At the top of this post, it's worth pointing out that, without Busby and Ferguson's records, United have only won 15 trophies in their entire history. Without those two men, they're just like everybody else. And I've got a feeling Ten Hag's eventual departure will finally be the one that kills off any hope United have in terms of hoping that one man can simply take the entire club on his shoulders and win titles, just as Fergie and Busby did.
Moyes would simply continue Fergie's legacy; Van Gaal would bring a continental style to update United's footballing identity and rid them of Moyes' ghost; Mourinho would buy a load of galacticos and finally sort out Van Gaal's slow possession-based bullshit with a "proper winner's mentality"; Solskjaer would bring Fergie's spirit back to take United to titles and rid them of Mourinho's toxicity; Ten Hag would finally, finally bring serious modern coaching and proper authority back to United after years of malaise.
They've tried every approach under the sun when it comes to managers. What's next?
The reality is that, at least when it comes to United wanting to compete with the elites, the entire operation needs ripping up and starting again, and it's going to take at least a decade to rid the club of its current culture. This goes beyond the Glazers simply selling to Ratcliffe or Qatar - just look at PSG, underperforming and overpaying without much of a plan beyond prioritising commercial viability over everything else (which, to be fair, United already do).
Everything needs reworking from top to bottom. They laughed at us when Soriano and Begiristain used the word "holistic" in that statement in 2012 - who's laughing now? Their stadium is rotting internally, there are constant leaks from within the club, their handlings of the Greenwood and Anthony affairs were both major administrative failures, somehow everybody they sign gets worse or has their reputation destroyed. Who would want to be there?
For years United were able to sell themselves as an attractive prospect to young players. "Come to the Theatre of Dreams and you'll play football like you've never known before". Now when young lads are thinking of going there, all they'll see is what's happened to Maguire, Sancho, Pogba, and Lukaku. Full internationals, World Cup winners, £80m signings - all of them on the scrapheap and having to take a downward move just to keep playing.
That's without mentioning the likes of Ronaldo, Falcao, Angel Di Maria, Alexis Sanchez, Mkhitaryan, who were all seasoned pros that had to leave United quickly to boost their reputations again. And the likes of Daniel James, Wilfried Zaha, Marcos Rojo, Depay, Van De Beek - what young player would want to join United now when there's a long line of failed prospects and barely any successes? The brand is beginning to crumble now.
Contrast that to how City have been run for the last decade. It took a few years to bear fruit but now look. Every player we sign (except maybe Kalvin Phillips) gets better after being coached by Pep, we're treble winners and threepeat title winners, our stadium is constantly being developed, we train in what is essentially a gated community, our young players either get to the first team or get huge transfer fees when they move on.
So even if you're not as good as Foden or Rico Lewis, you'll still get to play regular top level football - think of the likes of James Trafford, Pedro Porro, Romeo Lavia, Cole Palmer, James McAtee, Eric Garcia, Brahim Diaz, Tosin Adarabioyo, Angelino, Aleix Garcia etc. even Sancho before his move to United. All of them are either bright prospects or established top level players now. Why would you pick United over us these days?
On top of that, a former assistant manager of ours is one of the best young managers in the Premier League, our former club captain has just stormed the Championship as a manager, and another former coach of ours (Maresca) is about to do the same with Leicester (with another academy prospect of ours, Iheanacho). Everything runs like clockwork from top to bottom and the legacy of what's been built since 2012 is visible everywhere.
It took 10 years for us to achieve this and it still took that long despite having owners and a board who were all on the same page. At the moment United don't even have owners that want to sell. When their fans were chanting about their 20 league titles while languishing in 7th under Moyes, I made a little joke with myself that we'd be singing about our 20th league title before they ever sung about their 21st. It might not be a joke soon enough.
www.forces.net