Once New Manchester United had defeated AC Milan to become champions of Europe, the season moved almost immediately into awards season.
Every newspaper, television network and football magazine seemed to have its own list.
Best player.
Best manager.
Best young player.
Best signing.
Best XI.
Some were serious. Others were little more than entertainment. But the most prestigious of them naturally attracted considerable attention, particularly UEFA's Champions League Team of the Season.
This year's selection was arranged in a 4-4-2.
There was virtually no debate over the goalkeeper.
Petr Čech.
Dida had enjoyed an excellent European campaign for Milan, but Čech's consistency across the entire competition gave him a decisive advantage.
By the end of the season, the Czech international was already being discussed among the very best goalkeepers in the world, with only Gianluigi Buffon and Iker Casillas generally placed ahead of him.
At 1.97 metres, Čech possessed almost every physical attribute a modern goalkeeper could want.
His reach was exceptional.
His reflexes were outstanding.
He commanded high balls confidently and rarely looked vulnerable when forced off his line.
Technically, there were very few obvious weaknesses.
Some analysts even considered him more complete than Casillas, whose comparatively smaller frame occasionally left him less dominant under crosses.
Čech's greatest strength, however, might have been concentration.
He could spend eighty minutes with almost nothing to do and still react perfectly when the one serious chance arrived.
That had happened repeatedly during New Manchester United's European campaign.
In knockout football, where one mistake could destroy an entire tie, that reliability was priceless.
New Manchester United had possessed one of the strongest defensive records in the competition, and Čech had been central to it.
The left-back position produced a much closer debate.
Paolo Maldini and Patrice Evra had both enjoyed excellent campaigns.
Maldini remained remarkably dependable despite his age and had once again demonstrated why he was regarded as one of the great defenders of his generation.
Evra offered something different.
He was younger, quicker and more aggressive going forward, while still providing the defensive discipline Mourinho demanded.
Before the final, sentiment and reputation might have given Maldini the edge.
After Istanbul, the balance shifted.
Milan's defeat inevitably hurt the Italian's case, while Evra had just completed a Champions League-winning season in which he contributed at both ends of the pitch.
The place went to Evra.
For him, it represented the highest individual recognition of his career to that point.
On the right, Juventus defender Gianluca Zambrotta was selected.
Juventus had fallen to New Manchester United in the quarter-finals, but Zambrotta's performances across the group and knockout stages had still impressed almost everyone.
Maicon had made a strong late push for consideration after establishing himself ahead of Kolo Touré, particularly once his defensive game began catching up with his attacking ability.
He did not make the final XI.
Few people doubted that he would remain in the conversation for years to come.
Cafu's name was also discussed, although the final had exposed the problem that had followed him throughout the season.
At thirty-five, his attacking instincts remained intact.
His recovery speed did not.
New Manchester United had repeatedly targeted the space behind him in Istanbul, and Ronaldo had made the right side of Milan's defence one of the decisive areas of the match.
At centre-back, the two selections were John Terry and Alessandro Nesta.
Terry had become the organisational core of New Manchester United's defence.
His performances grew increasingly authoritative as the competition progressed, particularly in the knockout rounds, where Mourinho repeatedly asked his back line to solve different tactical problems.
Barcelona required one type of defending.
Juventus required another.
Real Madrid presented something else entirely.
Terry adapted to all of them.
New Manchester United would not have become European champions without him.
Nesta retained his place despite Milan's defeat.
Even in Istanbul, he had often been left solving problems created elsewhere.
Kaladze had been stretched.
Cafu had been caught out of position.
Maldini had been forced into uncomfortable areas.
Nesta was repeatedly asked to cover for all of them while also dealing with Drogba.
The fact that Milan conceded three did not erase the quality of his overall campaign.
Curtis and Vidić were both considered, as were Chelsea's Fabio Cannavaro and Juventus veteran Lilian Thuram.
In the end, Terry and Nesta got the votes.
Midfield contained far less controversy.
David Beckham and Kaká were both selected centrally.
Kaká had already been named UEFA's Champions League Player of the Season.
There was no argument about his inclusion.
His two goals in the final were merely the climax of an extraordinary European campaign in which his movement, acceleration and finishing had repeatedly decided major matches.
