Fast forward 18 months. Having vanquished the occasional challenge of Anders Lindegaard to become the undoubted number one at Old Trafford people are finally coming round. He’s been making awesome saves, notably against Chelsea and Real Madrid. He’s been commanding on crosses and commanding of his defence  He’s been undroppable.

Then he got flattened by Andy Carroll.

We knew something like this would be coming at the Boleyn Ground. At an old fashioned hate-pit of a ground haunted by memories of some of the worst excesses of early 90′s hooliganism and against a team that likes to pretend it tries to play football. Diame. Carroll. Collins. Reid. Players less subtle than a sledgehammer. Fighers. Warriors. Lumps. Exactly the kind of players that David De Gea is supposed to be terrified of.

Half way through the first half they saw their chance. A ball was lobbed into the box, and Carroll decided it was time for blood. He launched himself towards David De Gea, the ball an afterthought, and took him out. Brutally and viciously took him out. All eyes on De Gea’s crumpled figure on the floor.

This could have gone one of two ways. Perhaps Dave would regress. Perhaps he would shrink back into his shell and look nervous again. Perhaps he would struggle to shake off the effects of the assault and fade into the background, allowing Vidic to marshall the defence and take the blame when things go wrong.

Instead, they went the other. Dave picked himself up and carried on exactly where he’d left off. Caveman Carroll could give it his absolute worst. Dave wasn’t being intimidated. Not today. Not any more.

Hopefully something has clicked now, both for Dave’s state of mind and for the pundits that claim to know so much about it. De Gea isn’t a coward, he isn’t weak and he isn’t scared to come for high balls.  We saw on Monday that, even after being flattened, he truly and completely believes that. Perhaps it’s time everyone else started to believe it too.

Don’t get me wrong. Falcao is an absolutely world-class footballer. He is a 10/10. If you had a blank chequebook and were able to bring one player in his position to Old Trafford, he’d be on the short-list alongside Messi, Ibrahimovic, Aguero and Cavani. Perhaps even, dare I say it, Luis Suarez. That said, I don’t see why you’d want to bring any of these players to Old Trafford.

We have an embarrassment of riches up front. We already have two players in the absolute world-class bracket (if you extend world-class to Rooney, which is an entire other debate). We have a lively poacher who scores goals for fun in Hernandez, and a hard-working almost defensive forward in Danny Welbeck. The key is that Hernandez is the only player there that guarantees goals. Welbeck offers plenty to the team, but he’s not really getting his share of goals yet. Rooney has been known to go on lengthy droughts, and Robin van Persie is in the midst of one right now.

Any signing is a gamble. Chelsea thought they were paying £30m for guaranteed goals when they swooped for Andrei Shevchenko, but he flattered to deceive and failed to reach double figures in the league. They repeated the trick with the £50m paid for Torres. They shipped out Eidur Gudjohnsen and Hernan Crespo to make room for Shevchenko, and shipped out Danny Sturridge to make room for Torres. Reliable goalscorers replaced with expensive flops who did not adapt.

When we’ve got a player who so perfectly complements our style, who is happy and settled and without ego, who scores plenty of goals, important goals  too, and isn’t a shred of trouble, why would we want to replace him with a gamble of any sort? How would we keep Rooney, Van Persie and Falcao happy at the same time? What would this mean for Welbeck or young Henriquez? I absolutely can’t see us sending Hernandez to Athletico Madrid to make room for Falcao, because that would be like trying to park a double-decker bus in a Tesco’s parking space.

If we could open up the space for Falcao, however, I’d be all ears. If we did move for the Colombian, then I wouldn’t shed a tear if we had to lose Wayne Rooney to make it happen.

I can’t even think about Michael these days without jumping immediately to the 94th minute against City. Giggs threads the ball through, Owen takes a touch inside the box and toe-pokes it into the bottom corner. We win 4-3. I have almost never seen Old Trafford explode as violently or as joyously.

Never mind the injuries, loss of form, interest in horses and inclusion on the bench in the Champions League final against Barcelona. For me, that one priceless, priceless moment balanced out all of the negatives in the space of one skipped heartbeat.

