Manchester United will always be the team which lost a European final to Spurs and that \u2018stain\u2019 is eternal. There is no \u2018escape out of this doom spiral\u2019.<\/p>\n
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.<\/p>\n
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The INEOS brains trust can only be trusted with one more decision United\u2019s problems are numerous, but the most glaring issue is this: we can\u2019t even decide what\u2019s worse \u2014 the players or the managers. When it comes to both Erik ten Hag and Amorim, it\u2019s safe to say that, as poor as the current squad is, the managers have been even worse. And therein lies the root of our troubles.<\/p>\n We have no Director of Football. Our scouting network is non-existent or laughable at best. This leaves the manager (the one who can\u2019t do their own jobs) to also do the scouting, resulting in hundreds of millions wasted on signings who have consistently failed to meet expectations. Under Ten Hag, huge sums were spent chasing his priority targets, yet almost every one of them has proven to be a disappointment. In contrast, Amorin is still demadning players for a system that has shown no evidence of working in the Premier League.<\/p>\n The reality? United are expected to finish this season with 39 points \u2014 just above the relegation zone<\/strong><\/a>. In many other seasons, that would have meant relegation. Remember the outrage when United finished 7th under David Moyes, and that was without the financial backing ETH was given for instance.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the solution?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the current management structure is unlikely to be fixed anytime soon. There will be no Director of Football appointment, no meaningful improvement to the scouting network, and no overhaul of the training facilities. The people in charge simply don\u2019t seem capable of making the right decisions.<\/p>\n This leaves us with only one viable option \u2014 one that comes with the caveat that it has not worked out too well in the past but is the only realistic path forward now. We need to hire an experienced, truly elite manager. Someone with a proven track record of winning titles and the full backing of the club. This manager should be entrusted with all football decisions \u2014 from which players to buy and sell, to upgrading facilities, restructuring the medical team, and establishing a reliable scouting and data analysis network.<\/p>\n Most importantly, this manager must be given complete autonomy, no matter how much resistance or dissent there may be from players, he must be backed to the hilt season after season. Because the only thing the current board and management can be trusted with is one decision only, hiring the manager. And that too out of sheer necessity. Beyond that, let the only adult at the club (read: new manager hopefully) make\u00a0all the decisions from thereon. Because, this United board and management have proven repeatedly that to allow them to make even a single more decision would be folly of the highest order. \u00a0<\/p>\n So, for the third season in a row, United found themselves in a cup final looking to salvage their season, only this time, they went to the well and they found there was nothing left for them.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t keep putting off the inevitable. This is a large scale rebuild. It will involve gradually shipping out 10 players and trying to bring in 10 who are an improvement on those going out. That\u2019s a 3, 4, 5 year project. There is no quick fix. There are no shortcuts. The last two years have been sticking plasters, but you can\u2019t keep putting plasters on open fractures. Sooner or later you have to accept that you require more advanced help.<\/p>\n As I have said previously, the problem with United is that are yet to confront their reality. They may have the most Instagram followers in Kenya or whatever, but that is worth absolutely nothing on a football pitch. They need to accept where they are and what they are. Until they do, they will continue to go backwards. MORE MANCHESTER UNITED REACTION FROM F365 \u00a0<\/p>\n RIP Manchester United Dramatic? Perhaps. But if the Europa League final really was \u201cdo or die\u201d, well, United didn\u2019t \u201cdo\u201d. It feels like a death knell and I expect a lot of black worn at Old Trafford on Sunday for the blessed relief of the season finale. We didn\u2019t deserve to win the Europa and certainly do not deserve Champions League football in 2025-26.<\/p>\n You know things are bad when rival fans have (mostly) stopped laughing and are expressing sincere concern. I guarantee Spurs will be nowhere near the bottom 3 next season. I wish I could express the same confident claim about my own club, but I for one just cannot see an escape out of this doom spiral.<\/p>\n Our best players are likely to be moved on<\/strong><\/a> (for tuppence ha\u2019penny, natch); our once-coveted manager looks like he\u2019s hating every single minute of his life and our tight-as-a-gnat\u2019s arse part-owner is similarly regretting his life choices, whilst looking for all the world like a child\u2019s doodle of a medieval king magically made flesh.<\/p>\n The Championship is beckoning. Money can only insulate you from failure for so long in football. The last time we were relegated in 1974, it was only six years after becoming England\u2019s first champions of Europe. With greater finances involved in modern football, it has insulated us for longer, but not for much longer, at this rate in any case. I will never stop loving my club and all its glorious (and inglorious) history, but I am really not looking forward to more of the same next season.