You've finished the season empty-handed after it looked like United would clean up? How does that make you feel?

"Gutted, obviously. We were in with a shout in three big competitions, so to lose out in every one of them was really hard to accept, especially being at a club like Manchester United. In the end it's our own fault, even though I'm not taking anything away from Arsenal. They're a great team and they deserve it."

Can you put your finger on exactly why you blew it?

"We lost too many important games, didn't we? The manager said to us at the beginning of the season: ‘If you lose seven games, you won't win the league' - and he was proved right. There are no excuses really, we just lost too many silly games."

How do you look back on the season, then? A temporary setback or a real catastrophe?

"A temporary setback, of course. In the end, Arsenal have only won the league by one point, so you can't say there was all that much wrong with us. It was just one of those seasons, really."

United have already bought Jaap Stam. Do you think there will be more signings to strengthen the squad for next season?

"Manchester United is a club that is always going to be looking for new players, even if they're top of the league and winning this trophy, that trophy, every trophy. I can't really say whether the manager's going to go out and buy any more, but Stam definitely looks like a great player from what I've seen. It was a lot of money to pay for him, but it's like that in football these days and I'm sure he's worth it. He looks worth it to me, anyway.

Do you think you'll come back stronger as a club next year?

"Definitely. It's all a learning process. We've got a lot to learn from what happened this season. Usually we performed in the harder games, the important games, but sometimes let ourselves down against the clubs we should have been beating 3-0 or 4-0. There's nothing we can do about that now, though."

People who don't support United will be well pleased that you didn't win anything though, won't they?

"It's unfortunate. It's been said before about the hatred and jealousy of Manchester United and it's definitely there. No-one can hide from that, there is jealousy. If I wasn't with United I'd be jealous of them, because I'd want to play for them. I'd want to win things and be in contention for honours every year. People put you so high up on a pedestal, then knock you down. That's the way it is unfortunately."

Do you feel the same way about how you are forced to live your life these days?.. always being public property… never being able to get away from things… people always wanting to knock you?

"Yeah. That's difficult. I just want to play football and that's all I've ever wanted to do. But people take pictures of you and you end up in the papers all the time. But it's not actually me who wants to be in the paper every day. It's just this pedestal that everyone's putting me on. I suppose that sometimes it's not nice and sometimes it is. It's a pain when you go out for a quiet meal and there are photographers sitting on the next table to you. I don't think that most people can begin to imagine what that's like.