Evidently, you can't win everything with kids.
Sir Alex Ferguson had been saying more or less since the turn of the year that the quintuple would be impossible. This was, above all else, a way to alleviate the pressure put on his players from game to game, so they needn't have a fear of losing, which could in turn inhibit their ability to go out and win games.
It was a wise tactic on Fergie's part, but another decision that has come under far more scrutiny in the past 24 hours has been his decision to rest key players such as Patrice Evra, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney in what was, lest we forget, an FA Cup semi-final.
And no, it wasn't against a Millwall or a Cardiff who had romantically scrapped their way there, but an impressive Everton outfit who, up until a fortnight ago, were still outside contenders for a Champions League place.
The buzzword before kick-off, which blossomed into a full-blown inquisition after Phil Jagielka’s spot-kick hit the back of the net, was respect. The consensus was that United hadn't shown the FA Cup or perhaps even Everton the respect it or they deserved by fielding the side that they did.
The players and the manager reacted angrily to the mere suggestions. "What, are you saying our players aren't good enough?" said an irritable Rio Ferdinand in his post-match interview.
Well evidently, when it came down to it, they weren't. There was a clear penalty on Danny Welbeck that the Devils were denied by a shaky and inconsistent Mike Riley, the ref clearly having been rattled by David Moyes' pre-match implications that he was a United fan. But if the shootout showed us anything, it's that even if they had been awarded the kick, there's no guarantee it would have gone in, much less that Everton wouldn't have even managed an equalizer.
The official line from United focused mainly on looking back at an exhausting trip to the Dragons' Den in Oporto, as well as forward to the midweek hosting of Portsmouth, Spurs visiting at the weekend and then the Champions League semi-finals either side of a trip to Middlesbrough.
Without doubt, it's a hectic schedule - and it doesn't even end there - but Portsmouth pose far less significant a threat to United than Everton, not to mention the fact that game will be at home, and in the league, in which they already have a lead, rather than in a cup tie.
It was prioritizing gone wrong. It would seem Sir Alex is too intimidated by a Liverpool side that will now be focusing all of its energies on catching them at the top of the Premier League and thus gave it primacy over a one-off cup tie.
Just one of Ronaldo or Rooney would have probably been enough to make the difference, and allowed Macheda to continue doing what he does best - coming off the bench - rather than attempting to break through a resolute Toffees rearguard. He never looked like causing any trouble.
The quintuple was never impossible. Sir Alex simply gambled on a competition that is suffering a credibility crisis worse than Dimitar Berbatov's after his epic penalty miss yesterday.
What's done is done, but to suggest anything other than a lack of respect or recognition towards the competition on the part of United would be absurd. In simple terms, it's all about the big two, and three is just a crowd. Bear in mind that the League Cup is now unapologetically treated as a kids' cup for the top sides, and it's just now a matter of time until the FA Cup follows suit, going the route of the Copa del Rey and Coppa Italia, among others. It may be the oldest domestic cup, it may be the most prestigious and famous domestic cup, but the bottom line is that it is fast on its way to becoming just another fall-back, which the big guns only go for when all else is looking lost.
Just another example of the continentalization of the English game.
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