The decline in Manchester United's fortunes is causing a lot of consternation among their fans and delight among their opponents. As most of you know i am not a Manchester United supporter,neither am i a Manchester United hater like many football fans are..
However we all like the feeling of schadenfreude the felling of a once mighty behemoth brings.It makes many of us feel better about supporting a club further down the pecking order.The cry from many fans to Man Utd supporters is usually "Now you know how we feel"!
Many think the downward spiral has begun since Alex Ferguson retired at the end of last season but in truth the wheels were coming off before that...
Manchester United are reigning English champions,which on paper should make them a strong outfit but the honest truth is that the Premiership they won was the poorest ever and they were the best of a bad bunch.They were able to get over the line with a combination of a fit Van Persie banging in a lot of goals,Fergies tactical nous and his ability to get every last drop out of his players plus the aura of invincibility that surrounded their name...
Well that aura has well and truly disappeared now and every Tom,Dick,Harry & even West Brom are finding playing them a relatively easy proposition.
So what's happened? Fergie's gone,although he has'nt really.He's still hanging around the place.I don't care what anyone says this can't be healthy for the club.They have made this mistake before when Matt Busby retired but hung about Old Trafford for years overseeing a succession of failed managers until,ironically,Fergie was employed about twenty years later...It's a bit like marrying a divorcee and having her ex living with you.
Fergie never addressed the problem of the centre of midfield.He clearly knew that was where the main problem lay---and still lies---he had to drag Paul Scholes out of his Oldham bolthole and when he was'nt fit enough Fergie played Wayne Rooney in that position.What he did'nt do was buy someone who could run the team from there like Roy Keane did...Basically he left them in the lurch. Whilst all Man Utd's rivals strengthened Fergie seemed to rest on his laurels...or maybe----and more alarmingly for their fans---Man Utd just can't attract the really top players that they used to and their rivals are reaping the benefits.
There's another problem for them too...Their famed youth academy is just not producing the sort of player it used to.They always had a good smattering of classy footballers coming through the ranks but that's dried up over the last few years.With many of the first team players now getting close to,or over,thirty years old---Vidic is leaving,Ferdinand will soon be gone too,maybe Evra too---there does'nt seem to be any ready made replacements waiting in the wings.Again maybe they're just not able to attract the best of the young players like they used to...
Now Van Persie is also making noises about his teamates in the Dutch press(Those Dutch players can't help themselves can they?) No doubt when challenged he'll claim something was lost in translation,Whatever,it does'nt make a happy ship at the moment.
Football,like most sport,usually has a natural cycle.No team stays at the top for ever.I remember when i was young it was unthinkable that Liverpool would go over twenty years without winning the title.They were unbeatable...Only they were'nt.
That's the thing.Every team has to improve all the time and if you stay still you get caught and eventually overtaken...
At the moment Manchester United are'nt even standing still.They're going backwards...
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