<\/p>\n A good start would be to stop losing to Spurs! Nothing against them, but four defeats to Tottenham in the same season? Four?! That\u2019s insane. I\u2019m pleased for big Ange, a man often luckless, scorned and derided. But to actually deliver on his pre-season pledge to \u201calways\u201d win a trophy in his second season? Gotta admire the man\u2019s Tottenham Chutzpah. Just wish he didn\u2019t have to do it at our expense!<\/p>\n To Jim French, thayden, Jon, Lincoln et al: savour that warm afterglow of a cup final victory. Our Gooner friends\u00a0haven\u2019t felt it in years \ud83d\ude09 Barry Fox has clearly had a few too many celebratory \u201cbottoms-up\u201d poured beers. A decade of dominance? Best not get carried away now,\u00a0Baz-lar. Best to walk before you can run, no? After all, it was \u201conly\u201d Man United.<\/p>\n Yours pessimistically, \u00a0<\/p>\n Manchester United (1878-2025) is over. I was thinking earlier this season, as a Liverpool fan, that if somehow they got relegated I would quit watching football or caring about the Premier League altogether (not the Champions League of course\u2026.) because it would be meaningless to entertain a rivalry when your biggest rival has been destroyed beyond repair.\u00a0Of course, they didn\u2019t get relegated -but gave it shot- yet United being United, they managed to produce an outcome just as humiliating and unbelievable; lose a European final to Tottenham. (To add insult to injury, without Maddison, Kulusevski, Bergvall\u2026. basically, their best attacking options) \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n Lost a European final to Tottenham\u2026 (try not to laugh reading that over and over again). They will have to live with that stain forever now. The last European trophy Spurs won was against Anderlecht, a club which fittingly has disappeared from the world stage. How do you live past that as a \u201cproud football club\u201d when Tottenham was the perennial butt of jokes for a reason?? Even hours before the match Paul Scholes was asked to revisit on TV the \u201clads, it\u2019s Tottenham\u201d pep talk Fergie gave them in the dressing room which became a meme, running joke, soundbite whatever to exemplify the complete helplessness and failure inherent to Tottenham. And yet, you\u2019ve become their b****, Spurs beat them 4 times this season!!! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n In the end of the day, level at league titles and with twice as many European cups, the history books will tell the story that Liverpool beat Tottenham in a Champions League final but Manchester United lost to Spurs in a Europa League final. There are levels to this game. Liverpool has to find a new \u201cbiggest fixture\u201d to look forward to because the English Derby no longer is. We may have to manufacture a rivalry with City going forward because United died this season. They\u2019re just the gift that keeps on giving, having perfected the art of failure. You could not script a better season ending from a Liverpool fan\u2019s standpoint. \u00a0<\/p>\n I was reading bits of the mailbox and Man Utd fans thinking out loud about how to forge a path ahead. Youth was mentioned an awful lot but here is the thing: if you were a talented player under 16 you would not sign for Man Utd right now.<\/p>\n To protect kids and not disrupt families most clubs have to recruit within a geography but that means that Man Utd are competing with Man City and Liverpool for top youth players. Which team would you rather sign for if you were 12 years old right now?<\/p>\n There\u2019s no class of 92 that\u2019s going to be emerging any time soon in my opinion. And the class of 92 had top professionals like Cantona to learn from; who would a kid in the youth team look up to right now other than Bruno?<\/p>\n The club has cancer and it\u2019s been allowed to persist so long that it\u2019s infected almost everything. That combined with a disgruntled feeling from all the staff who Genius Jim has screwed to save \u00a358 a week means that the morale couldn\u2019t be lower.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t see Amorim as the answer and this \u00a3100m summer war Chest won\u2019t go far when so much is about to be spent on Cunha making a step down<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m obviously enjoying this malaise rather a lot. The summer of optimism will also be great before it comes crashing down on opening day when you lose at home to Fulham. \u00a0<\/p>\n We do talk about Bruno It got me to thinking after the game. If Fernandes were the talisman he is reputed to be. If he\u2019s such a great goal scorer, creator, leader, why have none of the big clubs not come in for him? At the very least, why has there not been the odd rumour at the end of a non-disastrous season, linking him with Spain, Italy or Bayern?<\/p>\n I think the answer to this is that they don\u2019t want him. Is he a good player? Absolutely! But he\u2019s not good enough to be constantly forgiven his wasteful passes, Hollywood balls, whining and moaning at the ref and team mates? I can\u2019t understand how the 6 managers (interim included) he\u2019s worked under since joining United have all deemed him undroppable. Not just that, he\u2019s rarely subbed off<\/p>\n United are in a very precarious position right now. There was talk earlier this season of a relegation battle. I shrugged that off, thinking there\u2019s no way the quality of the teams at the bottom of the table would threaten a side of full internationals. But watching the game last night I could honestly say that I wouldn\u2019t put a tenner on United to beat any of the 3 relegated sides if they were to meet in a week\u2019s time with full strength sides. I don\u2019t think the teams coming up this season from the Championship will be as bad as the 3 going down and I think Leeds and Burnley will have learned their lessons form previous bounces and prepare better for the upcoming top flight season.