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Can Manchester United stop the rot?
From serial champions to ‘rotten institution’, the club’s priority now should be ‘to think big again, and invest big’
Manchester United are stuck in a “doom spiral”, said The Telegraph, with their current “collapse” under manager Michael Carrick the “latest sorry episode in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era”.
The 13-times Premier League champions have made their worst start to a league season in 40 years. They are 16th in the Premier League, just one point above the relegation places, having gone eight games without a win.
Old Trafford fans booed their players off the field after the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Sunday. The result put “not only the manager’s future into doubt, but every member of the ownership, senior management and playing squad as a whole”, said Al Jazeera.
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Carrick will be in charge for this Saturday’s game at Chelsea, although it may well prove his last. But he is just the latest in a succession of managers since Ferguson retired in 2013 who have delivered “dysfunction, discord and disinterested performances that leave you wondering what on earth this team is meant to look like”, said The Athletic.
That is “a reflection of the club’s ownership, a regime that has taken so much out of United” in the form of over £1 billion in interest payments, refinancing costs and bond buybacks. The arrival of billionaire Jim Ratcliffe as a minority shareholder in early 2024 was meant to mark a new beginning but “his decision-making has been even worse than that of the previous Glazer-led regime, which is really saying something”.
“Sign whichever players you want, hire whichever manage” – it makes no difference, said The Observer. When the rot starts at the top, well-intentioned newcomers are doomed from the start, “entering rotten institutions addicted to chaos and dysfunction and decay, fettered by a toxic relationship to the past”.
‘Think big again’
“It is possible, though, for a big Premier League side to rebuild and return to the top,” said The Telegraph. For inspiration, United “need only look towards north London, where their old rivals Arsenal pulled themselves out of a similar, if not even more perilous, situation a few seasons ago”.
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The lessons from Arsenal’s root-and-branch rebuild that culminated in them lifting the Premier League trophy in May is three-fold. First, “be brutal with underperforming, overpaid stars”. Second, “trust the power of youth”. Third, and perhaps most important, “culture is king”. Young talent can only thrive in the right environment, even if that means removing “problematic older players”.
“United’s priority should be to think big again, and invest big” in developing a squad that is up to the challenge ahead, said FourFourTwo. “Where are the fighters, the Crerands and Robsons, Keanes and Rooneys?”
Changes are required but will they be successful? The prospects are not good “because the club is rotting from the top down”, said The Athletic. The Glazers, Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada, football director Jason Wilcox – “these are the people” who are “planning for what happens next. Doesn’t bode well, does it?”
