The Collapse Of Manchester United, Explained
Manchester United was once the best football club in England and for the most part, the world. It's the club that produced huge stars such as David Beckham, George Best, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and dozens of other names. A lot of United's success was built around their world-class manager: Alex Ferguson. A manager that was so successful, he was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth. Ferguson produced some of the best teams in the world, including the 1999 team that won the English Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League, the last English team to win a treble that included a continental tournament win. From 1986 to 2013, Ferguson's teams won a total of 38 trophies. But in 2012, the cross-town rivals Manchester City won their first Premier League trophy, signaling the beginning of the end of Man United's dominance over England and Europe. United's demise has led to the rise of multiple other clubs in England. But what exactly happened and why hasn't the biggest club in the world been able to right the ship since Ferguson retired in 2013?
There is serious dysfunction within the club's hierarchy and front office. In the six years since Ferguson's departure, United have had five different managers, and there are signs that current head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could be sacked before the 2019-20 season is over. Rather than returning to their world-class status, they are still muddling in the mid-tier of the EPL and on their second campaign in the Europa League in the last four seasons.
When Ferguson took over in 1986, he was met with the task of keeping United in the top flight, the old Division One of English football. United only finished in 11th place in Fergie's first season, but that was back before the Premier League started up in 1992. In 1991, he coached United to their first European Championship. When the new English Premier League formed, United started dominating the table. Since the Prem's formation, United have won the league thirteen times. Group that together with the two Champions Leagues wins, five FA Cups, and four League Cups, Ferguson's status as possibly the greatest football manager ever was cemented early on. The trophy wins brought United serious international recognition, which also made them one of the more financially-successful clubs. But there were blips in his legacy. Under his guidance, certain players like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo-two players who are generational talents-were never used to their full potential. It became part of the United mantra: team football was preferred over utilizing individual talent. So when Beckham and Ronaldo both left for Real Madrid at the height of their United careers, you could tell they weren't satisfied with how the bench boss wanted things done. This is a theme we will see a lot.
Up until 2005, the club was a publicly-traded company listed on multiple international stock exchanges. Then, American businessman Malcolm Glazer bought 98% of the majority shares, basically giving him total ownership of the team. Glazer, who also owned NFL franchise the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, saw this ultra-achieving club as a serious business venture. His purchase had little effect on the club's success because they had world-class talent and a legendary tactician in Ferguson. The Glazers shouldn't have had any influence over Ferguson's process, but that changed as soon as the two men were no longer around.
A lot of United's collapse is based on executive management. Malcolm Glazer decided to hire Ed Woodward as executive vice president of football operations in 2013, to help guide United heading in the post-Ferguson era. All the football-related decisions fell into Woodward's lap, but without a real sporting director, he didn't know how to properly navigate the transfer market, which made acquiring world-class players a challenge. After Ferguson's retirement, United were left with some of the old guard like Rooney, Ashley Young, and Antonio Valencia. The club wanted to stick with what had worked in the past. Woodward hired former Everton manager David Moyes, but he didn't even make it through a full season before he was fired and replaced by former United star Ryan Giggs in an interim role in April 2014. That season, United didn't even qualify for Europa League and slipped to 10th in the Premier League, while rival Man City won their second Premier League title in 2013-14. This was the budding problem for United: their dominance of the past was gone and they realized the bitter reality of Ferguson's absence would not be pretty. To make things worse, in May 2014, Malcolm Glazer passed away, leaving everything to his sons Joel and Avram. Knowing little about European football operations, the Glazer brothers haven't been overly involved in helping United get back to form, and some fans think it's all about the money with them. They treat United as a brand rather than a football club.
