Darren Fletcher's now the mean man! Midfielder
is proving Roy Keane wrong
Of all the questions he has been asked already this
season, there is one that Sir Alex Ferguson will not answer. Why
did you lose the Champions League final last May?
However, it is not difficult to work it out for ourselves
with the benefit of hindsight.
Poor defending. The anonymity of Cristiano Ronaldo and the
Brazilian Anderson. And the absence of Darren Fletcher. ‘If they
ever needed Fletcher it was in the Champions League final against
Barcelona,’ former Scotland and
Liverpool
midfielder Graeme Souness told Sportsmail this week.
‘On the night, Anderson wasn’t up to the task of stopping their
footballers from playing. Fletcher would have done that and given
his defenders protection and provided the platform for the front
players. He would have made the difference.’
Who would have thought it? Darren Fletcher the difference
between winning and losing the greatest club prize on earth. The
same Darren Fletcher who was ridiculed by supporters — they used to
call him ‘Fergie’s son’ — and dismissed by his former captain and
teammate Roy Keane.
‘I can’t understand why people in Scotland rave about Darren
Fletcher,’ Keane is thought to have said in the infamous MUTV rant
that was never aired back in 2005.
Perhaps he can now. Fletcher, after all, is Scotland’s captain
and a midfielder referred to as a big-game player by his manager.
Less than two weeks ago one tabloid newspaper even described him as
the ‘new Roy Keane’ in the wake of
Manchester United’s
unlikely Barclays Premier League victory over
Arsenal.
It has, it must be said, been a remarkable transformation and
pictures of him in midweek squaring up to Arsenal’s Robin van
Persie as Scotland lost at home to Holland perhaps indicate how a
callow boy has become a man.
‘For a while I have wanted Darren to take hold of games and now
he does that for me,’ said Ferguson.
‘I thought he was fantastic against Arsenal. I said right after
the game that, for me, he was the star man. Wayne Rooney, who got
the man-of-the-match award, said it should have gone to Fletcher
and we all agreed.’
It is six-and-a-half years since Fletcher made his debut for
United in a 1-1 Champions League draw against Basel. He is now 218
appearances into his professional career and it has not always been
a straightforward path.
Fletcher has always had the ability to pass well; to see and
understand angles. But he was too often unable to find the pace of
games and apply himself physically, which only serves to make his
recent reincarnation as a hard man all the more fascinating.
Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger accused the 25-year-old of dirty
play at Old Trafford a fortnight ago, something that Fletcher would
deny but perhaps not worry about too much. Such things certainly
never bothered Keane, a player who actually did much to shepherd
his younger colleague through difficult early times at Old
Trafford.
‘I know Arsene Wenger was critical of United’s aggressive
tactics the other week but British football isn’t just about
playing pretty passing styles,’ added Souness, a man whose
autobiography was aptly entitled No Half Measures.
‘You have to win the battles on the pitch first. It’s what we
all love to see in the British game and please may it continue. The
art of tackling, being strong and then using the ball wisely.
‘Fletcher can do all this. I’m not saying he’s just a
destructive force, he has other assets, too. When I first saw him I
thought he would be just an up-and-down player, but he has matured
and is full of confidence.
'He’s been well-schooled, tackle hardened and the experience he
has gained is shining through now. I’m a big fan. He is the modern
midfielder. Tall, great athleticism and traditional qualities. Last
year he was United’s most effective performer.
'For instance, United like to combat Arsenal with aggression and
in the Champions League semi-final he was the instigator. He was
the man that set the tempo and raised his team’s performance.
‘I believe he will be, arguably, United’s most important
player for the next seven years.’ Souness’s words constitute high
praise and it is something Fletcher — a patriot — will appreciate.
Fletcher has long since been one of United’s more approachable
players. Rather than revel in the media blanket that United throw
over their squad, he actually approached a club PR person and asked
why it was.
Married now with twin boys, Fletcher grew up on a council estate
outside Edinburgh. Coming from a family of agricultural workers, he
is tee-total and, in some ways, an unlikely Scotland captain.
Scotland assistant manager Terry Butcher said: ‘You would be
proud to have Darren as your son. He’s a lovely, honest boy. He is
in love with football and, to me, a bit of a throwback.
'He is quite simply a very good footballer.’ United manager
Ferguson has not enjoyed the best of luck with central midfielders
in recent years. Names such as Miller, Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson
still make him cringe.
Saturday afternoon at White Hart Lane, though, Fletcher will
stand toe to toe with Tottenham’s own enforcer Wilson Palacios.
He is, in his own way, a modern United success story.