THE truants outside the parking lot at The Cliff, Manchester United's training ground, were busy guessing which car belonged to whom. The last to sweep in had been the most eagerly attended, its driver a blond fellow who takes a mean free kick from 30 yards. Once David Beckham's soft-top took its place between the sportier models, the schoolboys wondered about the rugged four-wheel drive sitting opposite. A clue? It carries a Dutch number plate.
"Cruyff?" ventured one lad, evidently new to this little diversion. No, Thursday's training had been exclusively for those involved against Barcelona, a brief session to unwind the swirl of emotions from the night before and turn attentions quickly to forthcoming assignments. The next 11 days look like shaping United's winter: Arsenal at Highbury this afternoon, Liverpool at home on Thursday and Bayern, in Munich, a week on Wednesday.
Tricky terrain indeed, agreed the owner of that 4x4 jeep, Jaap Stam, still nursing one sore wound from Barcelona's visit. Stam is not easily wound up, but he remained adamant that he had been turned over by the penalty awarded against him for a second-half challenge on Barcelona's Rivaldo. "The referee was tricked by the player," he reiterated. "He took a good dive." If anyone deserved to feel fed up, it would be Stam. Twice last year, while playing for PSV Eindhoven, he shared 2-2 draws with Barcelona in the Champions League. Now this, 3-3, after twice holding the lead.
The penalty stuck in the craw partly because single moments, such as Wednesday's first penalty, have tended to obscure other, more positive impressions since Stam arrived at Old Trafford. United had thrilled for the first half-hour of the match - "We must take those good things from it" - and Stam towered through most of the second half. He is not given to self-congratulation, though, when pressed, he acknowledged his overall performance had been a pleasing one - in his reading of the game, his authority in the air and his cool, faced with blow-torch Barca attacks in the second half.
As for that penalty, the decision contained more shades of grey perhaps than Stam's version would allow. But, 1.91m (6ft 3in) tall, hair cropped to the scalp, this is not a man to pick an argument with, at least not on the morning after.
Stam cuts an imposing figure, broad-shouldered enough to carry the weight of high expectations. Being the most expensive purchase in United's history can be burdensome, as Gary Pallister and Andy Cole would bear witness. Helpfully, Dwight Yorke, £12m and a bit from Aston Villa, has relieved Stam of that baton, although there is still the matter of being the World's Most Expensive Defender; and the terms of that deal tend to be costed out not in goals and misses but in gaffes and mistakes.
The £10.5m United paid PSV for Stam in the close season "is a lot of money, especially for a defender", he acknowledged. "Of course you want to show people how well you can play. With that money there comes a lot of criticism. People tend to only notice the bad things and they always bring up the amount of money. At the beginning it used to make me angry but I'm used to it now. Here there are more newspapers and more attention than in Holland. I know how the English press is."
Embracing the rest of the culture around the Theatre of Dreams has been easier. Stam chose United ahead of alternative suitors "because of the people, the fans, the stadiums, a stronger league where every team is capable of beating every other. I also think people over here respect their footballers. If they see you out shopping, they let you go. In places like Italy and Spain they all want to touch you".
So speaks a reluctant superstar, a man who as a young footballer of promise preferred the ambience of Eindhoven to Ajax of Amsterdam "because the people are a bit more 'loose', and that fits my personality"; a man for whom home is the small town of Kampen, where he can go and find his peace, fishing at the bottom of the garden. Were it not for football, Stam says, he would still be there, probably working as an electrician, though more on the engineering side than in the business of blown fuses.
Stam also chose England for the tempo of its football. Here, too, it has demanded certain adjustments. "In Holland you have a lot of rest if you have a lot of possession," he said. "While you're playing the ball around, the other team are dropping back a lot so you have plenty of chance to catch your breath. Here, you suddenly get the long balls coming back at you before you have a chance to think. You don't get much time to rest."
Nor, in a fixture schedule as dense as Stam's, much recuperation. Just 10 weekends ago, in common with three of his opponents at Highbury today, Stam was still competing in the World Cup finals; even after that, the fortnight in between duty for Holland and the first day of term at Old Trafford coincided with the birth of his first child, Lisa. If there are no personal pleas for sympathy, he understands why his compatriot, Dennis Bergkamp, for instance, has yet to find his stride for Arsenal this season: "It takes strength from you. You need your rest after a hard season and then a World Cup."
If Bergkamp has yet to come up for breath, any perceived advantage for United this afternoon is illusory, says Stam, who prepares to meet up with two more of his Holland colleagues (Bergkamp and Marc Overmars), hot on the heels of Wednesday's reunion with Barcelona's four Dutchmen. As part of a generation of gifted footballers from Holland, there exists a fraternity among the Orangemen. "When he's not scoring goals, you always hear that sort of comment about Dennis, that he's not in shape," said Stam. "Within one game he can then do one outstanding thing which decides the match. That's the type of player he is. If he gets in at the beginning of the game then he tends to grow into it."
Bergkamp, in full flight or still just taxi-ing, will require close scrutiny. "Even when he's not in great shape he's dangerous," added Stam. "You have to mark him very well. He drops off a lot from the centre-backs and we have to let him go for the midfield players. Roy Keane is very important for us in front of the back four because he can take over the players who drop back. You have to keep the back four in shape."
On Wednesday, that was not always the case. For all Manchester United's dazzle in their last three fixtures - the later periods against Charlton Athletic, the earlier passages versus Coventry City and Barcelona - it has yet to be sustained over 90 minutes. Lines of communication, said Stam, are nevertheless strengthening between Ronny Johnsen, or Henning Berg, and their new colleague. "We help each other a lot with coaching," said Stam. Peter Schmeichel has also been known to get the odd word in edgeways.
If nothing else, his teammates will have made Stam aware of the significance of Arsenal's two wins against United in last year's Premiership. It is the first of a number of D-days. His own debut for United, in the Charity Shield, was a sobering defeat against the English champions. Off the pace, some said of him then, and lacking mobility. Red rag, one suspects, to a bull.
