WHY SAY ANYTHING?

At the beginning of the season there was belief. Belief that Manchester United were on the way back to being good at football.

They started off like an express train and were unstoppable until they were stopped. Unfortunately they were stopped by another unstoppable team at the time when Manchester City beat them at Old Trafford. City were to go on being unstoppable until they were stopped by Tottenham Hotspur who, whilst not being unstoppable, haven’t really been stopped by anybody yet, (unless you count a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford as stopping them).

This signalled a return to the dark days for United whereby some of the fans immediately called for Mourinho to be sacked. These are the fickle, fair-weather fans that United could really do without, the fans who see one loss as a complete collapse and see a change of manager as the way to return them to the treble winning days of the past. They are never able to suggest who should be the new manager, just that United should sack the old one every time a game is lost.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your point of view, the board at Old Trafford doesn’t pay any attention to the fans. José Mourinho is still the manager and has today taken the team through an FA Cup tie against Reading with a comfortable 4-0 victory.

By the way, what is Owen Hargreaves smoking these days? After great performances by Rashford and Carrick he gives the man-of-the-match award to Wayne Rooney who, other than scoring a goal, did nothing other than either lose the ball or give it away. Also it was sad to see him break the record of Sir Bobby Charlton, he’ll never be on the same planet as the man! It was, however, great to see Jaap Stam back at Old Trafford.

Following this victory two possibilities open up and they are; Mourinho could become the first manager in over fifty years to win the FA Cup with two different teams. Manchester United could become only the seventh team in history to defend the FA Cup.

These are the wildly optimistic thoughts now going through the supporter’s minds. Supporters who, not very long ago wanted him sacked!

There is also the little matter of an EFL Cup semi-final against Hull City. This two-legged affair should see United reach the final and book another trip to that overstated and overrated stadium in that overstated and vastly overrated city.

Assuming that United win the EFL Cup and the FA Cup, (quite optimistic assumptions), there is no reason not to assume that they can win the Europa League. There are now no really great teams in that competition and when the best of the rest appears to be Spurs then there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

So an unorthodox treble is on the cards, (we here at WSA are not quite optimistic enough to predict a Premier League title returning to Old Trafford this season).

The hard work has been done in the two early starting competitions and a favourable draw should see progression in the other one.

By the end of the season we could/should see the Europa League trophy, the EFL Cup and the FA Cup in the cabinet at Old Trafford. With a largish slice of good fortune these may also be joined by the Premier League title.

As you may have been able to deduce, WSA was always in favour of the appointment of José Mourinho and thinks that the glory days are just around the corner, again.