Not that everything Owen ever did for us was bad. He’s got five Premier League goals for us; aside from the City winner he rescued us a point late against Bolton. He also equalized Villa’s opening goal in League Cup final that we went on to win, although the fact that he soon limped off with a hamstring injury was much more indicative of his time with us.

The League Cup was kind to Owen. One of the better players in our second string, he was a regular scorer in that competition even aside from his goal in the final. He also has a Champions League hat-trick for us, away to Wolfsburg.

Of course, injury has hugely hampered his time with us as it has with Newcastle and England. Just when it looked like he had turned a corner with that goal in the League Cup final, his season abruptly ended. He suffered from niggle after niggle thereafter, and was restricted to a solitary appearance in the league last season, in part due to his poor fitness record.

This aside, the main reason that he’s not played much of a role is simply because we have had better strikers. The emergence of Chicharito, Welbeck and, to an extent, Macheda combined with the pre-eminence of Rooney and Berbatov has meant that he’s always had a fight on his hands to get into the team in the first place. Owen returned to fitness at the end of last season but, embroiled in a title battle, Fergie just couldn’t find a way to include him. Can we really hold it against a player that he didn’t score enough goals for us because superior players were getting into the team instead? What crazy logic is that?

I don’t see how any of this is Owen’s fault and I don’t think it’s fair that he’s recieved such abuse, or indeed any abuse at all. Just as the denser of Newcastle’s fans labelled Owen as a mercenary simply because he suffered a serious injury on England duty and missed games, our bottom stream seem to think he’s some kind of Glazer stooge, a symbol of “Glazernomics” who’s taken up a space in the squad that would otherwise have belonged to Ronaldo.

Whenever Owen has played for Manchester United, he gave it his all and never rocked the boat. This is all that I’m bothered about. He was no world beater for us, but we’ve signed better players who delivered less. Owen arrived as a backup player, a gamble. He was never going to be more, but could very easily have proven to be less. In the end, he pretty much precicely filled the role of fourth choice forward. He was there when we needed him, chipped in with a goal or two when never, and can claim the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer award for never, ever pissing anyone off.

His United career will always be simplified when history is written. It will be reduced to precicely five seconds, beginning when Ryan Giggs picked up the ball in midfield and ending as Owen wheeled away behind the goal. It won’t be remembered that he struggled with injury, was often left out for superior players and wasn’t earning a kings random either. It’s peverse that, whilst Berbatov was busy winning the Golden Boot precidely because Owen wasn’t taking his place in the team, some fans still feel the need to criticse Owen for not delivering.

He’s not the player he was. There are legimiate doubts that he’s even a Premiership player any more – we’ll find that out in the coming months. That’s no reason to hold him in such low regard because if there is anything that Michael Owen definitely still is then it is the model professional.

All the best at Stoke, lad. Thanks for the memory.

The problem is that you could say the same about James Milner, or Dean Whitehead, or Marouanes Fellaini and Chamakh. We see these as average to poor Premiership players but, on the grand football scale, they’re all so close to the top of the sport that they could spit over the summit.

It doesn’t take much to become a professional footballer in England. If we say that there are (ballpark) around 5000 professional footballers in the country, that’s very very roughly one in every 1500 men of the relevant age (60m divided by 2 for gender, 4 for rough age range and 5000 for the number of players). Decent odds.

If you want to be one of the best three players on the planet, then your odds are closer to one in three million. You need every little advantage you can get to push that final, steep climb to the very, very top.

If Wayne Rooney is happy being near the top of the 5000 in England, but doesn’t particularly want to break into the global three, then he should carry on eating takeaways, getting pissed, smoking and turning up for pre-season training having put on 7lbs.

You can guarantee that, in the mean time, Ronaldo and Messi (and Kagawa, and Van Persie, and Milner, and Fellaini, Whitehead, Chamakh) will have been watching what they eat, following a strict fitness regime and turning up for pre season training in fighting shape. They’ll be better for it. Look at Fellaini in the first game of the season. Absolute beast. Rooney in comparison was far, far off the pace and visibly overweight.

