Life without Wayne Rooney looks unpromising for Manchester United

Manchester United have already had a preview of life without Wayne Rooney. When his impact dwindled to the point of disappearance last season, the club's prospects of winning a major prize vanished with him. The effect of even a small dip in standards can be remarkably vivid. Just eight months ago, he scored four goals in the 7-2 aggregate drubbing of Milan. In the quarter-final with Bayern Munich, he scored just once and his side were eliminated from the Champions League.

For all the coverage of Rooney's difficulties, too little note is taken of the demands that the club makes of him. Since he moved from Everton for an initial £20m as a teenager in 2004, his smallest haul in a season for United is 17 goals. So far in this campaign Rooney has scored one for the club, a penalty against West Ham. Apart from being an exceptional attacker, Rooney has until now been a bulwark against criticism for his employers.

It is still absurd to diagnose a crisis at Old Trafford so soon after United's three consecutive titles from 2007 to 2009. The side also found the time to win the Champions League three seasons ago. Nonetheless, past successes do not reduce the urgency of rebuilding the squad. Whenever Rooney fails to hold the audience's attention, the eye falls on limitations that will be tough to correct even if a high transfer fee is obtained for the striker.

Rio Ferdinand has made only two starts in the Premier League this season and his claims to be over his back trouble are yet to be tested fully. Ryan Giggs has a hamstring injury and his uncanny achievement can keep a 36-year-old to the fore at United only for a limited period.

Paul Scholes, who turns 36 next month, goes on contributing but to squeeze the last drops of usefulness from him the midfielder often has to be stationed near his own defence instead of being invited to visit havoc on the opposition's. Goals from him are now infrequent and he cannot be expected to set them up for others.

The single advantage for Sir Alex Ferguson has been the ease with which such topics could be anticipated. He strove to address them, but with mixed results. Although Nani and Anderson came at a combined cost rising to £35m, they have failed, respectively, to bring verve to the wing and presence to the heart of the midfield. In the latter area, an abrasive Darren Fletcher complements some of the smoothness around him, but the blend is not as rich as it once was.

Ferguson has been masterful in the building and rebuilding of sides, yet he no longer pulls off grand coups in the transfer market. The effort to re-establish the old dynamic traits falters when someone such as Antonio Valencia is bought in the wake of Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer. The Ecuadorian, who is recovering from a fractured ankle and ligament damage, hits good crosses and is a direct runner, but the notion of a comparison with the Portuguese was firmly and properly discouraged from the outset.

If the manager is ever downcast over his presumably modest budget, the disappointment is concealed. There has always been ingenuity, with someone such as Patrice Evra giving sound service for his £5.5m fee, and the drive to produce solutions has not faltered. It is Ferguson's priority to ensure that distractions such as the Rooney episode are rare, and he has also been rigorous in distancing himself from those who rail against his employers.

He does not so much accept the owners of United as give the Glazers his full endorsement for leaving him undisturbed as he addresses all football issues. Ferguson, in the eyes of supporters, is the essence of all that has been glorious about United in the past 20 years and the protests over the American owners have not ignited as they did at Liverpool.

Ultimately, however, stability will be under threat if the squad is deemed to be faltering and the Glazers lack either the means or the will to react. Ronaldo left for £80m but United show no signs of recruiting at that kind of price or even being able to contemplate such a step.

It must come as a relief that there has been a broader decline on the English scene. The lack of an English side in last year's Champions League final, for the first time since 2004, was no coincidence. Given that context, the present United can, at the minimum, remain prominent on the domestic front.