The summer of 69 is not one
United fans remember fondly, for this was when Sir Matt stepped aside for the
first time and thus began a domino effect that saw the club tumbling down.
The summer of 2013 bears stark resemblance,
it started with the head scratching decision to let go of some of the finest
support staff in the business and ended with a transfer window that saw the
club signal to the world that it was indeed ‘amateur hour at Old Trafford’.
Since that horrendous summer,
United have attracted overhyped players and self-indulgent managers under the tutelage
of a football board with an ostrich mentality. The identity of the football has
been finished in the span of six title less seasons.
Manchester United used to be about
consistency and not flashes of brilliance. This is why Tevez (despite the
shanigans) delivered more at Old Trafford than the classy Berbatov. Now, it is
a place where players and managers alike rest on the laurels of little sparks
of brilliance. Pursuit of relentless excellence surely must have become an
ancient word in the corridors of OT.
The Manchester United of today is
a mid-table club and nothing more. How else would you describe a club that is
captained by Young and Valencia, or one that deems fit to hand long term deals
to Mike and Jones – two defenders who would be conceding a penalty every second
next season once VAR is introduced. All the while, United have allowed the only
consistent player of the past six seasons – De Gea – to run down his contract
TWICE! David De Gea is what a Manchester United first teamer used to be, at his
worst he has 4-5 off days in a season and then too, he produces moment of
brilliance during the 90 minutes. That’s the level of player United don’t have
and sadly, Liverpool and City have a squad laden with consistency.
Even the fans and some ex-players
have adopted a mid-table mentality. How else would you respond to the reasoning
that we should lose to City at HOME! to deny Liverpool the league title. I
remember thinking what a wee club Liverpool where when they surrendered a home
game to Chelsea in 2010 to deny us the league, we only went and won it the next
season. This Liverpool team is on an upward trajectory (sadly!)– as shown by
their lone defeat all season – and they are eventually going to win the league.
Don’t get me wrong, I hope some miracle happens and Liverpool don’t win the
league and City don’t win the quadruple 20 years from our treble (and Leeds yes
Leeds United don’t’ return to PL with their new found attractive brand of
football…YUCK) – those are the sort of sucker punches because of the tribal
nature of football you don’t forget just like the 2012 PL title loss to City
and Chelsea lifting the CL – but it better not happen at the expense of us
losing home games and missing out on CL. This is the kind of stupid and suicidal
thinking that small clubs have.
United’s only priority has to be
to ensure that the Ole bounce keeps us in CL frame for next season and then we build
on that. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like that at the moment. At the moment, we are
a club where a really good coaching staff have uncertainty over the futures, our scattergun transfer approach looks like continuing and we have contract
negotiation lock jam with deserving players due to a ridiculous wage structure.
Going back into the Europa league for
the 3rd time in six seasons will only condemn us to more mediocrity.
The common myth is that a DOF is
the cure to all ills – NO CHANCE. Think for a second the football expertise on
the board (exclude Sir Alex because he has rightly recused himself from first
team inference), the quality of scouts and football development specialists we
have – these are talented individuals who have failed at their jobs. Woodward
as the leader of the ship has to take the hit, but don’t for once believe the
popular notion that we don’t have expertise in the background. What we
don’t have is the right kind of expertise – suited to the manager and the club
overall. The only way we are bouncing back is to first accept that we are light
years away from a league title and then rebuild our lost foundations.
Ole is a rookie manager by United
standards but atleast his philosophy is suited to the club. He won’t succeed
till he is given a strong coaching staff, a vibrant retention / recruitment /
scouting team and this new structure time to fail / succeed. He deserved the
six year deal that Moyes was wrongly given, because he isn’t going to achieve a
thing in 3 years.
United can no longer wait for an
iconic manager + player combo to arrive and revive the club, it has to make do
with what it has and build intelligently on that. Else, the ghost of the summer
of 2013 will continue to haunt forever.
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