Ronaldo’s body is his temple. He would never, ever be seen overweight, eating a kebab, smoking, drinking pint after pint. Messi is also as clean-living as possible. His favourite pastime is to play FIFA with his brother. Rooney, like Ricky Hatton before him, just cannot wait to get off the clock and on the grog.

Rooney rationalizes his behaviour by saying that it only takes two weeks to shed the weight. Two whole weeks! Those are two weeks that could have been spent honing his physical fitness even more had he not gorged himself on beer and takeaways whilst pocketing part of his £13m a year. Time was even more critical for Rooney this summer given his involvement in the Euros and United’s stupid pre-season schedule that prioritized selling shirts to Glazer-agnostic foreigners over actually getting ready to play games of football.

Given these pressures, Rooney turning up overweight is the same as you or I turning up to work the morning of an important meeting with a stinking hangover and having it affect our work. We might not be paid for the time we spend away from the workplace, but we have a responsibility to ensure that our actions away from it do not affect our performance when we return. In this regard, Rooney has failed miserably.

Unfortunately, Rooney’s attitude is a cultural one, typical English. He will do what he wants when he’s away from work, and it will be the job of his coaches and nutritionists to fix the damage he has done. Not his job. Someone else’s. He’ll do the bare minimum, because that will be enough.

If Rooney wants to be the best, then not only does he need to change his diet and fitness regime, but his entire attitude towards the less glamorous parts of the game needs to change. It’s all very well wanting to score hundreds of goals for Manchester United, but you can’t do that if you’re wheezing in the centre circle because everyone else is fitter than you.

Despite such negativity, he was able to hold his head high by the end of the season with saves such as the one from Mata in the 90th minute at Stamford Bridge worth points on their own. His form continued into the new season, his outstanding shot-stopping ability being one of the main reasons we escaped Old Trafford with all three points last weekend. Unfortunately, Ferguson decided that the keeper’s role in one of the goals that we did concede warranted being dropped, having decided that De Gea was reckless in coming for the cross that ended up bouncing in of Nemanja Vidic.

I think young David made a mistake last week. He knows it. With the form he’s been in, he’s been making some fantastic saves but one error like that could have cost us the game. It’s just a learning process for him and he’ll be back in a couple of weeks after the international break. ‘Anders had his first game. I thought he was a little bit nervous at points but he’s a very good keeper also. I don’t think it’s a big issue but it’s something you have to deal with.

I know it’s completely taboo to criticise Sir Alex Ferguson in any way, but this really is a horrific way to handle the goalkeeper. It could damage his confidence in the short term and make him scared of mistakes in the long term. It sends completely the wrong message; the message that no matter how well you play it is your mistakes that will be remembered and influence the manager’s decision making.

I’m not even going to go into the apportioning blame game here, because I still don’t think De Gea was totally at fault for the goal. I feel he’s fouled by the Fulham player who clearly jumps towards him, and not towards the ball, when the cross comes over. Vidic misses his header too but, no, De Gea finds himself lumbered with the blame as is disproportionately often the case. So, for the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume we are all in agreement that it was completely David’s fault.

How, then, will he be feeling when Robin van Persie lines up for Manchester United after the international break? By Fergie’s own definition, RvP made an “error that could have cost us the game”. RvP also won us the game with his individual performance, something that Dave did against Fulham. What are we doing with Van Persie? Are we dropping him because of the mistake that could have cost us the game, or are we keeping him in the side because his overall performance contributed to our win? What’s it gonna be, Fergie? You can’t have it both ways.

If you’re doing to drop one player for making an honest mistake during an otherwise outstanding performance, are you going to keep another player in the side after making a stupid mistake in a similar scenario? If so, what’s the difference? Why is one punished but not the other?

I’m not calling for Robin van Persie to be dropped. That would be utterly dead-brained. What I’m doing is pointing out how strange the decision to drop Dave was, and how potentially damaging it could be. Such victimization, if you can call it that, is how players end up not seeing eye-to-eye with the manager. Dave will have sat there, saw Van Persie fuck his penalty right up, and felt a strange sense of deja vu.  I’m not sure he’ll feel the same when the next team sheet goes up.