After Moyes, Woodward brought in Dutch manager Louis van Gaal, but his time as bench boss for United was short-lived as well. Van Gaal was criticized for his poor transfer signings like Memphis Depay and Angel Di Maria, examples of some players who never lived up to their hype and were viewed as wastes of space on the team sheet. (To make it worse, these two left for French Ligue 1 clubs and have had a lot more success than they had with United. It makes you think where the real problems lie, doesn't it?) The only bright side of Van Gaal's transfer saga was getting Juan Mata to join from Chelsea, an attacking midfielder who has been relatively good, but not the saving grace of the club. Along also came Anthony Martial from Monaco in 2016. Martial was a serviceable right-winger who could play up top. Van Gaal worked to get the team's form turned around but it was kind of a futile effort. Much of this fan frustration was based heavily on the expectations that they were used to under Ferguson. This was a new era, though. United wasn't getting the transfers they wanted, as top talent were passing them up for teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and other big clubs around Europe. Van Gaal managed to get United to a fourth-place finish in 2014-15, but they had to watch Chelsea win the Premier League. It became the start of the vicious cycle: poor choices in leadership and a lack of spending on big names. Too much emphasis was based on the careers of Ferguson's aging superstars like Rooney and Young, and there was little being done to improve the struggling defense that was now being locked down by players like Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, who were....shite as the fans would say. That season, Leicester made their Cinderella run to the top of the Premier League table, shocking everyone, and with one of the Foxes' decisive matches resulting in a 1-1 draw against United, the next season meant serious changes were coming. The new-age United was beginning to confront a serious problem: their team football couldn't be played without some kind of elite talent. Despite having some of the old Ferguson pieces, they were aging too quickly while the rest of the EPL teams were getting stronger.
The 2016 transfer window could have served as the prime moment to make vast improvements to the aged United squad, but that required someone who really knew how to navigate the market well. So, Woodward decided to hire former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for the 2016-17 season. Mourinho had a colorful history; he was infamous for guiding Inter Milan to the only recorded treble achieved by an Italian club and for the success he had at Chelsea in the early 2000s and mid-2010s. He seemed like the perfect manager to fix the ailing United: a seasoned and decorated veteran of the Premier League and the Champions League. He also appreciated team football over individualized talent. Mourinho was able to develop some of United's youth players like Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford and secured the signings of French star Paul Pogba from Juventus. Pogba was a flashy attacking midfielder with great ball skills. Good additions to the depth chart, but Jose didn't stop there. He was also able to sway Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join United for two seasons. Mourinho wasn't a fan of letting a young, inexperienced Marcus Rashford start up top, so he chose to sign football's biggest shit talker, Zlatan. Halfway through the 16-17 season, Zlatan tore his ACL, forcing Mourinho to entrust Rashford as the new starting 9. While they could have spent more time swaying a more experienced striker like Leicester's Jamie Vardy, the squad remained relatively unchanged, which meant United was still mediocre at best. The United youth corp wasn't bad but when they faced teams like Chelsea and Man City, it was noticeable that the academy guys weren't totally Prem-level players yet. So there was a nice mix of Mourinho's new signings, academy players, and the old guard...not great. Wayne Rooney was still with United at this time, one of the remaining Ferguson-era pieces. However, England's all-time leading scorer was a shell of himself. At age 29, he showed serious signs of decline, forcing Mourinho to put him back in central midfield compared to Rooney's forward positioning under Ferguson. Even with a weak squad and dismal backline, United managed to win the Europa League and the English League Cup, but only finished 4th in the Prem. Jose's first year was good, but not great. There was still work to be done, and that season Chelsea went on to win another Prem title under Antonio Conte, while former United winger Ronaldo won his fourth Champions League trophy, his third with Real Madrid. It seemed like all those players that Ferguson developed moved on to bigger things and when you took away all the stars and trophies, the biggest X-Factor in United's success in the 90s and 2000s was Ferguson. But the Glazers didn't want to move on from the legend of their former manager, at least not yet.
