I sometimes explain (Sir Arthur Conan) Doyle to people in a way they might not expect. I act out what readers are encouraged to imagine happened at The Reichenbach Falls between Holmes and his nemesis, Moriarty.
It makes me shudder that what escapes people about Batman and the Joker, and Superman and Brainiac, is that we all have a villain to our hero persona and vice versa.
To Manchester City fans, they might know no better hero than Pep Guardiola.
His journey, culminating with the recent FIFA World Club Championship trophy, is one that every writer understood.
He arrived. City has already won a title but they had not become what their cross town rivals were. They had no Champions League. They had no treble. They had no mid January moment that has defined the great 21st century teams.
People who know the game, especially in South America, understand the FIFA World Club Final is a celebration of the best club teams. Despite the Western cynicism associated with the largely invisible tournament, clubs who have won it know what it means.
Now, in 2009, when Manchester United won theirs, they were, by any measure a great side. What they came up against when they reached their 2nd Champions League final in a row (an amazing feat) was Guardiola’s treble winning Barcelona. They also lost to his side in 2011 at Wembley.
So, when he arrived from Bayern Munich in 2016 it was strange time. He had won not achieved at Munich what he had achieved at Barcelona but City were ready for him.
The power in Manchester has shifted. We all know that. We all see it.
So how will the balance be restored? Well, United will not catch up if they hire someone invisible to Guardiola.
The man who has delivered on the dream beyond winning the Premier League needs someone who is going to make him think. Someone who is able to make games against United as important to fans in Thailand and Tottenham. Manchester needs its eternal rivalry to extend further than Macclesfield or Glossop. #
Who, then?
Zidane. Or Mourinho. Or Simeone. The villainous 3.
All winners. Certainly outspoken and expert. All with a reason to return and give United another Dynastic approach. Mourinho could return. he did at Chelsea. he won trophies in both terms. He still has done what no one else managing United has done since Ferguson: win something.
No other managers, available (Mourinho will leave Roma eventually), can rival Guardiola and make United rival City. Anyone else fades into the view and reduces the future of the Manchester derby to a footnote in the title race. We should be wanting Champions league semi finals nights as we did when it was Arsenal and Chelsea playing United in the knockout stages. Never mind Liverpool.
Instead we are in a world where Ten Hag, who was never up to the job, must go and be replaced by someone who will make Guardiola think twice about leaving.
We watched United decline in 2004 before winning again in 2008. We have watched them now lose the shine on a new era. Ownership has shifted. The vultures are circling. What they need is for someone to come in and breathe life into what they once were: The Monster under the Bed.