U know what this is about

I wasn't going to do this.  I promise you I wasn't.  I know - believe me I know - how uninteresting this topic is to, well, I'm sure all of you. So I wasn't going to write about it.  To be frank, I haven't been able to write about it for the past 9 months or so because it has been far too painful.
But there has been a change, which caused a change of mood, a change of heart, a return of hope.
You know what U is for, don't you?

At the end of last season, Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager of Manchester United. Many-time winners of the title, a massive draw to English football all across this great football-loving planet of ours, Manchester were at the top.  Whoever took over from SAF has mighty big football boots to fill. The task fell to while not a minor name, certainly not one of the giants we all speculated would get the call.  Sadly, for him, the team, and for United supporters, the season has not gone well.  This shows clear as anything that while the same group of 11 men will perform very differently under a different boss.

Naturally (I think we can all agree on that) became disgruntled. It's not like we're talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs here, who despite their glorious past are accustomed to losing game after game every season.  So they did what football fans are wont to do. They began to make up songs about the underperforming new boss.

Last week he was dismissed.  Two weeks remain in the season. Four matches. And who do you suppose stepped in?  Ryan Giggs!  My favourite player! The cool thing is, he's still a Manchester United player. He's forty years old, has been with the club for 24 years, still going strong and now interim manager.  This hit the news last week which somehow I managed to miss (my job keeps me brain dead, it seems, between Monday morning and Friday afternoon)  I happened to be scrolling around on that social networking site yesterday where Giggsy's name leapt out at me from the news section of my feed.  I kid you not, I squealed. Like a little girl who actually got the pony for Christmas, I squealed.

They won their match yesterday, by a decisive 4-0.

I can't help but think (says the girl who used to listen to Coast to Coast to go to sleep) that it may have all been the plan from the beginning. They needed someone to be the "after Ferguson guy".  And during this season Giggsy has completed his manager course (while still playing). Perhaps they're using this two week period to let him get his feet wet, inflame the fans' support, and prepare everyone for a more positive showing next season.

I love the poetry of it: a player who has always loved his team, and despite the current practise of club-hopping, has stayed with them through the whole course of his career - even into retirement as a player, to become their manager.

I think Fergie would approve.