BBC Radio Manchester Features

About five minutes from the final whistle when it was fairly clear in which city the shelf with the cup on it was going to be, the United fans tried a Mexican Wave. Pathetic! About two dozen of them leapt up from their seats with both hands outstretch above their heads, realised how rubbish it was, and sat down looking like they'd broken wind in a nunnery.

That's not to say that I did not enjoy the atmosphere, perhaps with that last analogy, atmosphere isn't the word I want; spectacle, that's better. It's not as if I didn't enjoy the spectacle, I did, it was amazing, so much so that if United had actually won, or even made a bit of a fist of it, there was a real danger that I might have become a fan.

The journey back into Rome was uneventful apart from long queues of traffic but no violence to speak of. Eighteen fans were arrested over night, just seven more than in Manchester although there was a bit of a stabbing the night before. A local stabbed a Manc but he did it just outside the hospital; it was almost a courtesy stabbing. Mind you in the typical Roman way the ambulance took the guy to a hospital about six miles away.

Thursday morning's Beswick at Breakfast, back on the BBC Rome roof, went off swimmingly then it was off to the airport for home. Airport, I've seen cattle drives in cowboy films that were better organised, how the Romans conquered the world I will never be able to work out. Conquer?

They couldn't conquer anything, they couldn't even organise a game of conkers. The airport policy seems to be don't queue just scrum, don't do it anywhere near where your check-in desk and under no circumstances should the public be given even a hint of where they should be, why the should be there and when they should be.

Anyway Italy decided to send us home with a mighty storm; it rained, it thundered and lightening crashed about the place, typical Romans, no organisation but flashy.If only Manchester United had been the same, at least we would have had something to talk about.

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