BECAUSE THEY CAN PLAY F'CKING GOOD FOOTBALL: PART 7

Manchester United in spring. 'A trophy drought no more', 'Garnacho/falling star', 'A shocking loss'. Previous parts below...

ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX

cover: Paradisio Publishing

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through the days

late summer

autumn

winter

spring

the ingot coloured afternoons and eves

of May

this:

this

is

Manchester United

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De aap komt uit de mouw

(Dutch proverb: the monkey comes out the sleeve)

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PART 7

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page 86

MAN UTD V NEW UTD

CARABAO CUP FINAL

26 FEBRUARY 2023

the gaffer is here at wembley in flat cap

erik pulls off the look - of course he does, because we are on the up,

and

marcus is fit;

and here are the men selected to end our six long long long years in the silverware wilderness:::

man utd: David de Gea, Lisandro Martinez, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Fred, Casemiro, Raphael Varane, Diogo Dalot, Antony, Luke Shaw, Wout Weghorst

and the men who will try to stop us:

Loris Karius, Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman, Fabian Schar, Joelinton, Callum Wilson, Allan Saint-Maxim, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff, Bruno Guimaraes

‘baby, give it up

baby, give it up

baby, give it up

nanananannananananannananananana’ 

sing the newcastle fans from their end of wembley

as

the air is cool going cold

and down on the emerald rectangle of our fantasies -

the old vic, the barbican,

and

in the boozer where losers can dream,

they are saying through the screen no sight of the red shirt in londinium as if our fans have not travelled - hmmmppph!!! - so hear that utd roar NOW

as

the business end approaches

just like marcus banging them in for fun in the warm-up

as

alan keegan is booed - man utd’s stadium announcer/MC on tour

and ‘tis all good knockabout stuff until the whistle goes;

razzmatazz and all that snazzzzz, sound and excited fury, a violinist in red sporting spangly sparkly gear for us, and a violinist in black for them…

then the game: this wonderful game: we do not play well but we play well: this is to win

and we do, 2-0: casemiro, what a  header - 

luke’s free-kick is a pitch perfect peach of a parabola and there is the lad from brazil’s forehead

to

touch it home

to fuel the roar of the wembley red zone

casemiro is splendid

luke is one cool dude how he skips over to join the celebrations.

this is after 33 minutes.

and, then, what is this!!!

39 minutes and wout, our wunderbar wout, sets off on a mazy,

down along the newcastle inside right channel and it is this that splits them

open,

the black and white shirts

like barcodes

are parted,

and he passes to marcus and marcus flips it across loris karius and

IN!!!

2-0

what an afternoon and though we ride out moments of peril we deserve it:

MAN UTD ARE WINNERS AGAIN

AND IT IS ALL DOWN TO BEAUTIFUL ERIK.

the final whistle!

wout is in tears, 30 years old and this is what man utd can do to an international player

a man who has scored at the world cup

a human being.

the celebrations.

the glorious sun over wembley.

bruno and harry lift the three-handed cup.

and this is our day and night.

and only the beginning.

we hope.