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Is this the start of the decline and the fall of the Ferguson empire?
Sir Alex Ferguson is a keen student of history. In his interview with the gut-wrenchingly sycophantic Alastair 'I support Burnley and Manchester United' Campbell for New Statesman magazine last week, he banged on about how much he loves reading about, and picking up tips from, such great leaders as Abraham Lincoln.
So I'm sure Sir Alex won't mind me also turning to past events to try to glean some insight into what is going on with Manchester United.
Until two weeks ago, Sir Alex's empire looked unbeatable in any competition.
Their squad appeared to be the biggest, most powerful army of men ever assembled on a field of combat.
I, like many, was convinced they had a real chance of winning the first-ever quintuple
But history tells us that when any empire reaches that point of virtual global supremacy, equally total ignominious collapse usually lies never far away. So it seems with United.
Thrashed 4-1 by Liverpool, then stuffed 2-0 by Fulham, they now find themselves engulfed in self-doubt, bitter recrimination, civil unrest and that decaying stench that follows the gloriously intoxicating aura of invincibility.
We Arsenal fans know all about that. After going through the 2003-04 season unbeaten, our own Invincibles disintegrated faster than former RBS boss Fred 'The Shred' Goodwin's smirk after the vandals struck.
For United, though, the parallels with the Fall of Rome are a more obvious analogy.
One of the best history books ever written is Edward Gibbon's The History of The Decline And Fall of The Roman Empire, an enormous series of tomes that charts in vivid detail how and why the seemingly unstoppable Romans went belly-up.
In a nutshell, the demise began with too much money and arrogance, leading to a breakdown in the phenomenal discipline that had made the Romans omnipotent.
Overpaid, and overfed, the star soldiers grew lazy and took their eyes off the ball.
This led to stupid mistakes, a loss of their all-important fear factor and, as a consequence, increased levels of confidence in their enemies. Sound familiar, Fergie?
I watched the United games against Liverpool and Fulham and could scarcely believe what I was seeing.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a limp shadow of the goalscoring machine of last season.
Wayne Rooney showed once again the petulance that has blighted his career.
And as for Dimitar Berbatov, he is displaying all the commitment and fighting spirit of a diseased aardvark.
But for me, the defining moment that signified the possible beginning of the end of the Ferguson empire came when Fernando Torres made such a muppet out of Nemanja Vidic.
For the country's best defender to be humiliated on the biggest stage in such a way was a hammer blow that seemed to suck every vestige of imperialistic life out of the hapless Serb and his colleagues.
I wrote a few months ago that if Steven Gerrard and Torres stayed fit, then Liverpool could win the league.
And, as virtually every other football pundit still maintains that United will recover and prevail, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I believe Liverpool will win - IF, and it's a crucial 'if', those two phenomenal players remain injury-free for the rest of the season.
On a more positive note, I suspect that the decline and fall of the Ferguson empire would not have quite as catastrophic an effect on civilisation as the decline of the Romans had.
That sounded the death knell - for centuries - for literacy and education, sophisticated architecture and the rule of written law.
I can't quite see the departure of Mr Rooney, the Theatre of Dreams or United's shocking disciplinary record leaving quite the same vacuum.
And to all those United fans who will mock me when they read this, let me remind you that on their shirts, your players still have the letters of their sponsors, AIG.
Which is ironic really, because at the time that deal was struck, AIG were the Roman Empire of global insurance - a supremely successful, seemingly unbeatable entity at the top of their game.
Today, within just a few months, they have become a disastrous laughing stock, brought to their knees by greed and laziness.
They were a bunch of Berbatovs - very expensive but averse to due diligence.
Blips in football are nothing new but to blip at this particular time of the season, in this alarming way, just when your most ferocious rivals hit the form of their lives, may not just be 'squeaky-bum' time for United and Sir Alex.
It might be Time, period.
Sir Alex Ferguson is a keen student of history. In his interview with the gut-wrenchingly sycophantic Alastair 'I support Burnley and Manchester United' Campbell for New Statesman magazine last week, he banged on about how much he loves reading about, and picking up tips from, such great leaders as Abraham Lincoln.
So I'm sure Sir Alex won't mind me also turning to past events to try to glean some insight into what is going on with Manchester United.
Until two weeks ago, Sir Alex's empire looked unbeatable in any competition.
Their squad appeared to be the biggest, most powerful army of men ever assembled on a field of combat.
I, like many, was convinced they had a real chance of winning the first-ever quintuple
But history tells us that when any empire reaches that point of virtual global supremacy, equally total ignominious collapse usually lies never far away. So it seems with United.
Thrashed 4-1 by Liverpool, then stuffed 2-0 by Fulham, they now find themselves engulfed in self-doubt, bitter recrimination, civil unrest and that decaying stench that follows the gloriously intoxicating aura of invincibility.
We Arsenal fans know all about that. After going through the 2003-04 season unbeaten, our own Invincibles disintegrated faster than former RBS boss Fred 'The Shred' Goodwin's smirk after the vandals struck.
For United, though, the parallels with the Fall of Rome are a more obvious analogy.
One of the best history books ever written is Edward Gibbon's The History of The Decline And Fall of The Roman Empire, an enormous series of tomes that charts in vivid detail how and why the seemingly unstoppable Romans went belly-up.
In a nutshell, the demise began with too much money and arrogance, leading to a breakdown in the phenomenal discipline that had made the Romans omnipotent.
Overpaid, and overfed, the star soldiers grew lazy and took their eyes off the ball.
This led to stupid mistakes, a loss of their all-important fear factor and, as a consequence, increased levels of confidence in their enemies. Sound familiar, Fergie?
I watched the United games against Liverpool and Fulham and could scarcely believe what I was seeing.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a limp shadow of the goalscoring machine of last season.
Wayne Rooney showed once again the petulance that has blighted his career.
And as for Dimitar Berbatov, he is displaying all the commitment and fighting spirit of a diseased aardvark.
But for me, the defining moment that signified the possible beginning of the end of the Ferguson empire came when Fernando Torres made such a muppet out of Nemanja Vidic.
For the country's best defender to be humiliated on the biggest stage in such a way was a hammer blow that seemed to suck every vestige of imperialistic life out of the hapless Serb and his colleagues.
I wrote a few months ago that if Steven Gerrard and Torres stayed fit, then Liverpool could win the league.
And, as virtually every other football pundit still maintains that United will recover and prevail, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I believe Liverpool will win - IF, and it's a crucial 'if', those two phenomenal players remain injury-free for the rest of the season.
On a more positive note, I suspect that the decline and fall of the Ferguson empire would not have quite as catastrophic an effect on civilisation as the decline of the Romans had.
That sounded the death knell - for centuries - for literacy and education, sophisticated architecture and the rule of written law.
I can't quite see the departure of Mr Rooney, the Theatre of Dreams or United's shocking disciplinary record leaving quite the same vacuum.
And to all those United fans who will mock me when they read this, let me remind you that on their shirts, your players still have the letters of their sponsors, AIG.
Which is ironic really, because at the time that deal was struck, AIG were the Roman Empire of global insurance - a supremely successful, seemingly unbeatable entity at the top of their game.
Today, within just a few months, they have become a disastrous laughing stock, brought to their knees by greed and laziness.
They were a bunch of Berbatovs - very expensive but averse to due diligence.
Blips in football are nothing new but to blip at this particular time of the season, in this alarming way, just when your most ferocious rivals hit the form of their lives, may not just be 'squeaky-bum' time for United and Sir Alex.
It might be Time, period.
YOU DID IT!!!
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