In the summer of 2017, Mourinho splashed $84 million on Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton. He was also reunited with Nemanja Matic from Chelsea. Wayne Rooney was sold back to Everton for about $40 million, but he ended up signing a major deal with DC United of the MLS about halfway through the season. Out with the old, in with the new, or so fans hoped. Sadly, Zlatan wouldn't last much longer at Old Trafford. Even though he returned from his ACL injury in good form, the 35-year-old Swede was now coming off the bench and getting limited minutes in place of the younger and healthier Lukaku. About midway through the 2017-18 season, Zlatan terminated the remainder of his United contract so he could join LA Galaxy. At this point, Mourinho's time at United could be described as mixed. He got decent results, but the prizes were lowly by United's typical standards. The 2017-18 season started the true downfall of the club. The flashes of success were overshadowed by the controversy between Pogba, Mourinho, Woodward, and the Glazer family. Mourinho was critical of Pogba's play style and wanted to make it clear the French superstar (who was now the best player on the squad) was not above the manager, the tactics or the squad. The team played in multiple matches that exposed the serious gaps in defense and midfield. They were even subjected to a Champions League exit at the hands of Sevilla. Meanwhile across town, Pep Guardiola took over Manchester City, guiding City to their third Premier League victory, by a massive margin, claiming 100 points in 2017-18. Mourinho's United finished second with 81 points. Coupled with Liverpool's run to the Champions League Final, that second-place finish almost seemed meaningless, despite Mourinho claiming it was his greatest accomplishment. To add the growing list of issues within the club, Pogba and Mourinho's relationship began to deteriorate, leading Pogba to declare he wanted out of United. To make matters worse, Mourinho signed Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal in the 2018 January transfer window, a deal that ended up being so bad, it still makes United fans cringe. Sanchez carried massive wage and only scored three goals total in two seasons with the club. United made their way to the FA Cup final in 2018, but they lost an embarrassing outing to Chelsea.
The 2018 summer transfer window was one where United should have been willing to spend a whole lot of money, but the Glazers weren't too keen on making a major deal in the market. They were convinced that a second-place finish behind Man City was a sign of United's return to world-class form, and it was all because of Mourinho. But that wasn't true. That summer, Man U was linked with players such as Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann, and Paulo Dybala, but these were nothing more than what they were: rumors. Mourinho made two significant signings: Brazilian CM Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk, which cost them 40 million euros; and Diogo Dalot, a promising Portuguese fullback who hasn't gotten much playing time over guys like Ashley Young. To this day, Fred hasn't even made a full completed appearance for the club. Dalot is now a glorified benchwarmer. Call it timidness or reluctance, but the Glazers didn't think spending exuberant amounts of money to improve the squad was necessary. But that's a decision that would come back to bite them.
The next season, United started sixth in EPL play, which included a 3-0 loss at Old Trafford at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, after which Mourinho demanded respect from the British press for his accomplishments with Chelsea. When he was faced with criticism, Mourinho blamed it on the players rather than himself. His ego was conflicting with those of the players. This was also when the drama between Pogba and Mourinho really started to affect the whole club. Mourinho stripped Pogba of the vice-captaincy, turning the whole locker room against the Portuguese manager. This was definitely the nail in the coffin. Six starting United players declared that they would submit transfer requests if serious managerial changes were not made. It put the front office in a tight spot: respect for the players or respect for one of the best football managers of all time. In the end, Woodward heeded the words of his players. Mourinho was fired in December 2018 after falling 11 points outside the last top-four spot. Some speculated that this decision was made to appease Pogba, who was also getting bashed by former United players like Paul Scholes and Gary Neville for not being good enough. They claimed Pogba was whining and his ego was getting in the way of United's success. Whether that was true or not, it really didn't matter; the damage was already done. Even though they were only five years removed from Alex Ferguson's 2013 Premier League win, that seemed like a lifetime ago. The new-look United was inconsistent, struggled to score, and wasn't addressing the problems that were stemming from the first few post-Fergie seasons.