That would be a terrible shame, given what we know about all of the Manchester United players who don’t see eye-to-eye with Sir Alex. Or, should I say, ex-Manchester United players…

De Gea – 9

Big Dave has started the season splendidly. Unusually confident in the air and flawless with his shot stopping, he was utterly helpless for Everton’s goal. Really beginning to justify his price tag and show how stupid his doubters have been.

Valencia – 4

I’m not really sure why we chose to play Tony at right-back with Rafael fit. His attacking threat is nullified when he has defensive duties to perform, and he should never be deployed as anything other than emergency cover. Poor rating, but it’s not his fault he was played out of position.

Vidic – 6

The more solid of the two centre-backs. Handled Jelavic well but, in tandem with Carrick, shied away from Marouane Fellaini. This contributed to Everton getting a lot of free ball from long punts, which in turn helped them dominate for spells.

Carrick – 3

Absolutely destroyed by Marouane Fellaini. I said before the game that, if I were Moyes, I would stick Fellaini on Carrick and hit the big man over and over again. That’s exactly what Everton did, and it was hugely effective. Again, doing a job out of position, and it showed.

Evra – 4

I’m really not sure how Patrice Evra gets in this team week in, week out. Another poor showing going forward and vulnerable at the back as ever. A shadow of the player he was two or three years ago. Buttner is welcome competition.

Cleverley – 7

Busy and tidy in midfield, and unlucky not to score with our best chance after Jagielka got it off the line. Linked well with Kagawa and Scholes. Perhaps could do with being a bit more penetrating with his passing as he’s a bit of a crab sometimes. Like the rest of them, got bossed by Fellaini.

Scholes – 6

Ticked it over in midfield, and shows promising signs of an understanding developing with Kagawa. Wasn’t his usual self in the final third, and didn’t really find any balls in behind th Everton back line. His experience will be valuable this season, but it wasn’t enough last night.

Kagawa – 9

How refreshing it is to have a player in the side who wants the ball in central positions and isn’t scared to receive it whilst marked. Clever and intelligent on the ball, he created our three best chances whilst operating between the lines. The more we can get the ball to Kagawa, the better.

Welbeck – 6

Another player stuck out on a limb on the left. Stuck manfully to his task in the first half without any joy and came into the game a little more after starting to come inside late in the first half. Was denied a goal by three great Jagielka tackles, although one could have been a foul.

Rooney – 3

Played without passion, invention, verve or energy. Repeatedly caught in possession. No eye for a pass. Weak on the ball. It’s all the more galling because Welbeck was shunted out left and Van Persie benched to accommodate him. The occasion gets to Rooney far, far too often, and tonight was just another example of how he just keeps on letting us down.

Nani – 2

Another player who benefitted from their rival being shunted into a different position, and another player who repaid the manager with an awful performance. Nani was even worse than Rooney. Nothing is more fucking frustrating to me than when Nani stops, and stands still for 10 seconds pretending to cross. The defence sets itself, all our players run themselves offside and then static, and the attack is over before he even moves the ball on. Expertly picked out the fat bald bloke sitting in row K with a succession of crosses. He’s capable of so, so much more than this.

Subs – 4

Our substitutions didn’t change the game at all. Van Persie got a 25 minute cameo and struggled to get into a game that Everton were already shutting down. There’s far more to come from him. Anderson tried to be positive but, as ever, didn’t change anything. Ashley Young sent a number of pointless crosses towards our short strikers. A poorly used bench.

We last started our campaign at Goodison 7 years ago, coming away with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Wayne Rooney and a world-class Dutch striker. Where we previously had Ruud, we now have RvP, and if history repeats itself it will represent a very good start to the season against a side that we always seem to struggle against, although in that we are not alone.

