AS torrential rain lashed down on Bilbao in the early hours of this morning, the forecast for Old Trafford looked bleaker than ever.
Manchester United’s bullet-ridden squad and their weather-beaten supporters made their retreat from the Basque country with a chilling prospect ahead.
AlamyMan Utd suffered a 1-0 loss to Tottenham in the Europa League final[/caption]
PARuben Amorim admitted he will leave if club officials want him to[/caption]
Because, while almost half of the Premier League will compete in Europe next season – six of them in the Champions League – United’s players will be on their sofa watching Corrie.
For only the second time in 35 years, Old Trafford will not host continental competition next term – a reduced workload which might just help United avoid relegation.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, then it is not a major one.
United are so bad that the three clubs promoted from the Championship must regard them as potential rivals in the top-flight drop zone next term.
For a second consecutive summer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his crew will be backing a failing manager in the transfer market – hoping against hope that their decision to stick by Ruben Amorim does not backfire on them like last year’s gamble on Erik ten Hag.
Whoever lost Wednesday night’s Europa League Final knew they would be heading into a pit of despair and after Tottenham’s ugly 1-0 victory, it is the Red Devils who face a hellish summer.
This is a team which has managed to lose four times in one season to the worst Spurs side in half a century – failing to score in three of those meetings.
It was clear from that shocking display in Bilbao, as well as their form throughout the club’s disastrous Premier League campaign, that United do not even have the foundations to build a successful team.
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Their £72million centre-forward, Rasmus Hojlund, barely looks like a Championship-level player, their keeper Andre Onana is a liability, they are desperately lacking in creativity going forward and are frequently undone by basic defensive errors.
And Amorim, despite the sky-high reputation he had forged at Sporting Lisbon, is not even getting the best out of the rag-tag squad he does have at his disposal.
GettyIt is just the second time in 35 years United have failed to qualify for a European competition[/caption]
GettyAlejandro Garnacho expressed his discontent after the mach[/caption]
The Portuguese is too dogmatic in his 3-4-3 system – and needs a major summer overhaul to build a squad which suits it.
But, against Spurs, he also got his team selection badly wrong.
Choosing Mason Mount over the pacey Alejandro Garnacho on the left of his front three was a glaring error – and the reaction of the Argentinian winger and his brother-agent Roberto to that decision lays bare the lack of collective spirit inside Amorim’s squad.
United are most certainly not united.
Garnacho described their season as ‘s**t’, while Amorim was accused by the player’s brother of ‘throwing him under the bus’.
The manager’s selection of Bruno Fernandes in a deep midfield role saw the captain gifting possession frequently in dangerous areas – including in the build-up to Tottenham’s goal.
Fernandes is United’s one obvious elite footballer but he did not show up in Bilbao. And Amorim didn’t help matters by selecting him as part of his central midfield two, rather than further forward.
The Portuguese is wanted by Saudi Pro-League bosses and he admits United may have to sell him to raise funds.
Ineos chief Ratcliffe has stated that United must pay a further £89m this summer in instalments on players brought before he arrived at the club.
Man Utd ratings: Diallo best player in Europa League final but Hojlund out of his depth
AMAD DIALLO’S fizzing first-half display was little consolation for Manchester United in a dismal 1-0 Europa League final loss to Tottenham.
Rasmus Hojlund’s plight up front continued in one of the worst European showpieces for many years – as both sides showed why they will finish in the Premier League lower reaches.
Spurs clinched it from virtually their first opportunity – on 42 minutes.
Brennan Johnson bundled in Pape Sarr’s inswinging cross, with United left-back Luke Shaw also getting a touch on the way.
The Red Devils dictated possession more and more after the break, with Leny Yoro stretching to test Guglielmo Vicario from a free-kick.
But United’s chances only arrived regularly in the final quarter of a patchy contest.
The Red Devils belatedly piled on the pressure in the seven minutes of stoppage time, but Spurs just held on.
Here’s how SunSport’s Dave Courtnadge rated United on a miserable night individually and collectively for Ruben Amorim’s men…
Now, without any income from European competition, the transfer budget will be thinner still.
A deal is in place to sign Matheus Cunha from Wolves but the hot-headed Portuguese attacking midfielder will cost £62.5million and has missed six matches through suspension since January.
Ipswich striker Liam Delap is now more likely to join Chelsea than United but a striker has to be a priority given that it is becoming genuinely cringeworthy to watch Hojlund play.
It all means that United may have to cash in on homegrown players such as Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo – two of the club’s most promising stars – in order to strengthen while complying with PSR regulations.
For a club rightly proud of its record of promoting from the youth system, that is a galling prospect – and Garnacho’s obvious displeasure at being benched for the final makes his exit look even more likely.
Chief executive Omar Berrada said, when announcing the last round of job cuts, that United’s financial projections were based on being in the Europa League, not the Champions League, for the next four years.
But now they have no European football at all, club staff – already sapped of morale – will fear even worse is to come.
Next season, the rest of the ‘Big Six’ will probably all be lording it in the Champions League along with Newcastle, while Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace are also primed for European competition.
Yet the club which dominated the English game for two decades under Sir Alex Ferguson are slipping into obscurity and irrelevance.
Much more of this and the unthinkable may soon be upon us – the day when supporters of other clubs start feeling sorry for Manchester United.
GettySir Jim Ratcliffe looked less than impressed after the match, with United now set to miss out on £100m worth of revenue[/caption] Creator – [#item_custom_dc:creator]
