Out on the pitch there were hugs, high-fives and dances of delight while "Are you watching Merseyside?" served as the soundtrack from an exultant away end. Deep down, though, a nagging sense of anti-climax refused to depart the party.

A record 19th league title should surely have been secured in swashbuckling, edge-of-the-seat style but instead Wayne Rooney's controversial equalising penalty was complemented by Blackburn's risky decision to settle supinely for a point.

As three minutes of added time began and Nani, earlier replaced by Dimitar Berbatov and now standing on the edge of the technical area, prepared to celebrate with a vigour rarely apparent during his time on the pitch, United's back four passed the ball ever so slowly between themselves.

With no Blackburn forward challenging for it, Steve Kean's side failed to snatch a single touch of stoppage time possession. If the testimonial type mood was briefly interrupted by Sir Alex Ferguson tapping his watch, he was soon patting Phil Dowd, the referee, on the cheeks before skipping off to celebrate in front of banners proclaiming: "Manchester United 19, Liverpool 18."

It was a long yearned-for moment but United's manager is so driven a personality that you wondered if it felt quite as good as it should have done. An ability to live in, and enjoy, the moment is one of life's most important arts but fretting about the future has always been a big part of the human condition. Such anxieties quite possibly ensured that, on the very afternoon when he achieved a two-decade-old ambition to "knock Liverpool off their perch" a little voice inside Ferguson's head asked: "Is this another beginning or an end?"

A sense of constant renewal sometimes almost Trotskyite in its ruthlessness has characterised his managerial reign at Old Trafford but the overhaul of the squad, which will surely be required after the impending Champions League final battle with Barcelona is over, seems unusually daunting. Ferguson may previously have shown a doubting world that there was actually life after, among others, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo exited stage left but the 2011 Old Trafford climate has turned strangely hostile to successful rebuilding.

Admittedly the latest crop of bright United young things will shortly contest the FA Youth Cup final with Sheffield United but even if that side contains the new Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs their maturation will not be instant. Instead Ferguson must somehow import fresh legs while operating to a budget restricted by not only the amount of debt the owning Glazer family have heaped on his club but the need to comply with Uefa's new financial fair play rules.

Scholes and, particularly, Giggs may have raged against the dying of the light this season but all Indian summers end eventually and Ferguson is clearly in need of identifying new midfield string pullers capable of controlling tempo and dictating play, especially at the end of a campaign in which impressive results have often masked less than dynamic performances.

Edwin van der Sar's forthcoming retirement means a new goalkeeper also looms high on the shopping list while Rio Ferdinand's persistent injury problems suggest his central defensive partnership with Nemanja Vidic is not necessarily labelled long haul.

Similarly Owen Hargreaves's physical frailties allied to the fading of Michael Owen's attacking powers highlight the lack of both a Keane figure in the enforcement department and an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer-style striking assassin on the bench.

Further complicating factors abound. While those "noisy", preposterously wealthy, neighbours at Manchester City suddenly possess serious transfer market pulling power, events to the west are almost equally worrying.

No sooner than Liverpool have been put back in their box, than they are threatening to push the lid off it. Even worse there is an uncanny sense of deja vu about the recent renaissance down the M62.

Not only is Kenny Dalglish, the man whose Blackburn side frustrated United's title hopes in 1995, back in charge at Anfield but they are spearheaded by a menacing young Geordie. The name is Andy Carroll rather than Alan Shearer but his partnership with Luis Suárez threatens to eclipse the Javier Hernández/Wayne Rooney axis.

Significantly, Dalglish is a decade younger than Ferguson, who will turn 70 in December. United's manager claims retirement is not on his agenda but, given the scale of the task ahead, it would hardly be a complete surprise were he to suddenly quit while still on top.