In the same way that Roy Keane seemed to be the on-field embodiment of Sir Alex Ferguson, during the glory years at Manchester United, so the ever more unconvincing Bastian Schweinsteiger seems to represent Louis van Gaal perfectly.
Like Fergie, Keane was relentless, ruthless and economical in everything he did in football. Why make things more complicated than they need to be need to be could easily have been the mantra of both. Keane executed Fergie’s plans to the point and, despite their falling out in later years, we all know how important he was too Fergie’s success. And, privately, Fergie knows it too.
And, in many ways, so Schweinsteiger seems to represent the decaying football faculties of the current Manchester United boss.
The Guardian’s bewitchingly good chief sports writer, Barney Ronay, this week put up a decent, if not passionate, defence of Louis van Gaal, perhaps implying that the Dutch master was being disrespected. He said:
Van Gaal will remain a managerial great, no matter how energetically he is jeered from the Premier League.
Van Gaal is accused of spending badly, a mortal Premier League sin. But spending is not really his game. Development, improvement, integration: these are his skills.
Basti: Leg’s gone?
It’s a fair point but perhaps overlooks the fact that, just like players, managers age too. It’s natural that they too become less acute, less hungry and less instinctive as the finishing line comes into sight. It’s the unshakeable, undeniable trajectory of human life. It happens for different players and managers at different times. But it is unavoidable.
Schweinsteiger has been a truly wonderful professional in a career which has neglected few accolades. But his increasingly tired and questionable performances on the pitch mirror the performances of Louis in the dug out.
This is turning into a nightmare for Manchester United’s executive vice chairman Ed Woodward. He clearly wants to respect the great man and is perhaps still clinging to the unrealistic hope that LvG can turn this all around at Manchester United.
But he is clutching at straws.
Woodward too needs to show a bit of the famous Fergie ruthlessness now. He needs to act not in his own or LVG’s best interests. But in the interests of Manchester United.
No one man is bigger than the club – didn’t Fergie once say that?
