Is Manchester United's 'Overachievement' a Cause for Disappointment?

On the 26th of June, 2009, Manchester United fans all over the world were startled. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese winger, arguably United's best player on the right flank, had moved to Real Madrid.

However, his loss at least brought United a jaw dropping sum of 80 million pounds in the most expensive football deal ever.

And then one hoped that this sum of money would be used to snap up United's on-loan, bull Carlitos Alberto Tevez, a fan favorite who felt he deserved more games in the season. However, Tevez moved across to Man City.

100 million pounds worth of talent had been whisked away by two rivals....what came in, was an ‘injury hit, washed up’ forward Michael Owen for free and the promising but rather one-dimensional wide man Antonio Valencia for 18 million pounds.

Before the start of the season, much of the United community felt this was a rebuilding season, a season where winning the league would be very difficult, a season in which the future of the club would be shaped and one hoped that we would come back firing on all cylinders very soon in a season or two.

And then Wayne Rooney happened....of all people it was the number ten, originally scoring goals in spurts, who went on an all out rampage this season to prove he could be a pure goal scorer—not just an "I work hard and my presence is important player".

Valencia came in and gave United something different but with eyebrow raising effectiveness.

The emergence of Darren Fletcher as a big game player and the re-emergence of Nani had Arsenal and many others scampering and Sir Alex Ferguson delighted. Important goals from Michael Owen and a better season for the much criticized Dimitar Berbatov CULMINATED into something quite interesting and just about unexpected.

With the business end of the season in our hands, United were favorites to win their 4th consecutive Premier League Medal and looked set to beat a Bayern Munich side with a horrid defensive record to progress through to the semi finals of the Champions League for the 4th time in a row when most people at the start of the season felt the two tasks were insurmountable.

And in a matter of about one and a half weeks, all seems lost. Out in terrible fashion to Munich in Europe and beaten by Chelsea to give them the edge in the title race...of course being a United fan there is always one rule to be followed - B.E.L.I.E.V.E. 

Be that as it may, the bottom line is that the league is in Chelsea's hands not United's.

A multifactorial equation led to United's downfall...the injury to Rooney and Owen, the freshness of Chelsea at Old Trafford which had United at the wrong end of a 2-1 defeat, the Rafael red card vs. Munich...such silly things cost us big time in the end.

Yet, I still feel MORE PROUD of the Sir Alex and his warriors this time round, than I did for the last three years. We proved all our doubters wrong....we gave and are still giving the League a real shot, did well in the Champions League and went out to the dreaded away goals rule of all things, and of course won the Carling Cup.

With so much against us, we did an amazing job...literally overachieving in the process as no one had expected such fireworks in the first place....and the fact that we did so well only to mess it up at the death is what hurts.

So I would really like to congratulate the side quite simply because they have shown what Manchester United FC is all about....my congratulations and wishes also go out to Bayern Munich and the other European contenders.

However, Chelsea are not getting any of those from me YET, because in spite of the fact that the Blues have an obvious advantage, the race for supremacy in England may still not be over….after all.