Following Mourinho, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hired as a caretaker manager and being a former United striker under Ferguson, it seemed like he was the best choice. In his first real tests, Ole achieved a great stretch of results, winning fourteen of his first nineteen matches, which included knocking PSG out of the Champions League. However, that success couldn't be sustained, as United only won two of their last ten matches toward the end of the season, which saw them plummet to sixth place at the end of 2018-19. It meant another stint in the Europa League for the Red Devils, and the fans were irate. But rather than bashing the manager, they took to blaming the ownership and Woodward for all the losing and dysfunction. There were still major questions surrounding the quality of play under Ole, mostly that he started fielding teams with players he thought deserved the playing time over the more-talented players like Pogba and Martial. Lesser skilled players like Scott McTominay and Andreas Perreira started getting more minutes in 2019, a trend that has continued into this current season. Injuries also played a toll on the squad; the full Starting XI that beat Cardiff 5-1 hasn't played a full match together since February 2019. It must've stung to see City and Liverpool battle for the top of the EPL table, watch Tottenham and Liverpool head to the Champions League Final with Liverpool coming out as the victors, and witness City's treble of the League Cup, FA Cup, and Prem title. It was a testament to the spending of other English Big Six clubs that created a major fissure between City, Liverpool, and the rest of the pack. United's rivals were willing to shell out money, even in the increasingly inflated transfer market. Why couldn't United, the biggest club in the world, do the same? You'd have to ask the Glazers...
The 2019 summer transfer window was the chance to start a true rebuild centered around Pogba, Rashford, Martial and David de Gea. But it wasn't as successful as the fans thought. United was once again linked to Bale, Dybala and Portuguese breakout CAM Bruno Fernandes, but they never made a real effort toward signing any of them. They were making the push to grab Ajax center-back Matthijs de Ligt, pitching to him that he would be the cornerstone of United's full rebuild. The Dutch phenom decided to join Juventus instead. So, no big names to the club once again. Ole was able to *sort of* fix the gaping hole that was United's backline by signing English defenders like Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but at the price of selling players like Romelu Lukaku, which is crippling United's attacking play in their current campaign. To add salt to the wound, some of the players that didn't live up to expectations like Depay, Sanchez, and Angel Di Maria have been doing big things at their new homes (Lyon, Inter, and PSG). At the moment, United sit sixth in the EPL. Pogba still wants out, making it clear he wants to go to Real Madrid or a side that is actually going to win trophies. It's an interesting turnaround for how players used to want to join United; now they don't want to be anywhere near the club. Now it looks like they will miss out on Champions League qualification again and don't seem poised to dethrone City or Liverpool any time soon.
United's demise is a tale about overachieving and trying to replicate those results in the post-Alex Ferguson years. Instead of trying to embrace a brand-new chapter and approach to the game, they have stuck with the philosophy that helped them dominate the 90s and 2000s. The ownership and leadership are still trying to buy into the "win-now" attitude, especially as rivals like City dominate domestically and Liverpool won the 2018-19 Champions League. They still believe that they should buy big names to win now, even with Ole committed to developing the youth talent. Still, it seems like United are not going to be in title contention any time soon, not until the Glazers sell the club to a group that understands modern football and takes the steps necessary to build up a new-look squad. United have to let go of their past to achieve the success they so crave.
Up until 2005, the club was a publicly-traded company listed on multiple international stock exchanges. Then, American businessman Malcolm Glazer bought 98% of the majority shares, basically giving him total ownership of the team. Glazer, who also owned NFL franchise the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, saw this ultra-achieving club as a serious business venture. His purchase had little effect on the club's success because they had world-class talent and a legendary tactician in Ferguson. The Glazers shouldn't have had any influence over Ferguson's process, but that changed as soon as the two men were no longer around.
