Manchester United could have been the first team in history to win five trophies in one season as well as being the first team to successfully defend the crown of European Champions. Six weeks ago, United were on course for an unprecedented quintuple. And now, before the FA Cup has even been decided, our season is over and we’ve finished with three trophies. (I’m ignoring the Charity Shield)

Today, we have two choices. We can take United’s domestic and World success and congratulate the team on a job well done or we can look at the team’s recent performances and rightly ask questions about the future of this so called “young team”.

If you’re happy with the former, you should probably stop reading now. We won the league, rock on!

In Wednesday’s Champions League semi final, the average age of United’s starting eleven was 28. One year older than that of our opponents Barcelona and yet Ferguson still claimed the team was young and would learn. Whilst all United players will certainly learn from Wednesday’s loss, it is naïve to suggest youth played any part in the defeat.

Anderson was United’s youngest player on the park at 21, but when he was replaced a half time, the role of most youthful player on the park fell to Wayne Rooney who, at the age of 23 and with over 200 United appearances to his name, can hardly be described as inexperienced.

As Alex Ferguson rightly pointed out, “we were beaten by a better team” on Wednesday night but rather than simply accept that; surely we have to ask why?

Statistics will paint a false image of our season. Finishing the Premier League as Champions with 90 points looks impressive and the fact we equalled the country’s all time top flight victories should make it more so. But it doesn’t.

Only three times in our history have United surpassed the 90 points mark in the Premier League with our highest ever total being 92, achieved in the 93/94 season.

Still, the stats are not a true reflection and it’s hard to be happy with our haul this season - especially when we had so much in our grasp only six weeks ago.

Liverpool pushed United close in this season’s Premier League race and whilst it’s hard to imagine the Dippers as real title challengers; this season, it almost became a reality.

Chelsea had to cope with a managerial change mid season and Arsenal surprisingly lost five games in their opening dozen leaving Liverpool with a real opportunity to stake a claim on the title. Fantasy is a million miles from reality though and Liverpool never really had enough to steal top spot from United and finished second.

Next season, I’d bet on both Arsenal and Chelsea to finish above the Dippers and I reckon you’d get good odds on that happening. It also means the race for first will be more fiercely contested. Will United be up for the challenge? No-one has ever won four Premier League trophies back to back. Bring it on.

Ignoring our (undeserved) impressive statistics, United never really looked themselves ever since the home victory against Inter Milan. United cruised to a 2 – 0 victory that evening but the manor of the performance seemed lazy and ever since then, winning looked more like a chore than a formality.

By this point, getting to the line was all that mattered in the league and rightly so. United managed to cruise over it with a game to spare but in the Champions League they had no such luck.

It was a scared or tired team that turned up to play Barcelona in the final. Given the team had been given a decent rest before the game; I can only conclude it was the former.

United started well, playing nine minutes of great football, but Barcelona scored from their first attack and from then it was men versus boys. Barcelona on the ascendency and United on the slide. We lost the game through two sloppy goals but the old adage comes true; you can’t complain about losing if you don’t score a goal.

After the game, a clearly upset Ferguson said “we’ll be better next year” but if you look at the current squad, to push further forward will require some tough decisions.

Whilst hard work is an attribute widely appreciated amongst the Red Devil faithful, without the talent to back it up, surely it’s only a matter of time before the gig is up?

John O’Shea was handed the job at right back after an apparently impressive season covering the same position whilst one can only assume Ji-Sung Park was given a start for his tireless energy. Both of these players have been incredible servants to the club but are they really of Manchester United quality? Yes they do a job, but do they have quality? I think it’s clear they don’t. Not at the level we need anyway.

Strong and steady will win the Premiership race nine times out of ten. Strong, steady and sexy will win the lot. Next season, it’s time to bring back the sexy…

On the surface this seems like great news for the club but if you dig a little deeper you’ll see that although it’s reassuring to hear Ronaldo wants to stay; right now, his words are worthless.

