ENGLAND: Danny Fletcher told Man United players they play for their future

Manchester United's Darren Fletcher has
said that the remaining five games of the
club's dead season are the opportunity
for the squad's players to prove that they
are capable of surviving the summer
overhaul.
The Champions League defeat to Bayern
Munich on Wednesday signalled the end
of an era, with Nemanja Vidic desolate as
he left the stadium. But though United
supporters are urging the club to find a
way of enabling them to say an emotional
farewell to the pillars of their great
Champions League-winning side – Vidic,
Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra – Fletcher
said that futures were now riding on the
remaining games.
"If you get a chance to play, you have to
go and impress the manager and show
him that you are capable of being here
next year," Fletcher said. "He will
definitely look back on this season and
realise it was a disappointment, but I
fully expect there to be some signings. It
is time to show the manager that you
deserve to be at this club. Go and put in
performances because the manager will
be thinking of next season, no doubt
about that. You have to make sure that
you are one of the names that he still
wants."
Fletcher insisted that United did want to
secure Europa League qualification, even
though that would render the domestic
goal the players have been set –
reclaiming the Premier League title –
harder.
"There is a way to look at both sides,"
Fletcher said to the idea that United could
flourish by having no European
commitments. "But I think it is an
opportunity for young players to get
experience in Europe. There are players
in that dressing room who are going to be
the future of this club and they don't
have the same number of Champions
League games as some of us. Playing in
the Europa League would help them in
the long term to achieve success in the
Champions League. Although the goal
next season will be to win the Premier
League, not merely to finish in the top
four, we can then go again to try to win
the Champions League again. I am sure
the club would rather be in it."
Even to qualify for the Europa League
next season United, who lie seventh in
the Premier League, two points behind
Tottenham Hotspur, must overtake Spurs
with a strong showing against Everton,
Norwich, Sunderland, Hull and
Southampton.
Fletcher admitted that while United's
disappointment with elimination by
Bayern in the 2010 quarter-final was a
product of believing they were the better
team, there was no such view this time.
"Against a top-quality side, they showed
the standard it takes to win in the
Champions League. We need to rise to
that standard. [But] I don't think we are
as far as some people think. We showed
that over the two legs."
Comparative salaries – the best economic
indicator of how a club will perform –
suggest that the two should not be as far
apart as they have looked in the past
fortnight. In the last Global Sports
Salaries Survey, compiled by the sporting
intelligence website, Bayern were ninth in
a league table of the world's leading
clubs for their average first-team salary –
£76,924 a week – while United were 12th
– spending £75,423. Manchester City
(£100,764) were comfortably top.
But buoyed by Sir Alex Ferguson's
overachievement, United have drifted. His
successor as manager, David Moyes,
inherited a chaotic recruitment and
scouting system and has also struggled to
settle on a preferred team and style of
play, damaging United further. The
transition has been more painful than
anyone imagined, though Moyes seems to
have done enough to be retained for the
task of leading United back.
The Bayern midfielder Toni Kroos and
Southampton left-back Luke Shaw are
among the main targets, with Borussia
Dortmund's Ilkay Gündogan another
possible acquisition. Nani, Shinji Kagawa,
Javier Hernandez, Wilfried Zaha and
Anderson could all leave.