Manchester United is running out of cards. The ‘red devils’ started the season with four options to lift a title and they only have the Champions League left to avoid chaining their fifth consecutive season in white. A catastrophe for a giant of world and British football.
“In the first half we should have easily gone 3-0 up and in the second we also had chances. We should have won in normal time but anything can happen on penalties,” Ralf Rangnick said after being eliminated in the fourth round of the FA Cup against Middlesbrough in a fateful shootout. The Championship team (Second) took Old Trafford from 11 meters after 1-1 after 120 minutes ‘taking away’ the ‘ManU.’ your most likely option to lift a trophy this season.
The opportunities for United to extend this course a record in which they have 20 Leagues, 12 FA Cups, 5 League Cups, 21 Community Shields, 3 Champions, 1 Cup Winners’ Cup, 1 Europa League, 1 European Super Cup, 1 Intercontinental and 1 Club World Cup are dwindling. They only have the Champions League trick left (Atletico de Madrid awaits them in the round of 16) after wasting the other three. And raising the ‘Orejona’ is a daunting task and even more so if they come across Simeone’s.
Out of options in the English KO tournaments after his two eliminations at home at the hands of Middlesbrough and West Ham (0-1 in the Carabao Cup at the first change), the Premier is impossible: they are fourth at 19 points! of the leader Manchester City. They haven’t sung the alirn since singing it with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013.
The little oasis of Mou
The departure of the eternal Scottish manager opened a journey through the desert that has become scorching in the last five years. Defensive problems, the lack of a specific game idea, the irregularity of the new faces, the instability of their bench… have marked a team that only smiled in 2017, when José Mourinho won three medals. “I don’t want our team to fight for fourth places. I’ve come here to win titles and the only one we have left is the Europa League. It’s a fundamental competition for us,” said a Portuguese whose team beat Ajax (2-0) in the final of the second continental tournament, winning United’s last trophy to date.
I don’t want our team to fight for fourth places. I have come here to win titles
In 2016-17, the ‘red devils’ won the Carabao Cup, the Europa League and the Community Shield. And since then, nothing. “It would be a dream to lift a trophy as coach of ‘ManU’. It is everyone’s ambition”, declared Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. However, the Norwegian coach, who relieved Mou on the bench of the Theater of Dreams in 2018, was left at zero despite settling United in the Champions zone. The closest he came to winning something was in the final of the last Europa League… but he lost on penalties against Villarreal. And now, with Rangnick, the options have been reduced to the minimum.
endless expense
Since Mourinho and his United lifted the Europa League in Solna on May 24, 2017, the ‘mancunianos’ have spent 740 million euros! in signings. They have bought footballers like Maguire (87), Sancho (85), Lukaku (85), Bruno Fernandes (63), Fred (59), Wan-Bissaka (55), Matic (45), Varane (40), Van de Beek (39), Lindelf (35)… or Cristiano Ronaldo (15) who haven’t been given the chance to lift any title in this period.
Spending per season on Manchester United transfers since their last title
- 2021-22: €140 million
- 2020-21: €84 million
- 2019-20: €235 million
- 2018-19: €83m
- 2017-18: €198m
An investment that has not served as a shortcut to glory. “He could have signed for another team, but he wanted to be at United and help them get back to the way they won in the ‘Ferguson era’. The titles will come if we all stay together,” Maguire explained in statements collected by the ‘Sun ‘. However, since linking four courses without trophies in the Scot’s early years between 1985 and 1989, the ‘ManU.’ do not suffer from lack of wounds as now. And it can be worse. They only have the Champions League left… and Atlético is coming.
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