Manchester United have a long history of slapstick clowns in goal. Gary Bailey - hilarious with his comedy blond wig, which he eventually passed on years later to the not quite as funny, Peter Schmeichel who augmented this look with a big comedy red nose. Bailey's trademark was to sprint to the edge of the box, stick out a fist, close his eyes and jump with his knee coming up at head height. He once flattened Luther Blissett in this manner, taking him out of the game. Poor Luther, who was pretty fucking hard himself, was out cold and had to be stretchered off. This was such an unusual event that for a about ten minutes, a whisper went round the terraces that Luther had been killed.
That little funny bald French one - he was brilliant. He'd come running out of his goal, in a short sleeve top, and try and dribble the ball only to lose somewhere near the half-way line, over by the touch line. He'd then do a Buster Keaton/Cirque des Clunes inspired slapstick run back to his goal line, managing to find a banana skin to slip on, on the way. How we all laughed at his bald head, and his Ben Turpin-style cross-eyed face.
Then there was Fat Aussie, Mark Bloater, whose weight doubled within two weeks of joining United from Villa. He was a superb comic, but was kept out of the side by the comedic genius of Italian comedy Maestro Massimo Taibi, who was the world's best when it came to letting the ball through his legs. Back in 1975 of course, Alex Stepney managed to dislocate his jaw just by shouting at his defence, and who can forget the late, great Les Sealey who once memorably wanted to have a fight with his defence during the 1991 Cup Winner's Cup final.
So, last night's blunder is all in a day's work for a United keeper, and is keeping with a long established tradition. What is new however, is the ridiculously poor level of refereeing. At best the officials were totally and utterly incompetent, and at worst they are a corrupt AND incompetent because they can't even hide their obvious support for Alex Ferguson in a convincing way.