Despite the optimism surrounding the club, we’re still dealing with the same old problems on the pitch. A lack of serious reinforcement in the center of midfield combined with a hilarious injury crisis in central defence (again) means that Michael Carrick is likely to reprise his role at the heart of the back four. Without and backup at left-back there’s no way Evra can fill in, and Scott Wooton would represent too great a risk for the opening day. That said, we have thrown players in on the opening day before, like we did with Liam Miller, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Frasier Campbell in recent years.

Speaking of throwing players straight in, how many of the new boys can we expect to see tonight? There’s a possibility that none at all could start, with Powell seen as one for the future and neither Kagawa or van Persie guaranteed to start. Van Persie has lacked games in pre-season, but his enthusiasm for his new club should see him able to perform nonetheless. If Ferguson goes with Rooney and van Persie as a front two, where does that leave Shinji Kagawa? The Japanese is used to playing as part of an attacking three behind a lone striker, and the only way that formation would work is by casting Rooney or van Persie out to the left or right, which would mean only one from Nani, Young and Valencia could start.

Personally, I think van Persie could well start from the bench, with Kagawa, Nani and Valencia behind Rooney, and a midfield base of Cleverley and Anderson, who always seems to find a way to slip into the team at the start of the season.

It’s not easy to see how Rooney, RvP, Nani, Young and Kagawa will all fit into the same team as they tend to inhabit the same spaces. Whilst this is good for Evra as it opens up the left flank to him, it means that the central areas could become fairly congested when we go forward, and exposes the frail Evra to the need to defend.

Bearing in mind that the best form Nani has shown for us for years was during his stint on the right wing whilst Tony was out injured, that adds an extra level of complexity to things. I think we’ll just have to accept that they won’t ever all start. Moving forward, I think Fergie will play Rooney and van Persie most of the time. His chat about having four top class strikers implied to me that it will be two in, two out.

If you’re going to bring RvP on this evening, how do you accommodate him? Do you bring off Kagawa or Nani, or one of the central midfielders and drop Kagawa back? It will depend almost entirely on the shape of the game at the time. Our first concern will be to keep things solid, because we have the quality to make a goal suddenly happen. We don’t necessarily need to be on top of the same to score, which hasn’t always been the case since Ronaldo left.

The fact that I genuinely haven’t a fucking clue what the team is going to be bar a few obvious selections, and that the back four isn’t terribly scary considering that our 2nd to 5th choice center backs are all injured, bodes well for the depth of the squad this season.

Five Cantonas Prediction

2-1 to United. Rooney and Kagawa with the goals. I think Everton will equalise but we’ll show too much quality down the home stretch of the match.

How to we fare overall with big money moves? Here we look back at our most expensive transfer each Premier League season. Some are all time United legends for the right reasons, and some we will never forget for the wrong.

2011/12 – David De Gea, £19m

Dave struggled at the start of last season but, after briefly losing his place to Anders Lindegaard, came back very strongly in the second half of the season. Comfortably first choice and expected to have a massive season ahead of him.

2010/11 – Chris Smalling, £10m

Smalling was signed from Fulham after only a handful of first team games, but impressed after being forced into the first team due to an injury crisis. Comfortable at right-back or central defence, he is the natural successor to Rio Ferdinand.

2009/10 – Antonio Valencia, £16.0m

The reigning player of the season was signed to replace Ronaldo, and despite being far less flashy is almost as effective in the traditional winger role. A hugely popular player who rises to any challenge, we can expect him to be in the first team picture for a number of seasons yet.

2008/09 – Dimitar Berbatov, £30.75m

The mercurial Berbatov was cruelly misunderstood by fans and Sir Alex alike. One of the most watchable and cultured footballers in the world, his face just doesn’t fit at Old Trafford, and it looks likely that he will leave this summer. Played a huge role in our 19th league title win.

2007/08 – Owen Hargreaves, £17m

Joined from Bayern Munich a year after an eye catching World Cup campaign, but his career was utterly destroyed by knee trouble. Scored a memorable winner against City and played a key role in the 2008 Champions League final, but has struggled massively since and remains without a club.

2006/07 – Michael Carrick, £18.6m

Carrick reinvigorated a United side that had become stagnant, and helped us regain our crown in his first season and become European champions in his second. Another much maligned player, fans are finally coming round to just how much he contributes to the team’s success.