Beckham faced stronger competition.
Lampard, Pirlo and Deco all had legitimate claims.
But Beckham's consistency, his tactical importance to Mourinho's side and New Manchester United's eventual victory pushed him ahead.
The partnership also reflected how central both players had become to the club's attacking identity.
Beckham controlled from deep.
Kaká attacked the spaces ahead of him.
Around them stood what many observers now regarded as the most dangerous attacking unit in Europe.
Ronaldo took the left-sided midfield position.
The young Portuguese had carried his form from the European Championship into the club season and had become much more than a touchline winger.
He still attacked defenders one against one, but his movement had become far more sophisticated.
He drifted inside.
He interchanged with Kaká.
He attacked the far post.
Most importantly, his goalscoring had improved.
The tricks remained, but there was much more purpose behind them.
PSV Eindhoven's Lee Young-pyo was among those mentioned as an alternative on the left after an excellent campaign of his own.
The South Korean had been one of the symbols of Guus Hiddink's hard-working PSV side, alongside Park Ji-sung.
But Ronaldo's individual quality and influence in the latter rounds gave him the place.
On the right, Juventus midfielder Mauro Camoranesi was selected.
His work rate, delivery and ability to influence matches from wide areas had been central to Juventus' run, particularly against Bayer Leverkusen.
Messi came close.
His hat-trick at the Bernabéu had become one of the moments of the tournament, and his performances against Real Madrid had transformed his reputation across Europe.
But his campaign had been less consistent from beginning to end, and Maldini had limited him effectively for long periods of the final.
At seventeen, Messi could hardly complain about missing out to a more established player.
His time would come.
The two forward positions went to Ronaldinho and Didier Drogba.
Ronaldinho's inclusion owed much to the brilliance he had shown during Barcelona's group-stage campaign and the first half of the season.
Barcelona had gone out in the round of 16, but his individual performances had still been strong enough to keep him in the final selection.
Drogba's case was completely different.
He was not the competition's leading scorer.
He did not have the numbers of Shevchenko or some of Europe's more prolific forwards.
But his tactical value was enormous.
He occupied centre-backs.
He created space for Kaká, Ronaldo and Messi.
He held the ball under pressure.
He turned clearances into attacking possessions.
He defended set pieces.
And when necessary, he scored.
The deeper people looked at New Manchester United's Champions League run, the harder it became to imagine Mourinho's structure functioning in quite the same way without him.
The manager of the season was even less controversial.
José Mourinho.
His first Champions League campaign with New Manchester United had been an exhibition in opponent-specific preparation.
Barcelona were attacked one way.
Juventus another.
Real Madrid were deliberately forced into a physical and tactical tempo their ageing squad struggled to sustain.
Milan were lured into exposing Cafu's side before being punished repeatedly.
Tassotti had done excellent work in taking Milan to Istanbul, but losing the final inevitably damaged his case.
Mourinho had won the trophy.
That ended the discussion.
The UEFA selection was only the beginning.
Within days, newspapers and magazines across Europe were publishing lists of the competition's ten breakthrough players, the best footballers born in the 1980s, the most improved players and every other category editors could invent.
One feature on the ten biggest Champions League breakthroughs contained only one New Manchester United player.
Messi.
At first, that looked strange.
Then the logic became obvious.
The list was primarily intended to highlight players emerging from clubs outside Europe's established elite.
New Manchester United were no longer being treated as an outsider.
They were now being discussed as one of Europe's leading clubs.
The other names therefore included players from Lyon, PSV and similar sides, including Malouda and Park Ji-sung.
The list of the best young players born in the 1980s produced the opposite result.
New Manchester United dominated it.
Ronaldo.
Kaká.
Essien.
De Rossi.
Villa.
Messi.
Ishmael.
Curtis.
Maicon.
Robben.
Ribéry.
No other club came close to matching the number of players selected.
Several were even described as realistic future candidates for the world's major individual awards.
Elsewhere, Manchester United contributed Rooney, Robinho and Diego.
PSV had Park Ji-sung.
Bayern had Schweinsteiger.
Taken together, the names looked increasingly like the core of the next generation of European football.
