Gary Lineker believes some of the blame for Manchester United’s current malaise should lie with Sir Alex Ferguson and his departure from the club over a decade ago.
United have endured a disastrous 2024-25 campaign, crashing out of the FA Cup on Sunday night after a penalty shoot-out defeat to Fulham.
Having sacked Erik ten Hag in November and replaced him with Ruben Amorim, the club are still marooned in the bottom half of the table, currently sat 14th with any hopes of European qualification through their league finish long extinguished.
United’s only hope of silverware and qualification for next season’s Champions League is the Europa League. They take on Real Sociedad in legs home and away over the next two weeks.
Off-the-field, the club has also endured a tumultuous campaign with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS overseeing a swathe of redundancies.
Get personalised updates on your club every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link so we can send you football news tailored to you.
The decision to part ways with sporting Dan Ashworth just months after his arrival in Manchester also served to underline the chaos at Old Trafford.
Amorim is determined to lead United back to Premier League title glory – comments described as naïve by club legend Wayne Rooney with their last league success coming 12 years ago in Ferguson’s final season in charge.
Ferguson departed alongside David Gill who stepped down as chief executive in 2013.
Since then, United have failed to reach the heights they did under the legendary Scot, winning just five trophies in the 14 years since his exit having fallen behind arch-rivals Liverpool and Manchester City.
‘If you look at Liverpool now, they’ve got a new manager in Arne Slot, and it’s testament to how Jürgen Klopp left the club in a really good state,’ Lineker told BBC One following United’s FA Cup defeat to Fulham.
‘So the structure is really good.
‘That probably wasn’t the case at the end of Sir Alex Ferguson’s [time at Old Trafford].
‘I know they won the league that season, but it wasn’t their best side, and a lot of their great players were coming to the end of their careers.
‘I think from there they had problems. The academy wasn’t delivering the players that they were before.’
Liverpool are cruising towards Premier League title glory in their first season under Slot, 13 points clear with 10 games of their season remaining.
United finished seventh in their first season after Ferguson’s retirement, costing David Moyes his job.
Since then, they have failed to truly mount a Premier League title challenge, twice finishing second under Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2017/18 and 2020/21 respectively.
On both occasions, they finished some way off champions Manchester City who have won seven titles since United’s last triumph.
No comments:
Post a Comment