Now I hate to sound like an Austrian artist in a Munich beer hall, but the on-going criticism of Manchester United's "poor season" has urged me to rant.
All over sports pages, including Sky Sports News, there has been a constant put down of the season that Manchester United are currently having, regardless of our achievements.
Firstly, the side look more than likely to win a record 19th English league title this weekend, only needing a point away at Blackburn to wrap things up. Failing that, a point at home against Blackpool the following weekend would be just as good. Personally, I consider this a fairly good result, especially considering the flying start Chelsea had to the season, scoring for fun in their opening contests.
I also consider it a great success because of the fairly small way in which the squad was strengthened, only bringing in a second choice goalkeeper in the shape of Anders Lindergaard, a promising talent in Chris Smalling, and an unknown Mexican in the form of Javier "Chicarito" Hernandez. Compare this with the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool, and Torres, David Luiz, Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez and I think it was United who got the best deals.
Already in the eyes of this supporter it has been a great season both on and off the field.
Further to this, there is the small matter of our Champions League final date with Barcelona - a tidy looking rematch of two seasons ago. As the cliche goes, there are no easy games in a competition of this calibre, yet the current United side has eased past Chelsea, and Schalke FC in the last two rounds - the latter of these fixtures made to look like a training exercise at times, with even Anderson bagging himself a well deserved brace. Whilst the task of playing Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and co does look a daunting one, Real Madrid have shown in the last couple of weeks that they are beatable.
I'm guessing Sky Sports et al no longer consider making the final a great accomplishment.
Competitions aside, success had been achieved in other, more statistical areas. United have only dropped 2 points at home this season, in a 2-2 draw with West Brom - a result which only really occurred because of an uncharacteristic Edwin Van Der Sar mistake. So that makes it 17-1-0 at home this year - a feat only matched by a Mourinho managed Chelsea side. It should perhaps also be noted that the side has beaten every other Premier League side this season, including a 7-1 mauling of Blackburn Rovers.
Add to this the side contains the leagues top goalscorer in Dimitar Berbatov, and half a dozen or so entries into the PFA Team of the Year, and I would say that the current crop has done fairly well up to now.
So... The United fan has had his rant - but what is his point I hear you ask?
Well it's simple. If we have done so poorly, what the hell has everyone else been doing??
