When it comes to replacing the iconic figures of Manchester United – the men who wear the No7 shirt – Sir Alex Ferguson's record has been remarkably successful.
Bringing in Roy Keane for a then-record transfer fee gave United the great box-to-box midfielder that Bryan Robson had been in his pomp – and which Paul Ince never was. Teddy Sheringham is no icon at Old Trafford but, though he may never be the subject of a film by Ken Loach, he did turn a major European game – something Eric Cantona rarely managed. Cristiano Ronaldo emerged as a fashion and marketing icon to match David Beckham, whom he eclipsed as a footballer.
Replacing the boy from Madeira is altogether more problematic and is something Ferguson has not attempted – he and Antonio Valencia have been at pains to point out that he is no new Ronaldo. If you want to judge the hole torn from Manchester United by his departure, consider what might be Ferguson's midfield when their Premier League campaign opens on 16 August against Birmingham.
Valencia and Nani patrol the flanks while Anderson and Michael Carrick anchor the midfield with the former driving forward to support Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney – whom Ferguson has insisted throughout United's pre-season will be used more centrally. Each of these four midfielders cost around £16-17m and the oldest, Carrick, has just turned 28. It is a young, talented and versatile combination and, if they repeat their statistics from last season, they will score eight goals between them. The most prolific was Carrick with four and he is the most defensively minded of the quartet.
That, bluntly, is what has been lost. Time and again in east Asia and in Germany Ferguson has returned to the subject of how his midfield will make up the goals that came from Ronaldo's gaudily coloured boots. In his final campaign at Old Trafford he scored 18 times in the Premier League for the champions, goals that earned Manchester United 11 points. In his season of wonder, 2007-08, he scored in various competitions against every Premier League side with the exception of Middlesbrough and Manchester City. If you take away his league goals – which earned United 21 points – they would have finished fourth in 2008, sandwiched between Liverpool and Everton.
The fact that Valencia and Anderson both found the net in Manchester United's somewhat jittery 2–1 win over Boca Juniors in Munich last night is encouraging. Anderson's inability to score in any of his previous 75 competitive games for United, something he managed reasonably well at Porto, had become such a subject of dressing-room banter that when he beat Roberto Abbondanzieri the entire United bench came to the touchline to applaud.
Ferguson said afterwards that he hoped that this might encourage the Brazilian to be more adventurous in front of goal. He added that Valencia's goalscoring return for Wigan had been "poor" but they would work on this on the Carrington training pitches and the fact that he was playing for Manchester United, rather than Wigan, would naturally provide him with more opportunity.
Then there is the question of Ronaldo's speciality: dead balls. Manchester United have nearly always had a nominated penalty-taker under Ferguson to the extent that when Alan Shearer was negotiating to come to Old Trafford in the summer of 1996, his request to take the spot-kicks should he sign was turned down. Cantona, Ferguson explained, took Manchester United's penalties. After Cantona, it fell first to Beckham and then Ronaldo. But this time there is no obvious successor.
Ryan Giggs has the coolness and skill to do it but it is questionable how many games even the great Welshman can start at 35. The best bet – curiously given his abysmal record in front of goal – might be Anderson. Certainly, he strikes the ball harder than almost anyone else in Ferguson's squad, and his penalty in the shoot-out that decided the 2008 European Cup final against Chelsea, was unsaveable. He may be a gamble but Ferguson, both on and off the field, has always relished a punt.