United bid for van Persie signals end to rivalry

Perhaps worse even than the sight of talismanic striker and captain playing in the red of Manchester United, is the fact that our long-standing rival Ferguson felt he could make a bid at all. If it wasn’t already pretty clear, it is now official: we are not the rivals we used to be.
It almost seems silly to say, as we have barely challenged the Old Trafford club in the last seven years, but there remained the faint, if dimming, hope that we would work our way back to the big time eventually and win some trophies at their expense. That could still happen, of course – with or withou...