Cristiano Ronaldo has served two years of his current five year contract. The winger has just one year left in his “protected period” meaning come next summer, he will be able to buy himself out of the remainder of his contract. He will of course have to pay the club compensation but compared to the transfer fee Ronaldo would command the word pittance springs to mind.

Under FIFA rules, a player may break a contract after a given number of years; currently three years for players under 28 at the point of signing and two years for those over.

Andy Webster was the first player to buy himself out of his contract when he moved from Hearts to Wigan in May 2007. Hearts had been trying to sell the player for £5 million but ended up with compensation of just £625,000.

David Gill will be well aware of this fact and a contract for his superstar player will be priority number one this summer. If Ronaldo really wants to stay at United, then this summer is crunch time. The Winger simply HAS to sign a contract extension or the club run the serious risk of losing the player for a paltry sum in the near future. If the club can’t tie him down, perhaps they’ll have no option but to let him go?

To force a move in such a way would be a show of utter disrespect from Ronaldo towards the club and teammates that have nurtured his talent and supported him through thick and thin. I’d like to think he’d never do something like that to our great club but when you’re talking about a £50+ million asset, surely you can’t take any chances?

Manchester United secured their third successive Premier League title at Old Trafford this afternoon bringing their total top flight league wins to 18.

United kicked off against Arsenal at Old Trafford knowing a point would be enough to secure the title and judging by the performance, a point was the best anyone could have hoped for. United were far from their best but the match ended goalless and trophy number three was in the bag.

This league win puts United on parity with Liverpool in the all time titles race at 18 a piece. However, with United having won 11 out of a possible 17 Premier League titles compared to Liverpool’s none, it would seem United are in pole position to emerge as the countries most successful English team of all time.

According to Ferguson, we won’t have to wait long for that. Asked about equalling Liverpool’s record, the Scot replied:

“It’ll make it more special when we are in front of them. Next year we are going for it again.”

United add the Premier League trophy to the League Cup and World Cup they have already won this season and march on for trophy number four; The Champions League.

Manchester United face Barcelona on May 27th knowing a win would make them the first team ever to successfully defend their Champions League crown. United set records as standard; Roll on Rome.

But before any of that, there is the little matter of a third successive Premier League title. United’s 18th top flight league title – the one that equals Liverpool’s record. If we win it, you’d bet on us reaching 19 before them – I can’t wait.

The 2- 0 win over City at the weekend pushed United to within four points of the title and Patrice Evra admits the team’s focus is now firmly fixed on Premier League glory.

“The win against City was very important for the team because, to play after the European Cup semi-final against Arsenal was not an easy situation.

“All that mattered was the three points so, we are very happy to have collected them.

“We were well aware Liverpool had gone top again on Saturday, so we did our job very well.

“But now we have the game at Wigan on Wednesday and, if we win that one, maybe we can smell the title.

“We are nearly there, but the job is not finished yet. We have a Champ ions League final to look forward to, but we have to put that to the back of our minds and concentrate on the league.”

The meeting of UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary body was arranged to discuss the validity of Manchester United’s protests that Darren Fletcher should not have been sent off and should therefore not miss the final.

UEFA rules state the only basis for an appeal against a refereeing decision is if it were a case of mistaken identity so for UEFA to arrange a special meeting to conclude there is no basis for appeal does nothing more than show what a farce the system is. There was simply no other possible outcome so why have meeting in the first place?

Alex Ferguson never expected any other outcome but felt obliged to protest given Fletcher’s hard work and honest attitude. United have accepted UEFA’s ruling though and the case is now closed.

A United spokesman said: “Darren is an honest player and we felt we should do what we could to try to help him become eligible for the Champions League final by initially protesting his dismissal. However, we respect Uefa’s decision not to admit the protest and we will therefore not be appealing against today’s ruling.”

The real problem for UEFA is the can of worms the case would open should they choose to step in and make an exception. At the meeting, they also discussed impending suspensions in the Barcelona camp. Neither of which would have been contested had it not been for the Fletcher situation. Barcelona figured if UEFA did it for United, they’d have to do it for them and fair play to them; any team would have tried it.

