United's Legion of the Lost

How bad has Manchester United's transfer activity been? Ask yourself: who was the last player they bought who got better during his time at Old Trafford?

“Where there is no vision, the people perish”

Proverbs, 29:18

There has, recently, been a minor backlash against philosophy managers. Which is understandable enough: there’s no point a side coming up from the Championship and sticking devoutly to the manager’s dogma if they’re ill-equipped to perform it at the highest level. A 5-0 defeat trying to play in an ideologically ‘pure’ way is still a 5-0 defeat.

But that is not to say that philosophies are in themselves bad. In fact, while playing styles should always be tempered by pragmatism, a vision is essential for a club. Who is it, what is it trying to be and how is it trying to get there? Not all visions are equal, and over-ambitious claims that an owner expects to have Darlington in the Champions League within a decade should be a huge red flag, but equally it’s only by having a clear view of itself and its future that a club can ensure all its many component parts are working in harmony. Just look at what happens when there is no clear plan.

Which brings us, once again, to Manchester United. It’s 12 years since Alex Ferguson left and 12 years since they last won the league. Becoming used to the reality day to day, the slow collapse, the loss of aura, there’s a danger of underestimating how astonishing the drop-off has been. They have gone from being perennial champions, from playing in three Champions league finals in four seasons between 2008 and 2011, to finishing fifteenth in the table.

Ferguson would take new players out onto the Old Trafford pitch and walk them round, explaining the history of the club, instilling a code of values, a sense of identity. What is that identity now? Once Ferguson left and the Glazers lost his steadying hand on the tiller, what remained? There was no vision anymore, just a grab-bag of ideas trialled for a few months and then discarded by people with seemingly no idea of the game. They would focus on youth, on Premier League experience, on data. They would employ a continuity Scot, an experienced veteran, a proven winner whose best days were behind him, a fresh-faced club icon, a German boffin, a stern Dutchman and now a charismatic Portuguese ideologue who has a clear philosophy, just one that unfortunately fits none of wildly mismatched players in his bloated and underperforming squad.

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My history of the World Cup, The Power and the Glory, is out in September. Order here. Or, for those who dislike Amazon, here.

On It Was What It Was, the football history podcast, we talk to Nick Purewal about the enforces sale of Chelsea after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned. Listen here.

On Libero, we come to some final conclusions about the Club World Cup. 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.

A new project with Tifo: an animation charting the entire history of football. Episode One is here.

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