Schadenfreude can be so fulfilling

Just for one day, last Saturday, I was a Liverpool fan. At least I was by the time their third goal went in at Old Trafford and it became clear that this was one game Manchester United were not going to rescue at the death. By the time Liverpool scored the fourth I was howling like a loon. It was just so perfect. To be hammered out of sight on your own ground, particularly, is never an edifying experience for any team but for this team of all the talents in particular, a team which had almost begun to believe in its own invincibility, the experience must have been totally humiliating.

That the opposition was Liverpool only added further salt in the wounds and I was over the moon with delight. Why do I dislike Manchester United so much? In rational terms it's a hard question to answer. Why do football fans, apart from a passionate love of their own team, make very black and white choices about whether they hate other clubs. Because to most fans, some opposition clubs are more tolerable than others for reasons not altogether clear - but it's astonishing how often Manchester United top the hate lists.

I believe it stems, oddly, from a tragedy - the 1958 Munich air disaster in which United lost so many players and staff. At that time, they had just become a very successful club, a wonderful young team with a good manager, with none of the modern 'luggage'. The whole nation was united in its sympathy for the club at that time. It is since that date that Manchester United became an institution not a football club.

From the horrors of Munich and the aura which then surrounded the Club, Manchester United became a 'brand' rather than a football club and began to draw support from everywhere in the world, thanks to some very effective marketing. Now they rival Real Madrid as perhaps the best known Club in the world, and certainly, along with Real, the most prosperous. Along with that went an image of football 'royalty' which removed Manchester United from the tradition of local tribal support which has always driven the English game and put them on a football pedestal. It didn't take long then, of course, for other clubs - and their fans - thirsting to knock them off that plinth and restore them to mere mortality.

I'm sure one of the factors in perpetuating this delight at seeing United receive the football equivalent of a custard pie in the face is Sir Alex Ferguson. Good manager he has undoubtedly proved over the years, but Jeez, what a petulant prima-donna! He has waged a four year no-speaking war with the BBC over a report they did suggesting he was making dubious financial gains from the activities of his son and now has refused to speak to Sky Sports after the defeat to Liverpool - blaming the broadcaster for the timing of the match - and presumably thus to United's defeat.



How can a highly paid manager behave like a spoilt kid in this fashion and get away with it? Because, say people in the football world, he is the manager of Manchester United. How does he get away with criticising referees in the way he does without penalty? For the same reason.

The club is arrogant and so is its manager. So it was a delight to sit in a pub on Saturday and, for just one day at least, glory in a Liverpool victory so comprehensive that Sir Alex must have felt he had been dropped into a cold bath.

Now I hope Liverpool can overhaul the points deficit and win the title at the death. That would be the ultimate poke in the eye for the surly Scot!