There's this commonly-held myth that 'the United DNA' was always there, and that Baconface just brought it back to life, like some football version of Jurassic Park. But, as others have said, their post-war success is down to two managers only, plus James Gibson's bankrolling of them. Both managers were given time and money to do what they wanted to do and that worked out well for them, but in the modern era there will be no more managers like Busby, Ferguson, Wenger or the other long-serving successful managers and certainly not at the Glazer-owned United, where cash is king.
There's no guarantees of a top 4 place these days; there are 6 obvious potential candidates for those spots and others now snapping at their heels. If they miss out on CL for 2 consecutive seasons (which they've avoided by the skin of their teeth so far) there will be financial consequences and those could be the catalyst for a complete retrenchment and lead to them facing a long road back.
The answer for them should be getting in a good young coach that plays the way they expect and to have a complete clear-out of the old-guard of the coaching staff and players. They should be prepared to sacrifice top 4 if necessary to allow that manager to build something. But there's less than a 1% chance they'll do that, as not finishing top 4, or even the threat of not doing so, seems to be the trigger for the manager's P45. They'll almost certainly go back down the "He's won something, let's get him in" route, having tried that already with Mourinho and van Gaal. But neither of those really built anything patiently and building something is the thing they need right now. And Pochettino hasn't even won anything so what do they expect from him? But clearly there's no fucking plan if they need an interim to hold the fort before they appoint a caretaker who'll keep the seat warm for the next inshallah appointment.
And they'll continue with the mish-mash recruitment policy they have. I doubt Solskjaer had much say in some of the buys, as why would you buy players like Van Der Beek and Sancho for £120m, then not play them? He obviously had his doubts but didn't have the power or the balls to veto their transfers. So he didn't play them, which was his way of saying he didn't want them.
We may be the noisy neighbours but they've stolen our 'Comedy Club' title. The whole football world is laughing at them and long may it continue.
