I think United are having to learn that there is no magic in their badge, that there is no such thing as "football genes" and certainly no genetic trend towards winning trophies. There is no magical formula for a successful football club apart from appointing the right people to do the job. In Ferguson they clearly had one of the "right" people, in Gill they clearly had someone who knew what he was doing and in the old plc they had people who kept the cash flowing. The Glazers have actually done well on increasing revenue, but have loaded the club with debt.
Ferguson retired - he didn't get out or jump ship - because he was too old to carry on. After the Sheikh arrived the word was that Ferguson knew that he could not keep City down indefinitely, but that he wanted to go out on "a high". Blowing an 8 point lead in the last six matches to see City crowned champions (especially in the final, heroic minutes of stoppage time) hit him harder than anyone could know. He admits to not having slept for weeks after and "hitting the bottle": his wife described it as one of the hardest times of his life. Had he won the title that season he would have retired then. Instead he shelled out £25 million on an injury prone Dutchman and bullied his team, match officials and the FA and PL to take him to one last title. And then he went, paving the way for the boy David, the natural successor.
Fortunately the boy David is nothing of a natural successor - he has no record to justify his appointment, unlike SAF when he arrived from Aberdeen. There were whispers that the coaching staff had no confidence in him and one by one they left. This coincided with the departure of Gill & Co. The two branches of the club were replaced by inexperience, and the rumours of unrest among the players have grown and grown. Manchester United has, in appearance at least, all the hallmarks of a dysfunctional organisation. This was shown clearly - and early - in the transfer window: flights lasting an eternity to complete spectacular transfer business which was never begun, players on their way to OT who never arrived, buy out clauses that wouldn't be triggered, players who found the lure of OT all too easy to resist. Then the paid over the odds for Fellaini - was this because Moyes needed a "big" player to please the crod? Or because the club needed to show Moyes (and the fans!) that it did have money and would spend it? Or was it Woodward who had to get any player to justify his job?
And to make it all so much worse there is a growing realisation - everywhere, even in the traditionally so loyal press - that the example of how a successful club is run is actually there, for all to see, in east Manchester. And what they're all seeing now is that when a club starts rolling down the slippery slope, the last place it shows is on the pitch.
