Just how bad are Manchester United? That was the thought. And it would not shift. Just how bad can they be? Really, how bad?
And when will it end? That was another thought.
At least the last question had an answer: very soon. The season will be over. Then people can think about other things for a few weeks, not have to endure this version of United getting worse and worse and worse.
You walked down the steps at Old Trafford and out. The final whistle was about to blow. It was May 2019, not May 2025. In May 2019 no one was thinking about May 2025. They had enough on their plates and most were asking: are they really serving this up?
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United had just lost at home to Cardiff City. It was the last day of the season and Cardiff were already relegated. United had trailed in sixth in the league having scored two goals in their last five matches. It was the end of a season when they changed managers midway through, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replacing José Mourinho. It was a season when a couple of dramatic European nights helped obscure the ongoing downward trajectory at post-Ferguson Old Trafford. It was a season that felt like others before it and some since. It was another season gone.
Paul Pogba was in midfield for United that docile afternoon. Marcus Rashford, then 21, was up front. On the wing was Mason Greenwood. He was 17 and making his first senior start after a few substitute appearances. Greenwood was good, the rest were not.
Even then, though, there seemed to be an unhealthy assumption building that United’s future was secure because Greenwood, a young teenager, a boy, was so mature. He could be the next Rashford, everyone said. Pogba, recently turned 26, was allegedly in his prime. He cost United, the club he left for nothing aged 19, €105 million.
And in theory the trio could have shaped United successfully. You look at them and see talent and potential. Diogo Dalot was in that team against Cardiff, too; Angel Gomes came off the bench. Those are five good footballers, material to work with.
But as even Ruben Amorim may have come to accept as he travelled back from Bilbao following the credibility-stretching Europa League final defeat to this most meagre Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, theory in football management can take you only so far. In a final so poor it deserves an asterisk, Amorim was unable to negotiate a way through a Spurs side lacking its key creative influences, James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski. Amorim can talk about a game’s theory, but he could not find practical solutions.
Spurs scored, sat back and won. This was Tony Pulis Tottenham. Effective but dross. Those calling it El Crapico beforehand were proved correct.
[ Spurs’ expressions oozing with pure Europa League ecstasyOpens in new window ]
Spurs had one touch in United’s box in the second half. Yet they won because United, with 73 per cent possession, were incapable yet again of manoeuvring an opposition defence out of step. That’s three consecutive matches in which United have failed to score.
If Bruno Fernandes does not provide attacking imagination, who does? Amad Diallo began well in Bilbao but he is 22 and has started just more than 30 games for the club.
Rasmus Hojlund came close to equalising, but it is an unfortunate reality for the Danish striker that he is probably too young and has stumbled into Old Trafford in this era. There’s a whiff of Garry Birtles about Hojlund.
But Birtles didn’t cost €76 million.
We keep going back to poor recruitment because the evidence on the pitch compels us to do so; but the post-Cardiff experience of Pogba, Rashford and Greenwood demonstrates another United failing: player management. Handled expertly, they could have been marshalling United on Wednesday. Instead they’re elsewhere, even if, astonishingly, Rashford is contracted at Old Trafford until 2028. Again you ask, how bad?
In defence of the apparently overwhelmed Amorim, this is his red-faced inheritance. He has not picked up a golden thread.
That was cut a long time ago and, if you remember Ralf Rangnick, he said so out loud. Erik ten Hag came in and got United to third in his first season and won the FA Cup last season. But it never felt smooth or stable. Hence his dismissal and all the money forfeited with it, truckloads of it.
In Bilbao, Amorim, once again talked of departure 6½ months after arrival. Others also questioned their continued presence – Luke Shaw, Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho. People were once desperate to go to Manchester United; now United are just desperate.
If Amorim does have something about him as a coach then he deserves to stay. He deserves the chance to work in a streamlined environment – no midweek trips to Europe, purely domestic football. It will bring time and space on the training pitches.
The question all concerned with United must be asking is “if”.
The thing about Amorim’s beloved 3-4-2-1 is that it becomes 5-2-2-1 as soon as pressure comes, and when a team is as loose in possession as this United, that happens regularly. It leaves a club made famous by its wingers narrow. Against even competent opposition that makes United predictable. Amorim, likable and smart, a serious coach, thus ends up with Harry Maguire in attack, like a latter-day Marouane Fellaini.
Everyone is exposed by it all: Amorim, Maguire, Casemiro, Jim Ratcliffe and his chosen decision-makers as well. There may not be collective responsibility, but there is collective blame. Of course, the ones who get away with it, who have always got away with it, are the Glazers. They’re still there.
What happens next? There are various permutations to answer the question, but one factual response is that another season ends at Old Trafford on Sunday and, though it may be hard to believe, it could be worse than that afternoon against Cardiff, worse than Wednesday night in Bilbao.
Aston Villa are the visitors. Villa, who have not played in midweek, who have not travelled, who do have players disappointed to the point of discussing leaving, pitch up with something to play for – a Champions League place. They will be fit, fresh and motivated. It could be a big away win and a hellish home defeat.
Once upon a time Manchester United took their role in the Champions League as a matter of course, an annual return to the European elite’s tournament.
No more. Villa, injected with investment, have sped past a United drained by shareholder dividends, managerial uncertainty and recruitment failure. There they are, static on the roadside, passersby staring in bewilderment and asking: Just how bad are Manchester United?
