In amid all the Cup excitment Fulham Manager Jean Tigana is stressing that the priority is promotion and the right to meet United, along with the rest of the top clubs, twice a season as of right.
So far, so good. Fulham have been prospering through the strength that comes from confidence; the methods of Tigana and his assistant, Christian Damiano, have earned the trust of a squad largely built by Kevin Keegan.
"Both the players and I have changed," Tigana said. "I have adapted to the English mentality. I work differently from the way I worked in France." And how did the players differ? "They are good fighters."
When Mohamed Fayed and his advisers, upon dispensing with the services of Paul Bracewell towards the end of last season, chose to follow Arsenal and Liverpool down the French route, the players, of course, recognised Tigana, the lithe and quick supplier of width to the Platini-inspired team who gave France their first European title in 1984.
"The minute he walked in," said the 32-year-old central defender Andy Melville, "everyone respected him - for what he had done as a player, and as a manager."
While it was true that even ex-stars could lose that respect, the quality of his training left no room for second thoughts.
It is designed and supervised by Damiano; Tigana, having provided his lieutenant with a verbal rough sketch, joins in. Or, as Damiano put it, "speaks with his movement on the training pitch" (the time-worn excuse of the inveterate footballer). The sessions are typical of the modern French style, involving much repetition of moves, practice making as near-perfect as can be achieved, and Damiano accepted the analogy with golf.
"We encourage the players to take risks," he said, "and accept that there will be mistakes. But afterwards these must be analysed and corrected by the means of going through the same situation over and over again. The players have options - to take the long or short pass, go one-on-one, or use other players. As the weeks go by, they learn and eventually are able take responsibility for themselves in the game."
According to Damiano, Tigana's tutor when he went into coaching, Tigana was himself an avid learner.
"Jean understood he would have to work a lot harder at it - the physical side, the tactical, the psychological and so on. He is interested in everything."
Like Liverpool's Gerard Houllier, Damiano forsook a moderate playing career in his mid-twenties. For many years, indeed, he worked under Houllier at the French Football Association. In 1996, when they guided the national Under-18 team to the European Championship, a UEFA film crew directed by Andy Roxburgh were shown the virtues of repetition. In the last training session before the final, a manoeuvre harnessing David Trezeguet's heading ability and Thierry Henry's speed was rehearsed exhaustively, Houllier assuring Roxburgh that the cameras would benefit from staying put, resisting boredom - and the next day they captured Henry's goal from the same move winning the tournament for France.
Now, at Fulham, the French attention to detail is prevailing. "The players work, work, work," Damiano said, "until the fear is gone." The fear, presumably, of failure. Tigana tends to use a light rein, although Barry Hayles said he had been angry a few times.
"I remember once at Sheffield Wednesday he stormed in at half-time," Hayles recalls. "Usually the players do most of the talking, get themselves going really, but this time he was very irate. He had his pen and was scribbling so hard on the pad that it came off the wall. It seemed to work. We did better at the start of the second half.
"But he doesn't say a lot. He won't talk to us in detail about United until about an hour and a half before kick-off. I think he just wants the boys to go out there and enjoy the game. It's no secret that the league's our priority."
Source sport telegraph