That naturally produced another round of transfer speculation.
New Manchester United had barely finished celebrating before newspapers began trying to dismantle the squad.
Which clubs wanted Ronaldo?
Who would bid for Essien?
Could Barcelona tempt Messi?
Would Real Madrid move for Kaká?
Would somebody take advantage of Robben's injury?
The same pattern appeared every summer.
This time, the scale was larger.
New Manchester United were European champions, and many of their most valuable players were still years away from their peak.
The English awards produced their own share of debate.
For the Premier League Manager of the Season award, Mourinho narrowly lost out to Carlo Ancelotti.
Chelsea had won the title, so the result was understandable.
Mourinho received some consolation from the League Managers Association, whose members selected him as their Manager of the Year.
Among fellow coaches, his work across the entire season had clearly carried enormous respect.
New Manchester United had recovered from a winter slump, finished just one point behind Chelsea, won the FA Cup and then conquered Europe.
The Premier League's Player of the Season award went to Kaká.
There was little argument.
Twenty-three league goals from an attacking midfielder was extraordinary.
He finished ahead of Beckham and Chelsea's Frank Lampard.
For Kaká, it was the clearest confirmation yet that he had moved from outstanding young player to genuine global superstar.
Čech was named the league's best goalkeeper.
Chelsea's Timo Hildebrand and Fulham's Edwin van der Sar had both performed strongly, but Čech's consistency again gave him the advantage.
Van der Sar's future had already been settled.
He would join Manchester United the following season.
The Premier League Team of the Season was dominated by New Manchester United.
Čech started in goal.
Evra, Terry and Curtis were selected in defence.
Essien and Beckham made midfield.
Ronaldo and Kaká were included in the attacking positions.
The remaining three places went to Manchester United right-back Gary Neville, Everton's Tim Cahill and Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko.
Drogba missed out.
Nobody at Newton Heath was particularly surprised.
His statistics did not match those of the league's most prolific strikers.
That was partly because of his role.
Mourinho asked him to do work that would never appear on a goals chart.
Drogba understood that.
He was far happier celebrating Kaká's award than complaining about his own omission.
Then came the less serious categories.
Several newspapers named Ethan Yu the Premier League's best owner for the second successive year, with Roman Abramovich again close behind.
At the opposite end, the Glazer family were unsurprisingly voted the worst.
In one feature on the season's most unpleasant football personalities, Spain coach Luis Aragonés topped the list after the racist remarks that had caused outrage across Europe.
Newcastle's Joey Barton ranked second following his attack on a teammate, while Bolton's El Hadji Diouf took third after another spitting incident.
Supporters received their own awards.
New Manchester United's fan base narrowly edged Liverpool's famous Kop in one poll for the best support in England.
For years, that category had been almost automatically associated with Liverpool.
New Manchester United's rise, however, had transformed the atmosphere around the club.
Newcastle would normally have been part of the discussion as well, but their poor season had drained much of the enthusiasm from St James' Park.
One European survey produced an even stranger victory.
New Manchester United's stadium swept the top three places for the best food available at a football ground.
The club's pies, sausages and filled rolls had become surprisingly famous among travelling supporters.
It sounded trivial, but Mark Davey's department took stadium catering seriously.
Matchday experience mattered.
If supporters were going to spend hours at the ground, the club wanted them to enjoy more than just the football.
Not every English result was flattering.
A survey of the worst football traffic in Britain placed the M4 approaches to Cardiff near the top after the congestion surrounding the Community Shield, League Cup and FA Cup fixtures at the Millennium Stadium.
Anyone who had spent hours trapped there after a final probably considered the ranking generous.
By then, however, the newspapers had stopped pretending every category needed to be serious.
There were awards for the season's worst signing, best signing, most persistent touchline swearing, best goal celebration and several categories that seemed to have been invented solely because an editor needed to fill another page.
That was English football journalism at the end of a long season.
Half analysis, half mockery, and always looking for another argument.
For New Manchester United, though, one fact mattered more than every list combined.
Whatever formation the newspapers chose, however many players they selected and whatever individual prizes followed, the most important award had already been settled in Istanbul.
They were champions of Europe.
(To be continued.)
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