A lot of United's collapse is based on executive management. Malcolm Glazer decided to hire Ed Woodward as executive vice president of football operations in 2013, to help guide United heading in the post-Ferguson era. All the football-related decisions fell into Woodward's lap, but without a real sporting director, he didn't know how to properly navigate the transfer market, which made acquiring world-class players a challenge. After Ferguson's retirement, United were left with some of the old guard like Rooney, Ashley Young, and Antonio Valencia. The club wanted to stick with what had worked in the past. Woodward hired former Everton manager David Moyes, but he didn't even make it through a full season before he was fired and replaced by former United star Ryan Giggs in an interim role in April 2014. That season, United didn't even qualify for Europa League and slipped to 10th in the Premier League, while rival Man City won their second Premier League title in 2013-14. This was the budding problem for United: their dominance of the past was gone and they realized the bitter reality of Ferguson's absence would not be pretty. To make things worse, in May 2014, Malcolm Glazer passed away, leaving everything to his sons Joel and Avram. Knowing little about European football operations, the Glazer brothers haven't been overly involved in helping United get back to form, and some fans think it's all about the money with them. They treat United as a brand rather than a football club.
After Moyes, Woodward brought in Dutch manager Louis van Gaal, but his time as bench boss for United was short-lived as well. Van Gaal was criticized for his poor transfer signings like Memphis Depay and Angel Di Maria, examples of some players who never lived up to their hype and were viewed as wastes of space on the team sheet. (To make it worse, these two left for French Ligue 1 clubs and have had a lot more success than they had with United. It makes you think where the real problems lie, doesn't it?) The only bright side of Van Gaal's transfer saga was getting Juan Mata to join from Chelsea, an attacking midfielder who has been relatively good, but not the saving grace of the club. Along also came Anthony Martial from Monaco in 2016. Martial was a serviceable right-winger who could play up top. Van Gaal worked to get the team's form turned around but it was kind of a futile effort. Much of this fan frustration was based heavily on the expectations that they were used to under Ferguson. This was a new era, though. United wasn't getting the transfers they wanted, as top talent were passing them up for teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and other big clubs around Europe. Van Gaal managed to get United to a fourth-place finish in 2014-15, but they had to watch Chelsea win the Premier League. It became the start of the vicious cycle: poor choices in leadership and a lack of spending on big names. Too much emphasis was based on the careers of Ferguson's aging superstars like Rooney and Young, and there was little being done to improve the struggling defense that was now being locked down by players like Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, who were....shite as the fans would say. That season, Leicester made their Cinderella run to the top of the Premier League table, shocking everyone, and with one of the Foxes' decisive matches resulting in a 1-1 draw against United, the next season meant serious changes were coming. The new-age United was beginning to confront a serious problem: their team football couldn't be played without some kind of elite talent. Despite having some of the old Ferguson pieces, they were aging too quickly while the rest of the EPL teams were getting stronger.
The 2016 transfer window could have served as the prime moment to make vast improvements to the aged United squad, but that required someone who really knew how to navigate the market well. So, Woodward decided to hire former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for the 2016-17 season. Mourinho had a colorful history; he was infamous for guiding Inter Milan to the only recorded treble achieved by an Italian club and for the success he had at Chelsea in the early 2000s and mid-2010s. He seemed like the perfect manager to fix the ailing United: a seasoned and decorated veteran of the Premier League and the Champions League. He also appreciated team football over individualized talent. Mourinho was able to develop some of United's youth players like Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford and secured the signings of French star Paul Pogba from Juventus. Pogba was a flashy attacking midfielder with great ball skills. Good additions to the depth chart, but Jose didn't stop there. He was also able to sway Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join United for two seasons. Mourinho wasn't a fan of letting a young, inexperienced Marcus Rashford start up top, so he chose to sign football's biggest shit talker, Zlatan. Halfway through the 16-17 season, Zlatan tore his ACL, forcing Mourinho to entrust Rashford as the new starting 9. While they could have spent more time swaying a more experienced striker like Leicester's Jamie Vardy, the squad remained relatively unchanged, which meant United was still mediocre at best. The United youth corp wasn't bad but when they faced teams like Chelsea and Man City, it was noticeable that the academy guys weren't totally Prem-level players yet. So there was a nice mix of Mourinho's new signings, academy players, and the old guard...not great. Wayne Rooney was still with United at this time, one of the remaining Ferguson-era pieces. However, England's all-time leading scorer was a shell of himself. At age 29, he showed serious signs of decline, forcing Mourinho to put him back in central midfield compared to Rooney's forward positioning under Ferguson. Even with a weak squad and dismal backline, United managed to win the Europa League and the English League Cup, but only finished 4th in the Prem. Jose's first year was good, but not great. There was still work to be done, and that season Chelsea went on to win another Prem title under Antonio Conte, while former United winger Ronaldo won his fourth Champions League trophy, his third with Real Madrid. It seemed like all those players that Ferguson developed moved on to bigger things and when you took away all the stars and trophies, the biggest X-Factor in United's success in the 90s and 2000s was Ferguson. But the Glazers didn't want to move on from the legend of their former manager, at least not yet.
