Comment: New United on the rise
Paul Hince
ROY ´Terminator´ Keane was not indulging in wishful thinking when he growled " We´ll be back" after last Saturday´s FA Cup final stroll in Cardiff.
Keane is right, of course. Manchester United will reclaim their championship crown in due course.
For a club of that size and financial clout, playing second fiddle for any length of time to the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea is simply not on the agenda.
What remains to be seen, though, when the Reds next parade the title trophy through the streets of Stretford is whether Keane and the rest of Sir Alex Ferguson´s old guard will still be around to join in the celebrations.
For what we witnessed at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday was the start of Manchester United´s regeneration. Or new generation, if you prefer it that way.
An " out with the old, in with the new" policy unfolding before our very eyes.
And what we saw last weekend was only the tip of the iceberg. For it´s my absolute conviction that when Fergie next gets his mitts on the championship trophy, many of the the great stars who have graced Old Trafford for the best part of a decade will already be no more than memories.
Decline
The rebuilding programme at the Theatre of Dreams has already begun and was accelerated by United´s decline over the second half of the season.
So now, for the driven Reds boss, comes the painstaking and perhaps painful task of dismantling one great side and building another. And the building blocks are already being lifted into position.
Two of Ferguson´s new generation were paraded before the eyes of the nation in Cardiff on Saturday to give the first tantalising glimpse of what waits over the horizon.
Cristiano Ronaldo, at just 19, is surely destined for a career with the Reds which will reach the heights that even David Beckham never attained.
No longer is Ronaldo the comical step-over show-pony of his early days in Manchester. Twelve months of Ferguson´s barking instructions have polished off the rough edges. Ronaldo has listened and learned.
In full flow he´s quite literally unstoppable, at least by fair means. What he will be like by the time he reaches 21 doesn´t bear thinking about.
Only a year older than Ronaldo is Scottish midfielder Darren Fletcher who has developed at such an astonishing rate these past few months that he was preferred to Nicky Butt when Fergie sat down to draw up his Cup final line-up.
Earlier this season the jury was out on the young Scot. Talented? Without question. But was he physically equipped to survive and flourish in the hurly-burly of the Premiership?
United´s semi-final against Arsenal provided the answer to that question.
Frame
In just 90 minutes, a boy became a man. Fletcher, despite his slight frame, can mix it with the best. And the best, for him, is yet to come.
Put your money on young Darren being a pivotal member of the next United side to lift the Premiership title.
Ronaldo and Fletcher are only the tip of Fergie´s rebuilding iceberg.
Don´t forget that the Celtic midfielder Liam Miller will be arriving at Old Trafford this summer and contacts north of the border insist that the youngster has all the credentials to take the Premiership by storm.
The completion of Alan Smith´s transfer from Leeds United is expected any day now.
And early next season Rio Ferdinand will be available again after completing his suspension.
The England centre-back is still in his early twenties, as are his two defensive colleagues Mikael Silvestre and John O´Shea. Behind them comes a goalkeeper in Tim Howard who is still virtually a novice for a player in that specialised position and who will have benefited enormously for a season´s experience at Premiership level.
Everywhere you look, Ferguson´s next championship-winning team is beginning to take shape.
One or two of the " old sweats" like Gary Neville and Paul Scholes will almost certainly remain as the link between the past and the future.
Oh yes. Manchester United will be back all right, Keano was right about that. But it will be New United who will be wearing the crown.
