THIS wasn't the way they had it in the brochure.
It was supposed to be a two-pronged assault on the Champions League with English clubs from the same Northern city meeting in an emotional final in Munich that showed Manchester was the epicentre of football.

Now the biggest spenders in European history and a club with one of its proudest and most consistent records have been consigned to the ignominy of the Europa League.


It doesn't bear thinking about for two clubs who should not even be entertaining the notion of second-rate Thursday night football. A stunned Ferguson certainly wasn't after a night that exposed all United's weaknesses.

All he could do was lament the passing of the tournament he called the greatest in the world — and leave it to the southern softies of Arsenal and Chelsea.

But what now for him?

Has a man who will be 70 at the end of the year got either the strength, the motivation or the answers with which to confront the massive problems assailing his club?

David de Gea showed he is a risk now not really worth persevering with after the blunder that led to Basel's opening goal.

He possesses neither the stature nor the self-belief to instil any confidence in a defence that grows more rickety with each passing month.

It looks like the end of the road for Rio Ferdinand — just as the evenings seem to be drawing in on the full-time Chelsea career of his former West Ham and England team-mate Frank Lampard after events at Stamford Bridge 24 hours earlier.

Ji Sung Park's time at Old Trafford also looks to have run its course, while Nemanja Vidic, who was stretchered off in the first half after injuring himself making a tackle, could well be tempted by one last massive pay day in Italy or Spain.
And what of the increasingly vulnerable Patrice Evra — and the injury-prone Fabio and Rafael? And where on earth was Ashley Young?
How on earth does Ferguson also replace Ryan Giggs when he hasn't even managed to fill the void left by Paul Scholes?How now does he attract the sort of midfield player like Wesley Sneijder he should have gone out and broken the bank for during the summer?

And Dimitar Berbatov, surely, cannot have much left to offer the club?
While he wrestles with all these problems, he still has to try to bed in the younger players at the club.

These are just some of the questions that face Ferguson, questions he really could have done without in the twilight of his own career.
On an extraordinary night at St Jakob Park, United did everything but score.
United carved Gruyere-like chunks out of the Basel defence but still couldn't put the ball in the back of the net on a desperate night for Wayne Rooney and his team-mates.
And all the time your mind went back to Ferguson's assertion there would be no Champions League upset here.
As he said here on Tuesday night, there was no question about that.
But you always had the feeling he was tempting fate.

Sure, United were without the injured Berbatov, Javier Hernandez, Tom Cleverley and Anderson - and with Michael Carrick suspended, though some United punters would have viewed this last omission as a blessing in disguise.
And, yes, Rooney had half an eye on his disciplinary meeting with UEFA in Nyon this morning.
But these are pretty lame excuses. There should have still been more than enough out there in Giggs, Evra, Vidic and Ferdinand, in middle-market men Nani and Young and in up-and-coming stars Phil Jones and Chris Smalling.

Just as there had been back in 2002 when United came back from a goal down to win 3-1 in the same stadium with a double from Ruud van Nistelrooy and a third from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
What United would have given for strikers of that calibre as it all came crashing down round their ears on one of the blackest nights in their long European history.
Ferguson's bravado certainly came back to haunt him.
Perhaps he had forgotten that Switzerland had come up with the shock of the World Cup when they beat favourites and eventual champions Spain 1-0 at the group stage.
Last night was almost a carbon copy of that evening in Durban when the Swiss sneaked a goal and then somehow hung on in the face of a furious, non-stop battering to take all three points.
This time it was Marco Streller putting Basel ahead after an astonishing 10th-minute mistake by De Gea when for some unfathomable reason he attempted to clear Xherdan Shaqiri's low cross with his right foot - only, instead, to knock it straight to Streller.
After that it was a near miraculous rearguard action to keep United out.
But don't take anything away from a Basel side who scored three times at Old Trafford only to be denied victory by a last-minute Ashley Young header.
And there can be nothing but superlatives for Basel's outstanding keeper Yann Sommer. Ferguson threw on Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda in the second half but as United doubled and redoubled their efforts the inevitable happened.
Another Shaqiri cross made it all the way to the far post where local hero Alex Frei stooped to head in the goal that sealed the greatest night in Basel's history.
Jones pulled one back with a minute or so to go but it was too little too late.
The biggest indictment of United was that 38-year-old Giggs was head and shoulders their best player.
That then is the real size of the problem facing Ferguson in what was supposed to be a triumphant Silver Jubilee.