In the summer of 2017, Mourinho splashed $84 million on Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku from Everton. He was also reunited with Nemanja Matic from Chelsea. Wayne Rooney was sold back to Everton for about $40 million, but he ended up signing a major deal with DC United of the MLS about halfway through the season. Out with the old, in with the new, or so fans hoped. Sadly, Zlatan wouldn't last much longer at Old Trafford. Even though he returned from his ACL injury in good form, the 35-year-old Swede was now coming off the bench and getting limited minutes in place of the younger and healthier Lukaku. About midway through the 2017-18 season, Zlatan terminated the remainder of his United contract so he could join LA Galaxy. At this point, Mourinho's time at United could be described as mixed. He got decent results, but the prizes were lowly by United's typical standards. The 2017-18 season started the true downfall of the club. The flashes of success were overshadowed by the controversy between Pogba, Mourinho, Woodward, and the Glazer family. Mourinho was critical of Pogba's play style and wanted to make it clear the French superstar (who was now the best player on the squad) was not above the manager, the tactics or the squad. The team played in multiple matches that exposed the serious gaps in defense and midfield. They were even subjected to a Champions League exit at the hands of Sevilla. Meanwhile across town, Pep Guardiola took over Manchester City, guiding City to their third Premier League victory, by a massive margin, claiming 100 points in 2017-18. Mourinho's United finished second with 81 points. Coupled with Liverpool's run to the Champions League Final, that second-place finish almost seemed meaningless, despite Mourinho claiming it was his greatest accomplishment. To add the growing list of issues within the club, Pogba and Mourinho's relationship began to deteriorate, leading Pogba to declare he wanted out of United. To make matters worse, Mourinho signed Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal in the 2018 January transfer window, a deal that ended up being so bad, it still makes United fans cringe. Sanchez carried massive wage and only scored three goals total in two seasons with the club. United made their way to the FA Cup final in 2018, but they lost an embarrassing outing to Chelsea.
The 2018 summer transfer window was one where United should have been willing to spend a whole lot of money, but the Glazers weren't too keen on making a major deal in the market. They were convinced that a second-place finish behind Man City was a sign of United's return to world-class form, and it was all because of Mourinho. But that wasn't true. That summer, Man U was linked with players such as Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann, and Paulo Dybala, but these were nothing more than what they were: rumors. Mourinho made two significant signings: Brazilian CM Fred from Shakhtar Donetsk, which cost them 40 million euros; and Diogo Dalot, a promising Portuguese fullback who hasn't gotten much playing time over guys like Ashley Young. To this day, Fred hasn't even made a full completed appearance for the club. Dalot is now a glorified benchwarmer. Call it timidness or reluctance, but the Glazers didn't think spending exuberant amounts of money to improve the squad was necessary. But that's a decision that would come back to bite them.
The next season, United started sixth in EPL play, which included a 3-0 loss at Old Trafford at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, after which Mourinho demanded respect from the British press for his accomplishments with Chelsea. When he was faced with criticism, Mourinho blamed it on the players rather than himself. His ego was conflicting with those of the players. This was also when the drama between Pogba and Mourinho really started to affect the whole club. Mourinho stripped Pogba of the vice-captaincy, turning the whole locker room against the Portuguese manager. This was definitely the nail in the coffin. Six starting United players declared that they would submit transfer requests if serious managerial changes were not made. It put the front office in a tight spot: respect for the players or respect for one of the best football managers of all time. In the end, Woodward heeded the words of his players. Mourinho was fired in December 2018 after falling 11 points outside the last top-four spot. Some speculated that this decision was made to appease Pogba, who was also getting bashed by former United players like Paul Scholes and Gary Neville for not being good enough. They claimed Pogba was whining and his ego was getting in the way of United's success. Whether that was true or not, it really didn't matter; the damage was already done. Even though they were only five years removed from Alex Ferguson's 2013 Premier League win, that seemed like a lifetime ago. The new-look United was inconsistent, struggled to score, and wasn't addressing the problems that were stemming from the first few post-Fergie seasons.
Following Mourinho, Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was hired as a caretaker manager and being a former United striker under Ferguson, it seemed like he was the best choice. In his first real tests, Ole achieved a great stretch of results, winning fourteen of his first nineteen matches, which included knocking PSG out of the Champions League. However, that success couldn't be sustained, as United only won two of their last ten matches toward the end of the season, which saw them plummet to sixth place at the end of 2018-19. It meant another stint in the Europa League for the Red Devils, and the fans were irate. But rather than bashing the manager, they took to blaming the ownership and Woodward for all the losing and dysfunction. There were still major questions surrounding the quality of play under Ole, mostly that he started fielding teams with players he thought deserved the playing time over the more-talented players like Pogba and Martial. Lesser skilled players like Scott McTominay and Andreas Perreira started getting more minutes in 2019, a trend that has continued into this current season. Injuries also played a toll on the squad; the full Starting XI that beat Cardiff 5-1 hasn't played a full match together since February 2019. It must've stung to see City and Liverpool battle for the top of the EPL table, watch Tottenham and Liverpool head to the Champions League Final with Liverpool coming out as the victors, and witness City's treble of the League Cup, FA Cup, and Prem title. It was a testament to the spending of other English Big Six clubs that created a major fissure between City, Liverpool, and the rest of the pack. United's rivals were willing to shell out money, even in the increasingly inflated transfer market. Why couldn't United, the biggest club in the world, do the same? You'd have to ask the Glazers...
The 2019 summer transfer window was the chance to start a true rebuild centered around Pogba, Rashford, Martial and David de Gea. But it wasn't as successful as the fans thought. United was once again linked to Bale, Dybala and Portuguese breakout CAM Bruno Fernandes, but they never made a real effort toward signing any of them. They were making the push to grab Ajax center-back Matthijs de Ligt, pitching to him that he would be the cornerstone of United's full rebuild. The Dutch phenom decided to join Juventus instead. So, no big names to the club once again. Ole was able to *sort of* fix the gaping hole that was United's backline by signing English defenders like Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but at the price of selling players like Romelu Lukaku, which is crippling United's attacking play in their current campaign. To add salt to the wound, some of the players that didn't live up to expectations like Depay, Sanchez, and Angel Di Maria have been doing big things at their new homes (Lyon, Inter, and PSG). At the moment, United sit sixth in the EPL. Pogba still wants out, making it clear he wants to go to Real Madrid or a side that is actually going to win trophies. It's an interesting turnaround for how players used to want to join United; now they don't want to be anywhere near the club. Now it looks like they will miss out on Champions League qualification again and don't seem poised to dethrone City or Liverpool any time soon.
United's demise is a tale about overachieving and trying to replicate those results in the post-Alex Ferguson years. Instead of trying to embrace a brand-new chapter and approach to the game, they have stuck with the philosophy that helped them dominate the 90s and 2000s. The ownership and leadership are still trying to buy into the "win-now" attitude, especially as rivals like City dominate domestically and Liverpool won the 2018-19 Champions League. They still believe that they should buy big names to win now, even with Ole committed to developing the youth talent. Still, it seems like United are not going to be in title contention any time soon, not until the Glazers sell the club to a group that understands modern football and takes the steps necessary to build up a new-look squad. United have to let go of their past to achieve the success they so crave.
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