Could United be getting back to their glory days?
It sure as hell looks like it.
In the city of Manchester lies the great divide of red and blue but it’s been the blue half that has been making all the noise as of late. Under master tactician Pep Guardiola, Manchester City have more or less dominated the English game winning the league title in consecutive seasons and have also taken the game to a whole new heights with the way they play the game from the back, goalkeepers using their feet to break pressing lines with passes and the use of inverted fall backs which has revolutionized the game and has set high standards for other teams around the world to follow. Manchester City have been bossing the country’s top competition over the years but it’s goes without saying that the red half of Manchester have been doing all of that in the past decade under legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Let me play the scene on how it used to be…
The “Glory Glory Man United” chants reverberate in the stands of Old Trafford. It’s the noise of the crowd in the Stretford End with their team winning comfortably.
Fans chant “Ole!” with every completed pass by a United player.
Sir Alex Ferguson is perched on top of the home team manager’s dugout seated and chewing his gum quickly and not looking as satisfied as people would imagine him to be.
Every foul won is cheered for. The atmosphere is hostile for opposing players.
The final whistle blows and there is a monstrous roar from the fans in delight.
Their opponents can’t wait to get on the bus.
No one wants to play Manchester United. They are hungry players who are willing to give everything for the shirt.
As a United fan you would remember always remember all of this like it’s yesterday.
FERGIE TIME.
Let’s talk about the brilliant Scots’ era.
Manchester United is one of the biggest and most decorated clubs in English and European football, they are “Football heritage” as their fans call them. They have enjoyed an enormous amount of success within the past decade and have been regarded everywhere around the world which has resulted to such a huge and ever growing fan base.
But we can’t talk about the club without talking about the man who would be forever regarded as one of the greatest United managers of all time and one of the greatest in Europe, Sir Alex Ferguson.
The man has United in his DNA.
Manchester United, fans and their players wouldn’t have had the time they had if not for their brains of the operation always looking to develop the team and never taking anything less than a win.
He was a calming figure in the dressing room and somehow always managed to train players who appeared to have a big chip on their shoulders before coming to the club.
If you weren’t good enough, you can’t wear the shirt.
Mediocrity and complacency wasn’t an option, you simply can’t only have talent to play for a United team that has competition everywhere you look on the pitch. Ferguson had a couple of key players who became an identity and an integral part of what this great club is about.
Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Wayne Rooney, Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo.
I could go on and on… so many great players!
Ferguson along with the amazing group of players he has managed over the years won a staggering thirty eight trophies during that time which included 13 premier league titles, 2 Champions league trophies, five FA Cups and four league cups amongst other numerous achievements over his twenty seven years in charge of the Red devils. He is United’s longest serving manager for a reason.
Hmm.. Longest serving manger.
POST FERGUSON ERA.
Hard hard times…
Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 and since then United hasn’t found that much of the success they were used to since then on in. A United team that was always in the run in for the title year in year out found themselves not even being able to qualify for the Champions league places and not being as highly regarded as they were under the Scot.
Many managers including David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, Ole Gunnar Solsjkær have come to the club and have failed to replicate and bring back the success the club was once accustomed to bar the ‘Special one’ Jose Mourhino who won the Europa league and the league cup in his first season at the club seemed to be taking the club in the right direction but due to his fall out with some of the players and the board which inevitably lead to poor results. His pragmatic nature was one of the reasons he was given the pink slip.
The owners of the club, The Glazers could be seen as another factor that could have contributed to the blip in the clubs fortunes as it was believed that the family’s acquisitions of the club for 790 million pounds in 2005 was a deal that was highly leveraged on and also leading the club into debt. They have also been criticized for the poor management of the club’s finances and that has also been one of the things that has translated to poor on field performances from the club.
Fans have always protested for the Glazers to sell the club and relinquish their positions as co-chairmen and have done so in aggressive fashion when needed. This created a divide between the fans and the owners which is never always going to end well.
The #GlazersOut movement is still something going on as at when this was published.
Time for a rebuild, Time for a new era in United.
TEN HAG’S REBUILD.
As I stated earlier on, United have had their fair share of bad luck over the couple of years with managerial appointments, competition knockouts, player fall outs, and a divide with the fans and their ownership.
In 2022, United fans started to believe again..
After the departure of Ralf Rangnick, Erik ten Hag was appointed to take charge as the manager of United and the fans could sense immense optimism with the move.
And why not?
The man took Ajax to places they might have only dreamt of. I say that because of the run they had in the Champions league of 2019 eliminating title favorites Real Madrid in their road to the final before getting knocked out in the semi final by Tottenham.
What was also commendable was the manner at which that young Ajax team went about their business showing no fear for the opposition and playing brilliant football.
Ten Hag also brought the Eredivisie to the Dutch giants in 2019, 2021, and his last season at the club in 2022 and those were amongst other trophies he won with his Ajax side. United fans believed he was the right man for the job but didn’t want to jinx it of course.
Ten Hag has brought in significant changes to a United side that always seemed to have potential but never really harnessed it with the major beneficiary being Marcus Rashford who has come to life under ten Hag. The Englishman is enjoying one of the best scoring seasons of his career and is in the clear to break his own personal record of seventeen goals in a season. This is the Rashford the fans have been yarning to see and they are finally happy that they are seeing him flourish again. Rashford is currently one of the best goals scorers in the world this season and has embraced the responsibility of leading the line very well.
His new celebration is also cold by the way…
All round, the team look like title contenders and look hungrier than ever.
This season the Dutch man has delivered the club with a league cup. A title that has broken a long and hard six year wait for a trophy of any sort and United do not look to be stopping there.
Already out of the Europa league, their eyes are firmly set on another final in Wembley for the FA Cup against an inform Manchester City. It would be the first time these two face in an FA Cup final and the third time they meet this season with each team holding a victory apiece over each other, this could be the dubbed as the rubber match with astronomically high stakes.
Whatever happens in the final wouldn’t change the fact that Manchester United have gotten back to their best again and look to claim more trophies and enjoy so much glory like the days of Sir Alex Ferguson.
GGMU!
Thank you again for reading up until this point, I hope to see you again next time. Please do not forget for like, comment and also share to people of similar interests. It helps me a lot. I’m on Twitter HERE.
Until next time.
