There is no doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson and his Manchester United team will soon be adding another Premier League title to their vast, glittering collection.

Losing last week’s derby – however deep a dent it may have made in their pride – merely delayed the inevitable triumph rather than threw it into question.

However, equally certain in my mind is that United will need to do some substantial strengthening in the summer if they have aspirations to pick up title number 21 next time round.

Because, and Monday’s game only served to emphasise this point, there is nothing overly special about this current United team. On their day, both Chelsea and Manchester City are a match for the mediocrity of Ferguson’s current squad. And Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are not far behind.

Sir Alex’s 13th title, unlike many of the others, had more to do with his nearest rivals’ failures

United’s 12-point lead at the top of the league flatters them – the difference between them and their rivals is nowhere near as dramatic as that gap suggests.

When you boil it down to the basics, there were two main reasons why United ran away with the title this season.

Firstly, and Sir Alex has to take credit for this, they were exceptionally consistent. Never great, never awesome, but always good enough. No great highs or desperate lows, just lots of solid performances that got the job done.

The second reason is that the other two big boys (sorry, but I believe that right now there are only two others), for one reason or another failed to live up to expectations.

The kindest thing you can say about Chelsea is that it has been a transitional season, what with Roberto Di Matteo sacked on a billionaire’s whim and Rafa Benitez appointed for... well, I’ve still no idea why he was appointed to be honest.

But Roman Abramovich won’t be happy with what he has seen this season, and with the Special One looking increasingly likely to make a summer return to Stamford Bridge, next season they should once again become a title force to be reckoned with.

City, on the other hand, have suffered as a result of Roberto Mancini’s questionable managerial techniques. Whether or not he is still in the job come August is open to debate.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that whoever is in charge at the Etihad will have a considerably stronger squad to pick from than the one that just beat United in their own back yard.

Essentially, if all of the big three were to start next season with exactly the same squad as they have now, but with Chelsea and City under new managers, I think it would be a perfectly even race.

But City and Chelsea will come back bigger, better and stronger next season – clubs with their spending power always do. And that’s why I feel United need to be doing some strengthening of their own over the summer to avoid being left behind. Their midfield in particular feels like it needs a complete overhaul, begging the question why Wesley Sneijder was allowed to get away.

In a few weeks, Sir Alex will have claimed his 13th title for United and the magnitude of that achievement cannot be understated. However, this one, unlike many of the others, had more to do with his nearest rivals’ failures than his successes.

If Sir Alex fancies number 14, and I think we can rest assured he does, then he should probably cancel his holidays and prepare for a summer of agents, e-mails and phone calls.

An end to away bias?

I’m starting to wonder whether the away goals rule might actually be counter-productive.

I understand its reason for being – to persuade away teams to come out and attack by rewarding them ‘extra’ for scoring away from the comforts of home.

But I think we are increasingly seeing the away goal rule ruining games that had the potential to be classics.

The latest example of this came in the Champions League last week when Galatasaray tried to overturn their 3-0 first leg deficit against Real Madrid.

In that game, like so many others we have seen this season, it only took one away goal for Real to end it as a contest, meaning the Turks needed to score five.

Credit to Galatasaray, of course, for having a real go and, at 3-1, you just wondered if the greatest ever European comeback was on the cards.

But how much more exciting and entertaining would that match have been if a 4-1 or 5-2 win would have been enough for the home team?

And what about the fact that the away goals rule allowed Barcelona to make the semis without actually winning a game? Surely that is fundamentally wrong for the sport of football.

As I said, I get the logic behind the away goals rule and I am not saying it is necessarily all bad. I just think football may want to take stock of it and question whether the cons are actually outweighing the pros.

I think they might be.

Going, going, gone?

I happened to glance at the Championship league table last week and who should I see sitting in the last of the relegation positions? Good old Blackburn Rovers.

This is a team that started the season as favourites for promotion. Despite relegation from the top flight they had hung on to many of their better players and added to that nucleus wisely, including £8 million (€9.4m) signing Jordan Rhodes.

Instead of bouncing back at the first attempt, however, they are now in serious danger of slipping down another division.

They have six games left to save themselves from the humiliation of back-to-back relegations.

Of course, there is nobody to blame for this other than the Venkys, Blackburn’s inept and slightly unhinged owners. When they bought Blackburn it was an established Premiership team. Next season their league fixtures could include games against Crawley Town and Yeovil Town.

The main reason for that is the managerial merry-go-round that has been going on at Ewood Park. First Sam Allardyce was removed to make way for Steve Kean. Kean in turn was kicked out, but only after he secured relegation and spent the club’s entire transfer budget.

That brought Henning Berg into play, but he only lasted 10 uninspiring games before being replaced by Michael Appleton who, in turn, lasted only 67 days in charge.

That would be embarrassing for a pub league team, let alone former Premiership champions.

And when you look at what is happening behind the scenes, it gets worse. Nobody really knows who is running the club, and you have the managing director hiring people and the ‘global consultant’ firing them behind his back. Pathetic.

Now caretaker manager Gary Bowyer is in charge of the team, although he was summoned to India last week by the Venky’s, with rumours suggesting he could be sacked as the club look to appoint a big-name manager (possibly Steve McLaren) to try to save their Championship skins.

Although I obviously feel sorry for the Blackburn fans who have had to watch their club torn apart over the past couple of years, securing another relegation might actually be a good thing, both for them and football as a whole.

For Blackburn, relegation to League One would surely be enough to persuade the Venkys to end their ill-fated football adventure. They would probably cut their losses and sell up, leaving the club to be sensibly rebuilt by people who know what football is all about.

Looking at the bigger picture, a second relegation would also help dissuade other millionaires with similar questionable motives from getting into football in the hope of making a fast buck…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade