[ad_pod ]
As the most successful club in English football, with a record 42 major honours in their silverware cabinet, does one more trophy this season, or for that matter any nominal amount over the next few years, really make a difference at a club like Manchester United?
Particularly amid the modern era in which there are simply too many high-quality teams for the mere four Champions League spots let alone the three pieces of domestic silverware on offer, we’ve become obsessed with material accolades and often use them as the ultimate barometer of success or failure. Win the FA Cup and it’s been a good season; lose in the final and finish second in the league, and it’s been a twelve-month disaster.
There’s very little in-between anymore, the grey area that was once occupied by the ideas of entertainment, progress and pride. You’re either a winner or a loser. Of course, some managers like Jose Mourinho bring it upon themselves; when you aren’t particularly receptive to the notion that football teams have an obligation to entertain their fans, results and trophies are all you can really be judged upon.
But in many ways, that highlights the trap Manchester United have fallen into since they sacked David Moyes. Few feel that was a mistake, but it’s often forgotten Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor was given a six-year contract.
The Red Devils intended to remain a club that only thought in the long-term and built dynasties over time, yet as soon as the first candidate failed United instantly fell into a pit of short-termism. Louis van Gaal was appointed as a night watchman to steady the club, before the undisputed king of short-term success was brought to Old Trafford to provide exactly that.
There would be no dynastic terms for Mourinho, who was originally granted a three-year deal, and the underlying logic was pretty obvious: rather than worrying about any particular philosophical ideals, just get the trophy haul ticking over and the rest would inevitably follow. Mourinho’s now brought three more trophies to Old Trafford – if you include the Community Shield – but what do United really have to show for it?
Nobody thinks of them as the best team in Manchester, let alone England, and judging by the start of the campaign they’ll be as far away from the Premier League title as they were upon Moyes’ dismissal by the end of it. Along the way, they’ve garnered a squad that only reflects the short-termist nature of the management: 33-year-olds at full-back, world-record midfielders who has a personality clash with the manager, mid-season signings from divisional rivals in Juan Mata and Alexis Sanchez that have no obvious role in the starting XI, scattergun signings based on availability rather than the actual needs of the team, young defenders drafted in at centre-half who clearly struggle with the weight of expectation.
United have searched for instant success in the hope long-term glory would come with it. But that isn’t the way Ferguson built United into English football’s most dominant club, and it isn’t how the two most exciting teams in the Premier League right now – Liverpool and Manchester City – have got to where they are today either.
Mourinho would scoff that Jurgen Klopp has won nothing at Anfield, yet he’s made the Merseysiders as competitive as they’ve ever been in the Premier League title race. That process has taken three years and plenty of heartache, losing in the League Cup, Europa League and Champions League finals, but it has also seen Liverpool surpass the bitter rivals that have otherwise dominated them throughout the Premier League era.
Manchester City’s record-breaking title win too, didn’t start at the beginning of last season – it started when Pep Guardiola first moved to the Etihad Stadium and insisted upon a style of football he knew certain players at his disposal, chiefly the full-backs wouldn’t be able to cope with.
There were plenty of raised eyebrows when City failed to mount a serious challenge in Guardiola’s first season, but the rewards were reaped tenfold last year. As things stand, that City side are the most dominant in Premier League history over a single season.
Indeed, Liverpool and Manchester City’s rises are the consequences of Klopp and Guardiola’s respective visions and the patience they’ve endured to finally realise them. But vision right now is precisely what United lack – their field of view is restricted to the next trophy or honour, the next material gain they can label a success.
So what would come of United winning something this season? Would it make them a more entertaining team to watch? Would it prove they’re a better or more exciting side than Liverpool or Manchester City? Would it stop the current trajectories, which only seem to extrapolate with United falling behind their two biggest geographical rivals?
Would it tell us anything we don’t already know about United as a club, Mourinho as a manager or even this group of mercenary players? Would it do anything other than create an illusion of success and add another tiny notch to the stick United fans beat Liverpool and City with? Would it do anything more than merely maintain the current status quo?
Real success, for a club of United’s stature, needs to be something far greater, something long-term, dynastic and historically influential. Liverpool and City are striving to impact the game in precisely that way; Mourinho, meanwhile, is too busy reeling off his prior glories in press conferences as justification for the mess United have become.
After nearly three years of the Portuguese and many more of blind short-termism, it’s time for United to forget about trophies and start the rebuild. Who should lead that? There’s one obvious answer in the man who has made his own vision come alive at Tottenham Hotspur – Mauricio Pochettino.
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”307232″ player=”12034″ title=”Rafa’s Pub Facts Germany Hit New Low & Jadon Sancho Makes Us Feel Old”]