2005/06 – Nemanja Vidic, £7m

A cheap year for United, but the inspirational Vidic was a brilliant bit of January business. Now our captain, he is rated as one of the world’s best centre backs and was missed hugely last season as we missed out on the title by the narrowest of margins.

2004/05 – Wayne Rooney, £27m

Rooney upset Evertonians by leaving having announced “once a blue, always a blue” but has more than justified his transfer fee in the mean time. A spiky character who divides opinion as a person, his playing attributes are unquestionably brilliant and, if he could just stop his form falling off a cliff every couple of years, he could become an all-time great.

2003/04 – Luis Saha, £12.8

Costing slightly more than Ronaldo did the same season, Saha scored for fun when fit, but was all too often found inhabiting the physio’s table. Strong, fast and deadly with his left foot, Saha could have contributed much more to the club with a bit of luck.

2002/03 – Rio Ferdinand, £27m

The oldest marquee signing still with the club, Ferdinand broke transfer records when he joined, but has been brilliant for ten seasons now. There is no questioning his place as one of our all-time great defenders. Has won everything.

2001/02 – Juan Veron, £28m

Veron was the last genuine world star that we bought before the Robin van Persie transfer went through, but thinks didn’t go to plan. Despite being outstanding in Europe and unplayable for his first few seasons in the Premiership, he fell out of favour. It can’t have helped that Scholes was being compromised to find Veron a place in the side, and the talented Argentine playmaker moved on to Chelsea. Like Berbatov, another awesome player that simply didn’t fit.

2000/01 – Fabien Barthez, £7.8m

Buying Fabien Barthez was supposed to put an end to the nightmare we were having replacing Peter Schmeichel and although he was more successful that the previous incumbents, a love of a howler and an bad temper often cost us, and you always feared the worst when the ball went towards him. A world-class shot stopper, he wasn’t the solid presence we needed but was the best we did until Edwin van der Sar joined.

1999/00 – Massimo Taibi, £4.5m

A complete flop at Old Trafford, Taibi nonetheless enjoyed a successful career otherwise, flitting between Series A and B. A solid goalkeeper, but no more, he was never given the chance to recover from some horrific mistakes during his four games for the club, and was shipped back to Italy in no time.

1998/99 – Dwight Yorke, £12.6m

Yorke was snapped up from Aston Villa and formed a telepathic striker partnership with Andy Cole, arguably the best in the history of the club. Like Hargreaves, Yorke won the Champions League in his first season, but enjoyed further successes, winning the Premiership three times before winding down his career with lesser sides.

1997/98 – Henning Berg, £5m

Berg was signed after a solid season at Blackburn Rovers. It had been two years since Rovers won the Premiership and they were on the decline. Despite missing both finals, he was an integral part of the treble-winning side, filling in at center-back whenever Jaap Stam was unavailable, although he only lasted a further year at the club thereafter.

1996/97 – Karel Poborsky, £3.5m

A bit of a strange signing, Poborsky had a superb Euro 96 but was competing with Ryan Giggs. Poborsky only lasted two seasons and the club, whilst Giggs went on to be the most decorated player in the history of the club. Even amongst Manchester United fans, Poborsky is best remembered for his Euro 96 lob against Portugal.

1995/96 – Tony Coton, £500k

In a very quiet season for United, Coton arrived as Peter Schmeichel’s backup keeper and never played for the club. Was signed from City and moved on to Sunderland six months later. Never more than a budget stop-gap.

1994/1995 – Andy Cole, £7m

Kevin Keegan was forced to explain his decision to sell Andy Cole to the Geordie faithful, and you would be forgiven for asking Sir Alex to do the same after Cole endured a difficult start to life at Old Trafford. Eventually he caught fire, formed a lethal partnership with Dwight Yorke and won everything available to him. Even as the British record transfer, he was a bargain.