On the positive side, both of Barcelona’s protests were also rejected so they will be missing both their first choice full-backs when we meet in Rome.

I had been hopeful of a positive outcome from this meeting. I was convinced UEFA would watch the video replays and see how unfair it was for Fletcher to miss the final. Perhaps that’s giving UEFA too much credit.

Winners’ medals are only normally given out to players who have made ten or more Premier League appearances and as it stands, Macheda has made just three.

In his first appearance for the club, Macheda came off the bench to score the winning goal against Aston Villa and less than one week later; he did the same against Sunderland. Macheda may have only made three Premier League appearances, but he has chalked up four big points on his own.

The Premier League can make allowances for players under special circumstances and Manchester United believe his impact in the business end of the season warrants a medal. They will ask the Premier League to mint a winners medal for Macheda when the season is over.

Alan Smith was given a Premier League winners medal in the 2006/07 season despite only making nine appearances. That said, nine is a lot closer to ten than three!

There are still four games left of the season so Macheda could potentially finish up with seven Premiership appearances. With the title still up for grabs though, it seems unlikely he will feature in all of the remaining fixtures.

Three games, two goals and four points – is that enough for a medal? Fergie obviously thinks so but I suspect the Premier League may take a little more convincing.

“I think I will be at another club next season” he said.

Most (if not all) United fans will read this and again ask themselves what an earth is going on? Why are we not signing this player up? If we can spend £30 odd million on Berbatov surely we can do the same for Tevez?

But as I read Tevez’s comments, my mind wanders back to last summer during the Cristiano Ronaldo/Real Madrid saga. Whilst Ronaldo was trying to manoeuvre himself a move to Spain, Fergie and the rest of the United boys were singing from the same song sheet: Ronaldo must stay.

What did Tevez say? “Let him go.”

In his most recent media interview, Tevez talks about family and not feeling part of the Manchester United family:

“I have not been treated as a member of the family. I do not feel wanted. I feel bad over my situation, I do, but it’s very, very difficult to stay any longer.

“The fans treat me like family but United have not signed me so they do not respect me as a footballer.”

“Things have changed dramatically this season. I was dropped - yet I didn’t perform badly. Sir Alex never gave me an explanation but I never asked him for one because it is not in my character.”

Whilst I respect Tevez’s attitude on the pitch, there is something not right about his conduct off it. If Tevez really wants to be part of the Manchester United family, he should bloody well act like it.

Firstly, that means understanding the pecking order and your place in it. You stick with the unit and show solidarity. When Fergie speaks publicly, even if you don’t agree, you keep it buttoned.

If you do have a problem, you go to him. You sort it out amongst yourselves. You don’t go to the media. But that’s not how Tevez rolls….

Publicly, Ferguson has stated his desire to keep Tevez at United; so have the other players; so have the board. Sounds to me like he’s been welcomed with open arms. Or am I missing the point?

Darren Fletcher may be permitted to play in Rome when United take on Barcelona in this season’s Champions League Final.

Fletcher was sent off 15 minutes before the end of United’s semi-final victory over Arsenal but replays clearly show the midfielder made contact with the ball before bringing down Cesc Fabregas .

With UEFA rules as they are, there is no room for an appeal but as we said yesterday, article 9.1 does give UEFA’s disciplinary body the power to make changes to any punishment or suspensions resulting from an on pitch incident.

David Taylor, UEFA’s general secretary, told The Sun newspaper:

“Strictly speaking there is no appeal process but representation can be made. If the club want to write to us with information – such as video evidence – explaining why they think this is a harsh punishment, then they can do that.

“The likelihood is we’d refer it to our disciplinary body. They would then look to see if there were any special circumstances to justify any departure from established procedures.”

Come on UEFA, do the right thing!

Update (7/5 3:30pm): Manchester United have asked UEFA to overturn Feltcher’s red card. I don’t think they will be able to overturn it based on their regulations but I am feeling confident he wont serve any suspension.