A culture of mediocrity has set in at Manchester United, and it has nothing to do with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. In many ways, Solskjaer is merely a victim of the erosion of standards and expectancy caused by the club’s owners, the Glazer family, and their senior executives at Old Trafford.
Neither the Glazers nor Ed Woodward, the outgoing executive vice-chairman, were at Old Trafford on Sunday as Solskjaer suffered what he described as his “darkest day” in football, with United humiliated 5-0 by bitter rivals Liverpool, and their absence from their team’s biggest domestic game of the season epitomised the apathy at the top of the club.
If the owners or the man in charge of running the club on a day-to-day basis cannot find the time to watch Manchester United play Liverpool from the plush seats in the directors’ box — a game that those very same executives wanted to become a staple fixture of a breakaway European Super League just six months ago — then can they really claim to be focused on ensuring that United return to the position of power and dominance that they occupied until Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager in 2013?
Since Ferguson stepped down eight years ago and the Glazers and Woodward took full control of the club — Ferguson was the last United manager to run the club from top to bottom — United have won just three major trophies (an FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Europa League) with two runners-up finishes in the Premier League the best they have mustered. Within that period, United have never finished above Manchester City in the table. And since Solskjaer took charge in December 2018, when he initially replaced Jose Mourinho on an interim basis before being confirmed as permanent manager the following March, United have won nothing. They have become a “nearly team,” losing four semifinals and a Europa League final.
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Source : espn
