Manchester United's dynasty was crumbling!
The challengers had arrived!
...
The following day, almost every major sports newspaper in Europe carried sensational headlines about the previous day's Community Shield, a match that had originally received relatively little attention outside England.
Many analysts believed Manchester United had been comprehensively outplayed.
For almost the entire match, Ferguson's side had been forced onto the defensive.
That was difficult to imagine from a team famous for its resilience, but it had happened, and far more decisively than anyone expected.
Some experts even argued that Manchester United had been fortunate to lose only 2-0.
Had New Manchester United been more clinical in front of goal, or had Tim Howard performed slightly worse, United could easily have conceded five or more.
Was this really the reigning Premier League champion?
That became one of the most common questions in the media.
After allowing Beckham and Verón to leave, Ferguson had failed to bring in any equally exciting replacements.
Kléberson?
The Brazilian certainly had ability, but he could not replace Beckham's influence on the right side of midfield, nor did he appear to be the kind of player capable of transforming the entire team.
The day after the defeat, a group of Manchester United supporters even organised a protest outside Old Trafford.
Several held signs reading:
"Give Us Back Beckham!"
The reason was obvious.
Beckham had been named Man of the Match in the Community Shield.
In the past, Manchester United supporters would have celebrated whenever Beckham received such an award.
This time, it hurt.
Especially when they saw him wearing New Manchester United's shirt.
Even some of Manchester United's most loyal supporters had complicated feelings towards the Red Rebels.
They were difficult to truly hate.
New Manchester United had risen rapidly over the previous few years, winning matches, developing young players, and building a strong relationship with their supporters.
At the same time, many fans felt that Manchester United themselves had lost some of the identity and edge that had once defined the club.
And that summer, mistake after mistake seemed to be piling up.
...
Ferguson stood in his office at Old Trafford, looking down at the supporters protesting outside.
He had his own frustrations.
When Manchester United signed Verón, Ferguson had already received a warning from the board.
That would be the last major transfer of its kind without tighter financial scrutiny.
As the wages of the club's leading players continued to rise, Manchester United were under increasing pressure to control costs and maintain their reputation for sustainable management.
Verón's failure to fully adapt to the Premier League only made matters worse.
The board had made it clear that Ferguson would no longer have complete freedom when pursuing expensive signings.
Major transfer proposals would have to be submitted for approval.
For Ferguson, that represented a significant restriction.
Manchester United had paid approximately £28 million for Verón.
Two years later, Chelsea bought him for only £15 million.
A £13 million loss in two seasons infuriated a board that prided itself on running Manchester United as a financially disciplined club.
There was another interesting consequence.
A month before Beckham's transfer, speculation about his possible departure had driven heavy activity in Manchester United's shares.
After he was eventually sold for what many considered a relatively low fee, the club's share price fell noticeably.
Then Verón was sold at a £13 million loss, and the share price came under further pressure.
From the board's perspective, the questions were obvious.
How long would it take Manchester United to recover the £13 million lost on Verón?
And what about the wider financial damage caused by the decline in market confidence?
Ferguson had little interest in stock prices.
He was a football manager.
All he knew was that he no longer had complete control over major signings.
He could not simply identify the players he wanted and expect the club to buy them.
That had affected pursuits such as Ronaldinho and Hleb.
From Ferguson's perspective, too many people in the boardroom cared more about financial performance than football.
Manchester United were not merely a football club anymore.
They were also a publicly listed company.
Profitability mattered.
Shareholder confidence mattered.
The share price mattered.
And those realities increasingly influenced decisions that once would have belonged almost entirely to the manager.
...
At Newton Heath, preparations for the new season continued as normal.
Nobody became complacent after beating Manchester United in the Community Shield.
Nor did the opening trophy of the season change Mourinho's expectations.
Last season's FA Cup victory meant New Manchester United would enter the UEFA Cup directly in the first round proper.
Manchester City, by comparison, had qualified through the Fair Play ranking and therefore had to begin in the qualifying round.
New Manchester United's UEFA Cup campaign would not begin until late September.
FA regulations also meant that Premier League clubs involved in European competition entered the League Cup in the third round.
For a newly promoted side, New Manchester United were already receiving the scheduling privileges normally associated with established top-flight clubs.
As a result, August was relatively straightforward.
They had six competitive fixtures scheduled.
Four Premier League matches.
The Community Shield, which had already been played.
And the UEFA Super Cup against AC Milan.
That match would take place on August 29 at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.
Their first four Premier League opponents were Charlton Athletic away, Blackburn Rovers at home, Manchester United away, and Portsmouth at home.
Because New Manchester United shared Old Trafford with Manchester United, the fixture planners had to take both clubs into account.
Whenever possible, one team would play at home while the other played away in the same round.
New Manchester United's staff had already carried out extensive preparation on those opening four opponents.
In truth, they had studied all nineteen of the other Premier League clubs closely.
