Ronaldo may have to adapt to a drop in adulation -- Guardian Headline

So this is news now is it? Manchester United fans can't bring themselves to support their top-scorer's boyhood dreams -- report. And why does the wording make me feel wrong, like an apple that takes four or five bites to know if its mealy?

Is this adulation thing like the stock market, buy low, sell high? Is that why JC kicked off at a relative peak in Jerusalem? Is Ronaldo busy laying off staff to deal with the downturn? Judging by Gareth Barry's and Adebayor's situation, maybe we're entering an adulation recession.

Happier Days in the Adulation Business. We were
all so naive.

I mean, I used to adulate John Carew every weekday and twice on Sunday. Now, you're lucky if you can catch me burning incense to his dogeared and yellowing photograph even once a fortnight. Times are tough; the thousand or British Daily rumor mills are wreaking havoc on the market, and when John Arne Riise's payslip got found out last year, that was the last straw.

Many are weathering the storm by endlessly replaying Ian Rush and Glenn Hoddle vids on Youtube. This is a band-aid solution at best. What the public needs more of is underaged wunderkinds like Theo Walcott. If we can flood the market with footballing youngsters much as Manchester United did against Newcastle last weekend, adulation stocks could soar. That is, if they don't all die from the immense and unrealistic pressure heaped on them by fans, the media, and those responsible for their care and well-being.