Manchester United Football Club is currently in a mess. The board can blame themselves for the current situation in the club.
They are one of the most successful clubs in the world, no doubt, especially when you look at their cabinet. The number of trophies they’ve won in England and Europe is amazing.
The best era of the football club was under Sir Alex Ferguson, 1986 – 2013. They were a force to be reckoned with as at then. However, it is sad to know that Manchester United fans out there are really having a hard time. The club is nowhere near that level you would have expected.
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In fact, they last won the League title six years ago, that was during Sir Alex Ferguson’s era. Since then, it’s been a bunch of disappointment every season, with their fellow neighbour – Manchester City, dominating the English Premier League.
Top profile managers like Jose Mourinho, David Moyes, and Louis Van Gaal, have all had a spell at the club with little or no success that resulted in being kicked out.
But where did Manchester United got it wrong?
They got it wrong by hiring David Moyes as the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson. You would never expect a manager that basically did nothing at Everton than guiding them through the mid-table and avoiding relegation every season, to perform magic at Manchester United.
I doubt if it was the right choice. Since then, they have struggled to replicate the form they showed under Sir Alex Ferguson. One question I asked myself when I read that David Moyes would replace Sir Alex Ferguson was – ”What would he do for them?”
I was disappointed with the appointment. It makes little or no sense to me.
He didn’t disappoint me either as he pulled out several bad results for the club. He was given his marching orders in less than a year in the job.
You’d have thought Man Utd woes would end there when Louis Van Gaal was given the nod. After guiding the Netherlands to third place in the 2014 World Cup, he took the reigns at Old Trafford. Behind doors dispute with the board gave him his marching orders.
Jose Mourinho came to steady the ship. He did an amazing job there. But his problem was Paul Pogba. The French midfielder had a problem with the manager, and things went from bad to worse for the Portuguese. After strings of poor results as well, his three-year reign was halted.
Man United appointed a former player and legend, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, to take over from Jose Mourinho. Solskjaer convinced the board when given the job on an interim. However, the honeymoon is over for the Norwegian coach as he needs to justify that hiring decision.
He has struggled to find a level of consistency, and the team’s overall display on the pitch is awful. In this new campaign, Man United now find themselves in the relegation zone, a place where you least expect a top club to be.
They look short of confidence and lack the quality to win games. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got it wrong in his transfer activity as well.
You can’t offload Romelu Lukaku, Ander Herrera and Alexis Sanchez without replacing them with quality players. Keeping Paul Pogba was a mistake. A player who sees himself as too big to wear the Red Devils jersey is not needed.
Pogba was Mourinho’s problem. It was obvious that the board got rid of Jose Mourinho to keep Paul Pogba at the club. But what does he really bring?
I won’t dispute the fact that he is a talented player, but he gives little or nothing to the club in return. You don’t see the fighting spirit in him.
If Manchester United fans can go back to their club history, they would definitely see and understand my point. They need fighters. They need passionate players. Pogba doesn’t have that passion for the club.
Man Utd keeping him is quite a bad decision and maybe – a bad business in the long run. Let him go, get a better player to replace him. They need to follow Liverpool’s pathway. The Liverpool team without Juergen Klopp is a team full of average players. But there’s one thing Klopp has been able to get out of the players – Passion.
The players feel blessed to put on the Liverpool jerseys. You can see from their display of never give up spirit against Barcelona and Man City. Man Utd needs to do the same.
Get rid of fringe players and build from scratch.