Manchester United fans have a song about Manchester City's captain, Vincent Kompany.
"Here's to you Vincent Kompany, you'll never win the treble and you know," they sing about the brilliant Belgian.
A home defeat in the FA Cup to Middlesbrough on Saturday means the song will be correct for at least another 15 months. Chelsea's shock 4-2 loss to Bradford also lifted the mood among Reds after Friday's dreadful 0-0 draw at Cambridge United.
Louis van Gaal still enjoys substantial support, but mutterings of disquiet among United's support are growing, more so after another sterile performance.
Sir Alex Ferguson left no room for middle ground. His predecessor, Ron Atkinson, was deemed a fairly successful and popular manager because his side played attacking football, won a few big European matches and two FA Cups over five years. That wouldn't be enough for Van Gaal. As one United legend put it after November's 1-0 defeat in the Manchester derby: "Van Gaal's either going to be a great success or an utter failure."
United are expected to win league titles and European Cups, though an FA Cup would be a start. It would resonate with fans still enthralled by the competition, which they support in great numbers -- a sellout 74,778 attended a game against non-league Crawley Town in 2011.
United haven't had a sub-70,000 home gate in the FA Cup since a replay against non-league Burton Albion nine years ago attended by 53,564. Fans were proud their side had won more FA Cups (11) than any other team, at least until Arsenal drew level last season.
It's time to reassert that pre-eminence, and it will give Van Gaal a cushion before his stabilisers come off next season and he's judged more harshly. The FA Cup was part of the 1999 treble, it was the first trophy won by Sir Matt Busby and provided the only respite from Liverpool's 70s and 80s dominance.
Cambridge United deserve their 45 percent share of gate receipts at Old Trafford for the replay next week. A hefty chunk of that bonus will come from United fans enrolled in an automatic scheme that debits ticket money from their bank accounts for every game at Old Trafford.
Confirmation was delivered by a text straight after Friday's draw, hardly sweetening the pill for recipients. Fans have to be in the scheme if they want to apply for away tickets. Not all like it, especially as FA Cup tickets are the same price as league games, meaning fans will pay the same to watch Cambridge at home as Man City in April, but it has always been so.
United have argued that they don't need to discount tickets because demand is so high and the spectre of empty seats is a rare one. The club should be praised for pegging season ticket prices for a fourth consecutive year, but pricing for lesser cup matches could be reviewed -- though they'd have to get the visitors to agree, something Cambridge won't be inclined to do, as they have every right to expect as big a windfall as possible.
Cambridge reside in England's fourth tier and money is tight. When David Moyes played for them in the 80s they were a second-tier club, the smallest at their level. Money was still scarce, but Moyes loved it. Wonder what he thought watching his two former clubs from San Sebastian on Friday night?
His family congratulated Cambridge United for holding the mighty United, and he'll also feel more vindication that managing United after Ferguson was as easy as building a house from jellied eels. He struggled, and Van Gaal is also struggling given the number of woeful Manchester United performances of late. Like Moyes, the Dutchman will say that he needs time, and unlike Moyes he'll probably get that if he sees United to a top-four finish, but the quality of the football played by his team is nowhere near what's expected from United.
After that November derby defeat, United went on an 11-game unbeaten run, starting with six consecutive victories, though Van Gaal admitted his side were fortunate in several of those.
The last month, though, has been largely awful. Though not quite as bad as January 2014 (at least Moyes' team actually made it to the semifinal of the League Cup, which ended in farce a year ago. Van Gaal's men were knocked out at the first stage by a third-division team), United are regressing rather than improving.
Since the 5-3 Leicester defeat in September, Van Gaal's football has become far more cautious. His team concedes few goals (three in seven games in the last month), but also scores few as well (eight in seven, with three matches in which United didn't manage a goal).
The priority is to avoid defeat, and maybe Van Gaal will be proved correct until more of "his" players arrive. He's far better qualified to make decisions than many of the people speculating about his teams, tactics and that annoying word that starts with "phil-." That might as well be philistine as philosophy, such is his apparent current disregard for entertaining football.
Hopes were raised in preseason when fans saw some outstanding play against LA Galaxy, Roma, Liverpool and Real Madrid but came crashing down with that opening-day defeat against Swansea. There's still time for this season to be considered a success, but it has been entirely underwhelming so far.
Van Gaal has implemented different tactical systems and there are signs that his players are where he wants them to be on the field as they enjoy vastly superior levels of possession, but after almost every game he talks of dissatisfaction that his orders haven't been carried out to the desired level. Only once, after United beat a dreadful Hull City side, did he appear to be happy with the performance for 90 minutes.
Fans are starting to question him. If the players aren't getting what he wants from them, then why not? If they're still learning, then for how long? Is his stated desire for players to react with their brains rather than instinctively stifling creativity?
The verdict should probably be delayed until the end of 2015 rather than the start, but the majority of his signings have yet to convince and look inferior players than when they were at their previous clubs.
Maybe they'll come good and United fans will sit once again at football's top table with the consistency showed under Ferguson. Maybe United will get that Champions League position and his team will come of age, bolstered by another 4-5 new players after another summer transfer splurge.
Players certainly think a similar summer to last year's is on the cards, but it's not been an impressive start for United's first continental boss.
Busby finished second in his first two seasons as United boss, and while Ferguson finished second in his first full season at Old Trafford, his team would regress to 11th and 13th before turning the corner.
Ferguson was rightly criticised for the dross initially served up, and rightly heralded when he got it right -- but he wasn't able to go out and buy a who's who of world stars when he took control like Van Gaal has done.