1993/94 – Roy Keane, £3.75m

Keane spent three hugely impressive seasons at Nottingham Forest before the club’s relegation in the first ever Premiership season. Sir Alex moved for the goalscoring box-to-box player and made him our record signing. He would also win everything going during 12 years at the club, many of which were spent as captain, although controversy was never far away. He scored 51 goals for United in all, including 12 in the 1999/2000 season and two famous goals away to Juventus in the Champions League semi-final. We’ve struggled to replace him since he left under a cloud in 2005/06.

1992/93 – Eric Cantona, £1.2m

Words cannot do Eric justice. Although he could have played for longer, his quality and charisma helped build Manchester United into the icon of English football that they remain. I have seen more talented players than Eric, and more effective, but I have never seen a player more charismatic, influential or passionate.

Of course, we also have Berbatov at the club, along with the still-young Federico Macheda, the injured Will Keane and the relatively unknown Angelo Henriquez. So, what does the signing of Robin van Persie mean for the other strikers at the club?

Wayne Rooney

Like him or not, Wayne Rooney is a hugely talented footballer who, on his day, is as effective as anyone else on the planet. The problem with Rooney is that his day’s come as often as his off days, and usually in spurts – an out of form Wayne Rooney is a depressing sight and a drain on the other players at the club. Could teaming up with van Persie give Wayne the lift he needs to perform at his best more consistently?

I’m not too sure about this one. Whilst Robin played alone up front on a number of occasions for Arsenal last season, he was surrounded with other attacking players and often dropped off, filling the false 9 role. Rooney tends to inhabit the very same space – we see this when Rooney and Gerrard play together at international level.

Van Persie is no immediate threat to Wayne’s future, but their partnership could go one of two ways. It could flourish, the two interchanging like Rooney and Tevez at their effervescent best, or they could just get in each other’s way. Time will tell.

Danny Welbeck

Of course, if Fergie’s preferred duo up top is Rooney behind van Persie, then this means that Danny Welbeck could struggle to get games. It would be a shame for the lad because he was outstanding at times last season, but it’s something he will have to get used to if he is to forge a long-term career at United. Of course, RvP could be deployed wide left cutting inside, in which case Danny won’t be affected, but I think this is unlikely.

Unless his playing time is severely curtailed, I can’t see Welbeck wanting to leave. He’s grown up supporting the club and understands how four top-class strikers can co-exist fruitfully as Yorke, Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer did.

He could, however, suffer in terms of game time as he offers a lot of the same attributes as van Persie, just not to the same level. The argument goes that if you’re going to play a dynamic lone front man, you may as well play your best, which would undoubtedly be Robin van Persie.

Javier Hernandez

In contrast, Hernandez shouldn’t suffer as much as Welbeck from the arrival of van Persie. The Little Pea is a completely different type of player to van Persie, a penalty box poacher who is utterly lethal playing off the shoulder but sometimes lacking in build up play and teamwork.

Should Hernandez find himself playing ahead of van Persie, then we could have an incredibly tasty partnership on our hands if they hit it off. With Robin’s footballing brain and cultured left foot, and Hernandez’s pace and anticipation, we could see an awful lot of goals for Chicharito being laid on by the Dutchman.

With the rumours linking him with a move to Arsenal shown to be fiction, and the lad’s second season syndrome nowhere near as bad as many would have you believe, expect another fruitful season from Hernandez in the Solskjaer role, from the bench to change games and occasionally from the start to freshen things up.

Dimitar Berbatov

This is surely the end of Berbatov’s time at the club. I’m gutted for him. A player of genuine class, a player that is a pleasure to watch, and a player who’s psycho streak of goals 18 months ago did much to win us our 19th title.

Unfortunately, all of Sir Alex’s signings point to a move away from Berbatov’s static, languid style and towards a pacier, more fluid system. Kagawa and van Persie can float around the attacking third and play in different positions. Wayne Rooney does the same and, whilst Berbatov does like to drop deep, you could never imagine him being comfortable on the wing.

I hope he finds a loving home, because I am hugely fond of the fella, and he certainly does not deserve to move somewhere like QPR. He would look shit in hoops.

Federico Macheda

Another player who’s time could well be nigh. The Italian probably needs to be less worried about the arrival of van Persie and a little more concerned with Angelo Henriquez, Will Keane and Bebe (more on them later).

