No end in sight for gloom at Old Trafford

If last season was about learning lessons for Manchester United, they need to act on them – and do so fast

There is nothing in football more fascinating than failure. You can admire a good side, relish improvement and innovation, be moved by the euphoric tears of celebrating fans, particularly when they are unused to success, but there is nothing that so stirs the soul as seeing a giant falter: the sense of confusion and disbelief, everybody asking, “how can this be happening to us?” The unravelling of a great side highlights just how difficult teambuilding can be, even for the megarich; it is the darkness by which light can shine. Clubs are delicate mechanisms; the best teams are put together with money, yes, but also with understanding, both tactical and emotional, ingenuity and often a deal of luck.

Usually the Schadenfreude feels largely guilt-free: ah, they’re too big to fail, they’ll be back soon enough. Which is what makes what is happening at Manchester United feel so odd. For the first time probably since the late eighties, it feels unlikely they will finish in the top five, very possible they won’t even be top 10. The creeping sense that this might not be a temporary dip has calcified into a widespread conviction that this crisis isn’t ending any time soon. They really are this bad, and nothing that has happened so far this summer suggests any improvement anytime soon. United’s chief executive Omar Berrada insists he still believes in “Project 150”, by which United hope to win the Premier League by the club’s 150th anniversary in 2028, but that looks inexplicably optimistic.

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On It Was What It Was, the football history podcast, we look back 100 years at Herbert Chapman retaining the league title with Huddersfield. Listen here.

On Libero, we ask if football is too big. Listen here.

Issue 57 of The Blizzard is out now, featuring Ivica Osim and the death of Yugoslavia, football in Cornwall, how punk was shaped by terrace chants, the development of the Bhutanese league and the Liverpool striker who lost a leg and became a stunt diver. Buy here.

And, ever wanted the history of football tactics explained in one gorgeous poster? Or the Premier League as Fibonacci sequence? Then you’re in luck. Buy here.

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