<\/p>\n So if United want to keep doing the same thing, with the same players, then I genuinely feel next season could be worse than this. And if Bruno Fernandes is still the captain, playing 90 mins every week, no matter how bad his performances are, then they can have no complaints if next May they find themselves in must win matches to avoid dropping to the championship.<\/p>\n I would like to clarify that I\u2019m not laying all the blame for the current sh*t show at his feet. There are a number of players not fit to wear the shirt and the managers have to take a lot of blame too. But this is one area that seems to be constantly ignored and needs to be debated. Are United better off with Fernandes or without. Some fans might see Fernandes leaving as the last finger pulled from the dyke but I think his removal from the team would allow others to step up with an increased focus on in-game tactics. Just look what happened PSG when Mbappe left and the team became less of a one man show. \u00a0<\/p>\n Tinpot By this logic Wigan\u2019s famous win, which wasn\u2019t a great game, the same year they got relegated made the FA cup a championship level competition not worth European qualification.<\/p>\n What about Denmark or Greece winning the Euros? Not the biggest teams nor the best football which would make that competition tinpot now as well.<\/p>\n Do we really want to post decide the value of a sporting success based on the winner\u2019s performance in a separate sporting competition? Is it worth nothing unless one of the big successful teams win it?<\/p>\n But far worse than the subjective, post-rationalised logic is the inhumanity. The denial of one of the most nourishing, heart warming stories that sport brings so wonderfully to life. The plucky underdog who \u2013 against all odds \u2013 finally gets to the top of the mountain and lifts that trophy aloft.\u00a0 That perfect moment that can never be taken away from them. Shining glory!<\/p>\n Oh no. Wait while VAR team Moses and Wenger check for \u2018entertainment and league performance\u2019 offences.<\/p>\n Moving on. You\u2019re my most annoying team \u2013 because you always beat us in the most annoying ways \u2013 but I\u2019m really pleased for Spurs. The competitive league; Newcastle: it\u2019s been a season where the joy has been spread around and I think that\u2019s much better. The product feels fresher, more filled with possibilities. I think this should mean more engagement, more eyeballs and therefore more value.<\/p>\n Honestly it\u2019s become \u2018yeah chuck it on the pile\u2019 when City win a domestic cup for me. Which sounds, and is, wildly entitled and that\u2019s the problem. Even Tiramisu becomes boring after the fifteen bowl. Probably. The rewards being divided between the wealthy few is bad for everyone so I make this a good season.<\/p>\n This City fan needs to get his hunger back to really enjoy winning again. If it ever happens.<\/p>\n That said \u2013 Come on Club World Cup!<\/p>\n Big love,<\/p>\n Mansour out! \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Stunningly awful When the commentator said the game was getting scrappy, two thoughts crossed my mind. One, a disservice was being done to the word scrappy. Second, how could he tell.<\/p>\n Is it now \u201cc\u2019mon lads, it\u2019s only Utd\u201d?<\/p>\n Absolutely dreadful from both sides, poor, misplaced passes, players not making runs, awful positioning, running into dead ends. Both teams devoid of ideas or any kind of cohesiveness; showing why they thoroughly deserve to be 16th and 17th in the EPL.<\/p>\n Credit to Matt Stead who must have had to work overtime come up with 2 conclusions let alone 16 -other than complete and utter dross. \u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/strong>As a United fan who didn\u2019t even bother watching the Europa League final, I\u2019m not the least bit surprised by the outcome. Manchester United are in complete shambles right now<\/strong><\/a>. The arrival of Ratcliffe has been so disastrous that even Ed Woodward starts to look like a footballing genius in comparison.<\/p>\n
Adeel<\/strong><\/p>\n
Andy H, Swansea.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Ranking every Manchester United player\u2019s season: Horrible Hojlund to Fernandes via Garnacho<\/a>
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Keane slams Man Utd star for lack of \u2018focus\u2019 as Amorim call proves Red Devils \u2018in real trouble\u2019<\/a>
<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>The coroner pronounced Manchester United Football Club officially dead at 21:57 BST on the night of Wednesday 21st May 2025. It was 147 years old.<\/p>\n
Lee, wondering if there\u2019d be a lot more Champo content on F365 should we ever go down?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Ra\u00fal H. Garc\u00eda (Number 7 next season and I\u2019m done) LFC-YNWA 1892<\/strong><\/p>\n
Minty, LFC<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>I was really glad one of your 16 Conclusions on the final picked up on the double Bruno Fernandes turnover in the Spurs half<\/strong><\/a> prior to the goal. This gets glossed over so many times, especially when United play well or get a result. The amount of times he gives the ball away unnecessarily is astonishing.<\/p>\n
Mick, Newcastle<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>I\u2019d like to address the concept that because of the finalists poor league performance and the poor quality game that the Europa League is now a tinpot trophy and shouldn\u2019t get CL qualification.<\/p>\n
And totally stoked for palace. That\u2019s the stuff football\u2019s about.<\/p>\n
Hartley MCFC Somerset (being a Utd fan must be like living in a wooden house and discovering your new landlord is a termite.)<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>That\u2019s 90 minutes of my life I\u2019ll never get back. No skin in the game, but the only thing on, so why not. Err, that\u2019s why not.<\/p>\n
Paul McDevitt<\/strong><\/p>\n