Sports Letter: Kidd love

Sir: I feel that Manchester United's poor performances in the Champions' League can be explained simply by the exit of Brian Kidd a year ago. Although United won the European Cup without him, and he has just been sacked as Blackburn's manager, I think that these are red herrings, and that Brian Kidd has to take almost the same share as Sir Alex Ferguson for United's renaissance this decade.

To my eyes, gone is the style, the flair and the excitement that United possessed under Brian Kidd's coaching.

There was such imagination and creativity, and the team flowed seamlessly, all qualities which have gone missing since he left.

I don't want to disparage Steve McClaren, who on the technical side has done a fantastic job, but the team lacks imagination and creativity, is complacent, which leads to the team continually making mistakes or getting caught out in possession (Roy Keane's pointless back-pass against Fiorentina wasn't a blip - Denis Irwin did exactly the same thing and nearly got caught out), and they indulge in too much waffle with their passing which doesn't have an end product.

Ron Atkinson put it perfectly, commentating on the Fiorentina-United match, when he said that: "United are rolling the ball about nicely, but there isn't any snap or venom about the way they're playing."

You don't think it's too late to rebuild heavily burnt bridges between Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Kidd, and have Kidd installed as assistant manager again?

BRIAN REID

via e-mail