Who did not think that, sooner or later, we'd be here again? At the end of last season, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Dave Brailsford and the rest of the Ineos leadership at Manchester United spoke to numerous potential candidates after the club finished eighth in the Premier League with a negative goal difference. They decided they would, after all, keep Erik ten Hag on as manager. After that decision, who did not foresee a point in the near future when, after another run of poor results, they would be back in the same place as before, just several million pounds poorer having bought another load of Dutch and Dutch-adjacent players?
This is United and that means these problems are always complicated by the memory of Sir Alex Ferguson, who endured some lean years before finally winning the league in his seventh season at the club. The instinct for fans is always to show patience. Nobody wants to be Pete Molyneux, the fan who held up a banner reading "Three years of excuses and it's still crap... ta-ra Fergie" six months before the decisive 1990 FA Cup triumph that was a springboard to Ferguson's success.
Denne historien er fra October 01, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
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Denne historien er fra October 01, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Shapeless and petulant, the Ten Hag ghost ship drifts on
United are exposed again as aweak club who donot know what they want, orlack thenous to achieve what they do
Trescothick hopes England 'unscathed' by frantic schedule
Test squad heads to Pakistan today straight after ODI series, part ofa major fixture pile-up
Day of reckoning Past failures must inform transition to greener future
It is mere coincidence that the closure of the blast furnace at the Port Talbot steel works and the shutdown of Britain's last coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire happened on the same day.
Shop prices falling at fastest rate in three years
Prices in UK shops are falling at the fastest rate since 2021 despite a step up in fresh-food inflation as the wet weather hit UK production while the cost of olive oil and sugary snacks continues to be affected by the climate crisis.
REA gives up on Rightmove after fourth bid is rejected
The Rupert Murdoch-backed real estate company REA Group has abandoned its attempt to take over the website Rightmove after its fourth offer was rebuffed yesterday.
'Europe's first dead river' Ukraine blames Russia as toxic slick causes disaster
Serhiy Kraskov picked up a twig and poked a small fish floating in the Desna River.
Harris's economic policies more popular with voters than Trump's, polling finds
Kamala Harris's economic policies proved far more popular than Donald Trump's plans in a blind test of their proposals.
Parties plan post-election talks as Austria begins 'alarming new chapter'
Austria's main parties are preparing for tense wrangling to form a government amid warnings about the country's democracy, after the far right's victory in a general election in which angry voters punished centrist incumbents over migration and inflation.
Dartmoor repopulated with pine martens for first time in 150 years
Fifteen pine martens are darting through the woods of Dartmoor for the first time in 150 years after the reintroduction of the rare species into south-west England.
'Perpetual cruise' passengers stranded in Belfast for months due to finally set sail
More than 100 passengers were poised last night to finally leave Belfast on a three-year round-theworld \"perpetual cruise\" after being marooned months in the city.
