Before anyone starts downvoting, I come in peace.
The entire English football media today is based around extorting United for clicks and attention. In the last decade of United pretty much dwindling with very little trophy success, I’ve heard Gary Neville go on and on about United. So much so that I’ve heard him(and some other English pundits) say that it would be best for English football for United to return back to trophy success - why exactly?
I’m not English so maybe that’s why I don’t understand it but why is it so hard for the English media to accept that United existing without trophy success is not some atomic bomb to English football?
Eras come and go: Chelsea, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, Arsenal, Nottingham Forrest. United or any other club should not be exempt from what I perceive to be the natural law of the English game.
I think a lot of clubs, especially the ones we class as the “big 6” need to start getting used to fluctuation between 1-10th place for the forseeable future.
Many of the clubs that are currently battling for these positions are here to stay and whether you rise or fall can be due to something as simple as luck (e.g. loads of injuries) or the fact you have the world best head coach (e.g. Pep and Klopp). It can also be a formula, where all the pieces are working together perfectly to create an outcome that is hugely greater than the sum of its parts (e.g. Leicester’s title winning season).
The entitlement needs to go in the bin. Clubs cannot keep seeing CL spots as a given for them and need to get used to the fact there are other clubs genuinely here to play. If you miss out on them for a bad season, you can’t be calling out for coaches to be sacked, and the board to be replaced etc…
Pep and Klopp aren’t going to be here forever, and I would say both those sides will have a hangover after their coaches leave. Everything could move around at that point and we have no clue where it will settle.
Man United, a club that came 3rd last year, 6th the year before, and 2nd the year before that… are currently 6th despite having injury and squad issues, and playing somewhat disjointed football. They will grow into the season and continue to battle for European spots, even if it ends up not being CL after 38 games… that should still be ok.
And they have ETH managing. Get a better one and things change
This already happens, 5 of the “big 6” have missed out on a top 4 finish over the last few years. Man City are really the only team that seems impervious to a bad season
Well its a top 4, so there was always at least 2 of the “big” teams missing out on it, but you’re still right in that it has already started. My point here is that it isn’t going to get better/easier for them, or go back to the way it was.