Keane makes a point

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"We had failed to defend the Champions League. To be honest I wasn't surprised. After winning the treble, I knew it would be hard to generate the hunger required to go for the Premiership/Champions League double the following season. I felt my first pangs of doubt standing in the dressing room at the Nou Camp after we'd beaten Bayern. The champagne was flowing, people were going fucking crazy. Of course this was understandable, human nature. But my true, unspoken feeling was that we were lucky to beat Bayern on the night. In the circumstances I couldn't say it. I hadn't contributed. That, though, is what I believed. Bayern 'bottled' it, threw it at us. Maybe I was just being sour, hurt at missing out on the great occasion. Don't be bitter, Roy, let the lads savour the achievement. That argument was countered by another thought: we were dead lucky against a team that bottled it.

When i heard the post-game interviews, my doubts were increased. A couple of players told the press that after this they didn't care if they never won another trophy! Hello, I thought. Overexcited maybe, but what the fuck are we ging to do next year? Is that it? We've made history. Now we pack it in? Don't care if you don't win another trophy? Jesus. Start thinking like that and you won't win another trophy. Don't be bitter, Roy, the little voice in my head insisted.

(...)But the rot had set in at Old Trafford, beginning that memorable night when we claimed the treble. For months afterwards the treble haunted us wherever we went. Well into the following season we were being saluted as heroes, history-makers, better than the 1968 team, the team of the century. Signing photographs with the three trophies, talking about that 'great night' that we'll never forget. It doesn't matter what we do now, we'll never be forgotten. It's still goin on today! It drove me crazy then, it drives em crazy now. What about the next step, the one that would take us beyond Premiership 'glory' to the level of Real Madrid? We should have enjoyed the night... and then moved on. We didn't. For that we would pay the price. Never win another fucking trophy. The rot takes a long time to fully set in. Defeat by Real Madrid was OK, because you couldn't do it every year. Why not? Liverpool did. Real did. Juventus did. Bayern did. I kept my mouth shut. Except to family and close friends."

-Roy Keane. The Autobiography, p. 223-224

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I read this extract in one of the discussion board of the United group in Facebook, where one fan brought this topic up after the way United played against Stoke, which apparently shows some degree of lack of hunger in the players. (We won three major trophies in 2008)

This got me thinking hard and long.

And this discussion thread was an interesting read.

We won it all last season. A victory in Moscow. A victory back home. We won the marathon. We created history again. Are we still hungry for to win? Well of course. But how much? As bad as John Terry? I hate to admit this, but I don't think so.

Roy Keane may be labelled as bitter for writing the above. Afterall, he missed that *footgasm optimus* game in Nou Camp.

But he's got a point here. And one hell of a point.

We do not sit back even after we've achieved the best. We go out and try harder. Yearn for something which is better than the best. Eh?

I think that feeling of wanting to win, to be the best, to take it all will always be there.

Our surroundings mould us to feel that way.

I am sure the United players do not wish to end this season empty-handed!!

The way I see it, once we've achieved the best, we try even harder.

It's easy to reach the top they say, and even harder to stay there. Spot on.

We don't lose ourselves in the midst of endless flow of Cabernet Sauvignon.

United is doing pretty well actually. If we can make full use of the two games in hand, we'll be second in the table. Only one point adrift of Liverfool (Stevie G may be going to jail, LOL).

We've got the most difficult away games played in the first half of the season. So the harder games are cleared.

All I know is, I am, as a fan watching from the baseline, sodamnfuckinghungry for another glorious season. With the Liverpool and Chelsea wanting to win badly, United will have to go one gear higher. Bring the tempo up.

UNITED GO GO GO!