For Manchester United Roy Keane is in his heaven and all seems right with the world. Yet should Alex Ferguson's team fail to beat Valencia at Old Trafford tonight a small cloud of doubt would linger over United's latest Champions League ambitions until the tournament starts up again in March.
The news that Keane is about to sign a new four-year contract worth Stg£50,000 a week will have quelled supporters' fears that United were about to lose the player who more than anyone epitomises the heart and soul of the present side's success. A win this evening would complete the club's happiest nine days of the season so far.
Having beaten Palmeiras in Tokyo, courtesy of a goal from Keane, to win the Toyota intercontinental cup, and shaken off any jetlag to rout Everton 5-1 Manchester United now need to defeat Valencia to offset the effects of losing 2-0 to Fiorentina in the opening match of the Champions League's second phase.
On the same night Valencia overcame Bordeaux 3-0, confirming their form of the first round when they came through six games unbeaten and defeated Rangers twice. Gabriel Batistuta and Rui Costa, Argentine and Portuguese, plotted United's downfall in Florence. Claudio Lopez and Adrian Ilie, Argentine and Romanian, have been Valencia's inspirations in Europe this season.
England well remember Ilie from their 1998 World Cup defeat by Romania in Toulouse. Valencia, quick and incisive up front, are as well equipped as Fiorentina to punish the sort of errors through which United contributed to their own downfall in the Artemio Franchi Stadium a fortnight ago.
Ferguson believes that his team have finally shaken off the torpor which has affected a number of their performances since they completed a unique treble last season by adding the European Cup to the Premier League and FA Cup. Certainly Saturday's performance, achieved without David Beckham, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored four goals, revealed a new freshness in United's football.
"I believe we have at last got our game back on the right track," said Ferguson yesterday. "We all know this is a seriously big match. The pressure is really on us." While Beckham, Yorke and Cole are all expected to come back tonight Solskjaer does have a case for being on at the start. But even if the Norwegian does return to the bench he may yet have a role to play should Cole and Yorke experience a repeat of the difficulties they had finding openings against Fiorentina.
Either way Ferguson will be looking for Keane and Paul Scholes to provide the basis for a victory which would send United into next spring confident of a continued presence in the final stages of the Champions League.
