerns me most, is that Rooney's  fitness level seems lagging. In fact, he is one of the few players who looked fitter before joining United than afterwards (most players have the opposite experience). It makes you wonder: is he eating, training and resting well, like a top athlete should? To make matters worse, Rooney is also picking up frequent injuries these days. He is no longer the "hothead" that he was earlier in his career, and is booked less frequently now. However, this change is a dual-edged sword, as Rooney also  seems to play with less passion and motivation now than before.

Can Rooney recover his top form?  I do think so, and hope that we will see signs of this even before the current season is over.  Picking up another Premier League will also be good for his confidence and motivation.  I also think Rooney is aware that leaving United may not be a boost to his career, rather the opposite. Is it that great to sit among the substitutes on the PSG bench? Probably not. Better for Rooney to stay in United and work his way back into top form, with the world best manager, Sir Alex, fully behind him.

Vital point at West Ham

Before the game at West ham, United needed seven points to be champions. Well, now they need just six points, with five games still left to play. So things are still looking good. To be fair, the West Ham game was quite balanced, and 2-2 seemed a good result. West Ham fans will feel that the Van Persie goal should have been disallowed for offside, but we United fans would retort that Carroll should have been sent off for his attack on de Gea late in the first half. As such, the game was balanced even in when it came to refereeing mistakes. West Ham were very aggressive, and made it difficult to play good football. In my view, Vidic, Kagawa and van Persie stood out among the United players. But our midfield struggled. Where was Anderson and Cleverley? I wish they would get the chance to play more often, including against Aston Villa next Monday. With a win at home against Villa, we will be extremely close to our 20th league title. Come on you Reds!

Solid performace against Stoke

The 2-0 win away against Stoke neatly sums up this United season, at least the Premier League part of it. United were solid once more, and Vidic proved what a positive impact he is having on the other players around him. United were certainly not brilliant, but did not need to be. Stoke never looked likely to score. Van Persie scored again, finally, and now that the bad spell has been broken, I would not be surprised if he follows up with more goals at West Ham. All in all, it was a satisfying game for United fans, as every win at this stage is a huge step towards the trophy. However, I admit that for a neutral observer, the game was probably a bit boring, with few chances created at either end.

Kagawa should play

If a player scores a hat-trick, he would normally expect to keep his place in the team. Not so with Shinji Kagawa. After he scored a hat-trick against Norwich on 2 March 2013, he was dropped for the next game against Real Madrid, and has since been in and out of the team (mostly out). There have been no reports suggesting that Kagawa has been injured, so presumably the decision to drop him comes down to 'footballing reasons', as they say. But since the Norwich game, we have played six games. Among those, we have won only two, drawn one, and lost three. Kagawa has only started two of those (the win against Sunderland, the draw against Chelsea). It seems to me that we are performing significantly better when Kagawa is on the pitch.

Compare that record to Danny Welbeck, who arguably has played only two good games the entire season (incredibly, both against Real Madrid), yet keeps being selected regularly as a starter. In my (subjective) view, we have to go back to Kieran Richardson to find a player that has played to so frequently for United, despite such a poor performance.  Like all United fans, I love it when players come through the youth programme and break into the first team (and even the England squad!).  However, it is also frustrating when there appears to be double standards in effect when players are picked for United's starting line-up (just ask Dimitar Berbatov).

Disappointing Manchester Derby

If you are a Man Utd fan, losing to City is among the worst things that can happen. That said, we are still 12 point clear and should be able to secure the league title without too much nail-biting at the end of the season. Sir Alex praised the players after the City game - he needs to keep morale high at this point - but most United fans will admit that we did not play very well. In fact, we have not played a good game since we lost to Real Madrid a few weeks ago. As unfair and disappointing as the exit from Europe was, it would be wrong to let it define the entire season. By beating Stoke this coming weekend, we can make sure that this will not be the case. Instead, United fans will remember 2012/13 as a season in which we were victorious despite not playing the most entertaining football Old Trafford has ever seen.

How I became a Man Utd fan

Ronnie Whelan made me a Man Utd fan. This sounds odd, perhaps, but yet it is true. I was nine years old and was watching the League Cup final between Man Utd and Liverpool on TV. Actually, I think the tournament was called the 'Milk Cup' at the time. United played well in the first half, and went 1-0 up through an early Norman Whiteside goal. It looked like it this would be the only goal of the game, but United suffered several injuries and were practically playing with nine men towards the end (each team was only allowed one substitution in those days). This seem thoroughly unfair to me, as Gordon McQueen was limping around, unable to play yet still out on the pitch. With a few minutes to go, Liverpool equalized, unfortunately, and the game went into extra time. And in extra time, Ronnie Whelan scored what must have seemed like a beautiful goal to Liverpool fans - a curled shot that left  Gary Bailey no chance - but which I felt was cruel and unfair. I decided to support the team that was struck by such misfortune. I then read about the club's history, and realized that the club had had more than its fair share of tragedy, most notably the 1958 plane crash in Munich. Since then there has been no other club than Man Utd for me.