They were newcomers to the division.
The more they knew about every opponent, the better prepared they would be.
...
Charlton Athletic had spent much of the early Premier League era outside the top flight.
They returned to the Premier League for the 1998-99 season, only to finish eighteenth and suffer immediate relegation.
The following year, however, they won promotion again as First Division champions.
This time, they stayed.
Since then, Charlton had generally occupied the lower half of the Premier League.
Their financial resources were limited, forcing them to rely heavily on British and Irish players and relatively inexpensive recruitment.
Their football remained recognisably traditional.
Energetic.
Direct.
Physical.
But often short of variety.
Against teams capable of controlling possession and dictating the rhythm of a match, Charlton could struggle badly.
Their transfer spending that summer had been minimal.
The largest fee was around £750,000 for Hermann Hreiðarsson from Ipswich Town.
Other arrivals, including Paolo Di Canio and Carlton Cole, came either on free transfers or loans and required no significant transfer fee.
Charlton had also received little money from outgoing players.
They were hardly alone.
Leeds United, Leicester City, Middlesbrough, Bolton Wanderers, and several other Premier League clubs had done very little business.
Even Newcastle United, who had ambitions of challenging near the top of the table, had made one of their most notable additions by signing Lee Bowyer on a free transfer following West Ham United's relegation.
If even Premier League clubs were being cautious with money, the situation elsewhere in Europe was easy to imagine.
That was precisely why Chelsea's spending power had become so overwhelming.
Abramovich's club was still moving aggressively through the transfer market.
Chelsea remained interested in several major names, including Juventus midfield enforcer Edgar Davids and defender Lilian Thuram.
They had already signed Crespo and Verón.
No club in Europe was attracting more attention in the transfer market.
...
New Manchester United had plenty of experience dealing with teams that lacked control in midfield.
They had used possession and positional movement to dominate similar opponents throughout the lower divisions.
The same approach had also helped them defeat Celtic in the previous season's UEFA Cup final.
Against Charlton, Mourinho returned to it again.
From a future perspective, the starting eleven for New Manchester United's first ever Premier League match looked almost absurdly talented.
Drogba started at centre-forward.
Cristiano Ronaldo played from the left.
Palacio started on the right.
Kaká operated behind Drogba.
Beckham and Essien formed the central midfield partnership.
Across the back were Evra, Terry, Curtis, and Kolo Touré.
Čech started in goal.
And then there was the bench.
Maicon.
Vidić.
De Rossi.
Robben.
Villa.
All five would eventually become major names in European football.
At that moment, however, they were substitutes.
The starting eleven was hardly lacking quality either.
Beckham was improving with every training session.
His understanding with his teammates was becoming sharper, and his ability to control matches from midfield was steadily improving.
With Essien providing defensive protection beside him, Beckham could devote more attention to organising possession and supporting attacks while still contributing defensively when necessary.
The structure suited him extremely well.
Against Charlton, New Manchester United controlled the match from beginning to end.
The home side simply could not cope with the relentless pressure.
Wave after wave of attacks came at them.
Less than a minute after kick-off, Charlton conceded.
By half-time, the score was already 0-3.
Palacio.
Kaká.
Drogba.
One goal each.
Charlton made adjustments during the interval, and for a while their defensive organisation improved.
They managed to resist New Manchester United's attacks for part of the second half.
Eventually, however, they collapsed again.
Palacio scored twice more.
One came from a Kaká assist.
The other was created by Beckham.
It completed Palacio's first hat-trick for New Manchester United.
Charlton 0-5 New Manchester United.
Their first Premier League match had ended with their first Premier League victory.
...
Even that was not the biggest win of the opening round.
Blackburn Rovers hosted newly promoted Leicester City and demolished them 6-0.
At Anfield, Chelsea won a high-profile match against Liverpool 2-1, with Verón and Hasselbaink scoring.
Manchester United responded strongly to their Community Shield defeat by beating Bolton Wanderers 4-0 at Old Trafford.
Arsenal, meanwhile, defeated David Moyes' Everton 2-1 at Highbury.
After the opening round, which had been spread across two days, Blackburn sat top of the Premier League on goal difference.
Their supporters enjoyed the sight.
It was not often they had the chance to see Blackburn leading the Premier League table.
New Manchester United were second.
Manchester United were third.
Of course, everyone understood that the league table after one match meant almost nothing.
A Premier League season was long.
The real challenge was maintaining form over months rather than days.
The teams capable of doing that would be the ones fighting for the important positions at the end of the campaign.
And the very next round provided another test.
Blackburn travelled to Old Trafford to face New Manchester United.
After a full week of rest, they arrived in excellent form and with plenty of confidence.
They had just won 6-0.
They were top of the league.
And they intended to take another three points from a newly promoted side and protect their position at the summit.
Instead, they were about to discover exactly how large the gap between the two teams really was.
(To be continued.)