It's interesting, over our down period we've come 2nd and won a few cups. We've had exciting football at times, comebacks, crazy European nights. We've signed big flashy signings and seen unknown youngsters step in and tear it up. We've had academy youth pop up from nowhere and excite us, breaking records in the process. We've had a club legend make us dream again and put a smile back on our faces. For a down period, it really hasn't been all that bad in hindsight.
The problem though, is that through it all, there's been a narrative that it's all not good enough. Nothing and no one's ever good enough until we win one of the big 2. Yes, this is partly down to expectations from a big club, but it's also partly media driven and it really fuels a lot of the negativity.
So IMO, until we either:
(i) win the Prem/ Champions League,
(ii) have a good media manipulator à la SAF, or
(iii) decide to ignore the media's doom mongering
we won't be able to truly enjoy the accomplishments of the team, which heaps more pressure on Man Utd as a whole, playing and coaching staff alike.