International qualifiers have got to be played at sometime. We may not like them but they’re a fact of life. They cause disruptions to the Premier and Champions Leagues, force key players to travel to all corners of Europe and beyond which carry the ever present risk of niggling injuries or worse to be picked up.  But much as they are an intrusive annoyance under normal circumstances, they are welcomed with open arms on this particular occasion.

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The days of winning the title with little more than a dozen players as Liverpool did in the eighties are long gone. For many years clubs were forced to build large and deep squads in order to have any realistic chance of success but that is now about to change dramatically. As from the beginning of September, every Premier League club must nominate a squad of up to 25 players, of which no more than 17 can be over the age of 21 and not home grown. Will this rule worry Manchester United? The short answer is NO.
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The destiny of  Manchester United could have so easily gone in a totally different direction had the father of Sir Alex Ferguson taken the same decision as the rest of his extended family and followed them to Canada in the late fifties. It could have so easily happened as thousands of Scots were migrating to the new world in search of a better life for their families at that time. The young Ferguson was on the verge of doing the same when fate unexpectedly stepped in and changed the course of football history.

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