Steep decline and loss of identity at Manchester United

The season is officially over and it can’t be over soon enough for Manchester United and its fans like myself.

Terrible performance domestically and continentally

Since 2013, the last season of Sir Alex Ferguson, the team has been a complete mess. There have been 4 managers in charge: David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and the current manager – Ole Solskjaer. With regards to the Premier League, the team’s end-of-season position was 7th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 2nd and 6th from 2013 to 2018, missing Champions League on 4 occasions. This season, the gap to Manchester City, the eventual champion, is a staggering 32 points. There hasn’t been such a large gap since Premier League was founded. Yes, MU won the Europa League with Jose Mourinho, but as a three-time Champions League winner and a formerly usual competitor in the tournament, winning a second-tier cup is more of a consolation than an achievement. This year’s presence in the Quarter Finals of the Champions League is the best we have had since 2011.

Alarmingly deteriorating player quality and abysmal transfer policy

Let’s talk about the transfer policy since Sir Alex’s departure. Below is the list of all big-ticket players coming to Manchester United in the past 5 years (Source: transfermarkt)

Season	Player	Fees (£ mil)	Selling Fees  (£ mil)	Difference	Evaluation (my own opinion)
13/14	Juan Mata	40			Average
13/14	Marouane Fellaini	29	11	-18	Poor
14/15	Di Maria	67.5	58	-9.5	Poor
14/15	Luke Shaw	34			OK
14/15	Ander Herrera	32	0	-32	OK
14/15	Marcos Rojo	18			Poor
14/15	Daley Blind	16	14	-2	Poor
14/15	Falcao	7			Poor
15/16	Martial	54			OK
15/16	Schneiderlin	31.5	21	-10.5	Poor
15/16	Depay	31	14.4	-16.6	Poor
15/16	Darmian	16			Poor
15/16	Schweinsteiger	8			Poor
16/17	Pogba	95			Average
16/17	Mkhitaryan	38	31	-7	Poor
16/17	Baily	34			Poor
16/17	Ibrahimovic	Free yet very high salary			OK
17/18	Lukaku	76			Average
17/18	Matic	40			Poor
17/18	Vindelof	31.5			OK
17/18	Alexis Sanchez	31			Poor
18/19	Fred	53			Poor
18/19	Dalot	20			Average

Most signings haven’t met expectations so far in my book. Only a handful either have or possess so much promise that I give them the benefit of the doubt. More importantly, many players don’t particularly have a lot of resell value. They are at the peak of their market value and given the outrageous inflation of player value following Neymar’s transfer, Manchester United ended up overpaying for the players by a wide margin. Among the transfers, some are particularly terrible. Take Sanchez as an example. He is no longer the player he used to be. Yet, he commands the biggest wage at the club, causing unhealthy envy from his teammates who, admittedly, would deserve his salary more than he does.

Not only did the club fail to acquire quality players, but they were also unable to offload players who don’t meet the standard any more. Take Ashley Young. He is exceedingly disappointing and weak. Yet, he is the captain of the team and features in the starting line-up on a weekly basis. His disastrous performance against Barcelona in Champions League is just one among the many horrible performances over the past two or three years.

Loss of identity

United used to be known and feared for attacking football with flair and never-give-up mentality. United of the past few years has been nowhere near that former self. No creativity. No attacking football. No inspiration. Fewer goals. Only boring defensive football. Teams don’t fear United any more. We are relegated to battling with the likes of Wolves or Everton, which beat United 4-0 a few weeks ago.

United used to promote young players from the academy. Granted, some came through the hierarchy such as Rashford, McTominay, and a bit less from Greenwood or Tahith Chong. But it’s nowhere near enough given that we produced world class players in the past such as Class 1992, or good role players such as Brown, O’Shea, Welbeck, Evans, Rafael.

Manchester United is no longer what it used to be. Worse than the lack of performance on the pitch is the loss of culture, accompanied by the decline in reputation. No great players who want to do great things and achieve results want to play for us any more. City, Liverpool, Juve, Bayern, Barca and Real are all the raves these days. We are relegated to the second-tier club in Europe. Long were the days when United were in the semi-final of Champions League for 5 straight seasons or 3 finals in 4 years from 2008 to 2011. Long were the days when the name Manchester United commanded respect and fear. What is left now is just a well-oiled marketing machine living off of its glorious past with no direction back to redemption.