the manchester united old guard - paul scholes, gary neville and ryan giggs - got them out of a hole last season

Last night I spent the evening in the company of a number of old friends who constitute football journalists and football-educated “civvies” and, as one would expect three days before the start of the season, the conversation was predictable.

We gather about the same time every year to thrash out our hopes, dreams and, more soberly, our expectations about the upcoming season – the conversation even happens in the same order.

First, we dissect the top four in the Premier League in detail, followed by a more-than-cursory backwards glance at the following pack of five or six. Then we take a sympathetic look at the relegation battle, which quickly become brutal.

Then it is down to the Championship, and League One and League Two, which is always lively and interesting because of the wealth of specialist knowledge sitting round the table.

Finally, and perhaps most rare for a group of Brits discussing football in a pub, we take a long hard outward look at Europe: the Champions League, the Europa Cup, the major leagues, the big transfers, the European giants.

The night has grown over the years to become an almost necessary fixture in putting together a betting strategy for the upcoming season.

As is the way, Manchester United were top of the agenda and took up a significant portion of the evening.

Last year, I argued that the Man Utd empire is crumbling and that the acquisition of Michael Owen was proof positive that the giant of English football is becoming increasingly desperate. I like to think I was proved right as a solitary League Cup is no return for a club the size of Manchester United, but they performed (results-wise) far better than I expected.

One friend – who manages the prestige of being a football journalist with the ignominy of being a Manchester United fan in London (he is a Mancunian, to be fair) argued vehemently against me last season – and I expected him to do the same when I began in the same vein.

This time, he agreed wholeheartedly. We both agreed that last season’s avoidance of disaster was down to the glorious swansong performed by the old guard of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and, latterly, the increasingly scatty Gary Neville.