Manchester United: Is there any way back?
Gone are the days of Manchester United being one of the superpowers of world football alongside the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Currently they’re more akin to a side fighting for European qualification rather than titles. It was always going to be a hard task replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm but not many would have predicted the fall from grace which has accompanied United for some time now.
Many would claim that David Moyes lay the toxic foundations with his first and only season in charge but this is an unfair assessment. Much of the blame should’ve been allotted to the like of Ed Woodward and the higher-ups who didn’t give much for Moyes to spend on new players that were desperately needed to improve an aging squad.
Because of this lack of support the only two transfers of note that were brought in were Marouane Fellaini and Juan Mata and while both are very good players on their day neither would necessarily what was needed. Ultimately what became of Moyes was in my opinion quite unjust and unfair to a manager I believe would’ve succeeded given the time and resources.
After a travesty of a season with David Moyes leading the team to their worst Premier League finish and Ryan Giggs taking interim charge for the end of the season Louis Van Gaal was appointed manager in the summer after a good performance with The Netherlands in the World Cup. Van Gaal spent no time waiting to replace key players such as Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand who had left the club with the likes of Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw whilst also adding the caliber of Ander Herrera and Angel Di Maria to the squad.
Despite these seemingly impressive improvements to the squad United still endured a somewhat turbulent campaign riddled with inconsistency however did qualify for the Champions League once again despite high pro
file players like the aforementioned Di Maria under performing and not living up to his price tag.
Now into his second season in charge it seems that Van Gaal is nearing his exit of Old Trafford with another season of inconsistencies and not capitalizing on other teams performing poorly. Players such as Wayne Rooney and Memphis Depay did not perform well enough to be even in contention for a title and with the team out of every competition aside from the FA Cup in mid March it is not a good sign.
Jose Mourinho is the strong favorite to take charge in the summer but it remains to be seen how well he will perform in what will be the toughest and most stressful job in football next season. All of Mourinho’s success may not matter to many if he goes to United as he’ll have a completely different job on his hands.
Despite the solid managerial record of David Moyes in the Premier League and the hundreds of millions at Van Gaal’s disposal both failed so what are the chances for Mourinho to succeed? Mourinho has yet to manage a team that is truly struggling the way United have been so it may be a job even too hard for the “Special One” to handle.
All will be seen in another year where fans may be asking “Why wasn’t he brought in sooner?”, or ” When is he leaving?”. All will be shown next year but it could just be a fact that United are no longer a powerhouse in world football and should just be satisfied competing for the Champions League places.