A question I often ask myself is whether or not he’d have been so patient with Macheda had he slipped and sliced his shot against Aston Villa high into the stand. Had the ball bounced off him and gone wide against Sunderland. Had his goal in vain against Chelsea been disallowed for handball. Macheda has relied on moments to keep him in the picture for too long, without offering anything else impressive to keep him in the picture.

I have nothing against the lad at all. Of course you would play for Manchester United if asked, and his Villa goal remains one of my favourite moments of recent seasons. I just don’t think he’s up to the standard needed. Perhaps a move to Villareal could sort him out!

Keane, Henriquez and Bebe

The remaining forwards at the club will have to prove themselves on loan or in the reserves, but unlike Macheda all have the potential to make an impact for the first team.

Will Keane would have done so last season but for injury, and will presumably be eased into the first team picture upon his return. With Petrucci and Lingard also likely to be given the opportunity to graduate from the reserves this season, Keane will be eager not to be left behind.

Henriquez is likely to go back to La U on loan until January. He is a player of huge potential and, being more physical than Chicharito, could carve himself a unique niche in our front line, the niche that Federico Macheda has failed to make his own.

Bebe’s form in pre-season could possibly maybe hopefully have earned him at least one more final crack at the first team. Whilst there’s no doubting the lad’s enthusiasm at being given the opportunity to live his dream, we will need to see results, and fast, if he’s not going to be remembered as a Manucho-style complete and utter flop. Remember that he lost all of last season to injury, and has scored more Champions League goals than Federico Macheda!

Our other two investments last summer were David De Gea and Phil Jones, at about £18m each. Dave started badly and grew as the season went on, whilst Phil hit the ground running and faded badly as the season went on, barely scraping onto the plane to Euro 2012 thanks to injuries and Rio Ferdinand’s ostracism.

Their first season now out of the way, it’s time for both to start to truly justify the price tags and praise that they attracted last summer. Both have delivered sporadically, but now is the time for them to deliver consistently.
De Gea suffered a nightmare start. Unfairly blamed for Edin Dzeko’s wicked strike in the Community Shield, and then completely correctly blamed for Shane Long’s tame equalizer against WBA a week later, he was absolutely hammered in the media. Articles about our “goalkeeper curse” were ten-a-penny with every idiot going ready to compare the talented Spaniard to Massimo Taibi. Taibi himself was a talented keeper who played over 250 Serie A games after leaving Old Trafford, but don’t let facts get in the way of a good mickey taking, eh?

De Gea initially lost his place to Anders Lindegaard but, after the Dane suffered an injury, De Gea made himself undroppable, with outstanding performances against Stoke and a save-of-the-season contender in the last minute of the 3-3 at Stamford Bridge. He has returned to the form that initially attracted United to splash out on the Athletico Madrid stopper, who won the UEFA cup at 19 years of age.

The signs look good ahead of the new season – Dave has been assured and pulled off a string of great saves against Barcelona.

Unfortunately, Jones will go into the new season carrying a back niggle that has kept him out of contention since United travelled to Norway. Such injuries are expected with young players who are still growing, but it will be frustrating for the lad to miss out on a full pre-season. One of the most popular theories as to his decline towards the end of the season was that he was just completely knackered, having to play many games due to our injury crisis and even breaking into the England team during the campaign.

The potential that Jones possesses is massive. Personally, I see him as a central midfield option down the line, his energy and physical presence is simply too impressive to expend anywhere else on the field. His performances at right-back came in a alien position and, given the ability of Rafael, I don’t expect Jones to end up there long term.

Once we get into the meat of the season, into October and November, I expect Jones to be pushing to renew his partnership with Carrick in the center of the field. With Michael’s nous and Jones’ pure physical presence and improving ball play feeding Kagawa as a forward link, we would, for all the negativity about our central positions, be as strong as anyone else in the league.

If both deliver, both have long careers at United ahead of them. Unfortunately given their price tags and promise, a season of stagnation will see some of our less patient fans write them off. What a shame that would be.