Part of the way through Manchester United's Carling Cup victory against Tottenham last month, the Stretford End resurrected an old chant.
"We all hate Leeds scum," is not the most edifying of sentiments, although the vitriol tends to be returned with interest, but the significance lay in its airing. For six years, as far as Manchester United have been concerned, Leeds United have been out of sight and out of mind.
A sporadically great contest was put on hold in 2004. Until now: the most intriguing draw in the FA Cup pits United against United, Premier League champions versus League One leaders, Lancashire in competition with Yorkshire.
"It's a fantastic, feisty rivalry," said Sir Alex Ferguson.
Andy Ritchie, who has played for both clubs, said: "It's like a war of the roses." It was a duel that acquired meaning in the 1960s when Don Revie, the then Leeds manager, bought Johnny Giles from Sir Matt Busby and built a team to rival and rile the Scot's.
A decade later, Revie's Leeds won the title in the same year the post-Busby Manchester United were relegated before a rapid change in the balance of power.
Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan defected across the Pennines as the Red Rose side reasserted their superiority.
By the 1990s, the regeneration of two post-industrial city centres meant Manchester and Leeds were embarking on a contest for the unofficial title of the capital of the north.
A footballing rivalry was resurrected, too. "It was always there but it became more intense then," added Ritchie. "It became a massive game then."
Manchester United, having waited for a quarter of a century to win the title, finished second behind a Leeds side captained by one of their cast-offs, Gordon Strachan, in 1992. Ferguson exacted revenge in appropriate fashion.
Unappreciated by Howard Wilkinson, Eric Cantona exchanged Uniteds the following season. He was the catalyst for an era of dominance at Old Trafford.
It was briefly threatened by the emergence of a youthful Leeds side under David O'Leary. Instead, their overspending prompted an unprecedented decline.
After their captain, Rio Ferdinand, became the latest to make the contentious move to Manchester United, Leeds were relegated in two of the subsequent five seasons.
There are ways of illustrating their subsequent fortunes. Manchester United became champions of Europe in 2008; four days later, Leeds lost to Doncaster Rovers. Now, however, there are signs that their years in the wilderness are nearing an end.
They have an eight-point advantage at the summit of their third tier and have won 68 per cent of their games - a statistic that even Ferguson cannot top - since Simon Grayson's appointment a year ago.
In Jermaine Beckford, they possess a 19-goal striker and, with two players for every position, appear to have imported Manchester United's theories on strength in depth into League One. Pride has been restored and The Damned United have been transformed into the grand United.
While Ferguson is set to rotate - indeed, this will be the 100th game since he last fielded an unchanged team - Leeds' 1-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Carling Cup illustrated their ability.
While Bradford and Huddersfield are closer, both geographically and in the league standings, Manchester United are the scalp they prize the most.
"The Leeds fans probably do want to beat them more than anyone else," said Ritchie, who spent four years at Elland Road.
"They can't wait for the game and they have been talking about it ever since the draw was made."
But win, lose or draw, Leeds have already achieved something: they are back on Manchester United's radar again.
@Email:rjolly@thenational.ae
Man Utd v Leeds, KO 5pm, Aljazeera Sport +3 & +5
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
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THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
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7pm: Flood Zone
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9.30pm: Forever Young
