How have we done post-Fergie, in your assessment?

[Fortitude]

Seeing it like this in the ETH thread, it was pretty stark. Courtesy of @DSG

Since 2013 post SAF

United Trophies:

FA Cup: 2015-15
League Cup: 2022-23, 2016-17
Europa League: 2016-17

Addendum: 2017-'18*, 2020-'21*

* 2nd place finishes; if City duly punished, potential winners of those seasons.

This is the full list of clubs and trophies won in the post-Fergie era

----

Given all that has gone on and the upheaval we've had as a club, how would you assess this period, accepting it to be one of the famed United slumps between success periods?

For further reference, these are the intervening years between Busby and Ferguson (1969-1986):

Division 2 Champions: 1974-75
FA Cup: 1976-77, 1982-83, 1984-85

 

[Bastian]

Given the dominance of the club globally, the commercial income, the aura established throughout the previous two decades, I would give the running of the club since SAF retired a 0/10. The way the team has performed, given what could have been expected a 3/10. We're improving a lot though.

 

[Blood Mage]

It's been about as bad as it could have been really if not worse at times. The Glazers and their complete lack of a plan on how to move forward without Fergie fecked us for a decade.

 

[Pexbo]

It's been about as bad as it could have been really if not worse at times. The Glazers and their complete lack of a plan on how to move forward without Fergie fecked us for a decade.

It actually hasn’t. It’s been bad but it could have been 10x worse.

 

[Alpha 1]

As someone who has only known United since the Premier league was formed, it has been a disaster. The lack of planning was obvious.

 

[Pughnichi]

The club relied on SAFs brilliance too long. He did everything…and held it together entirely. Once gone it crumbled.

The club has to take accountability for that. Moyes…for all his faults…when he arrived couldn’t believe how archaic (for example) the scouting system was. Reason being it was completely controllled by and all in SAFs head.

we were already behind other clubs who had structures in place and what has followed thereafter has been abysmal.

the lack of standard procedures added to Woodward playing fantasy football, it was a recipe for disaster.

it’s as bad as it could have possibly been.

other clubs lose managers. Big names. But they often tick over quite nicely.

the club must have known they operated differently to other epl powerhouses. They should have been doing much more to ensure a smooth transition. They just thought replacing like for like was the answer. How wrong they were

here’s hoping ineos get it right and put us back on track

 

[Robbie Boy]

I mean, given where we were, it's been very fecking bleak.

However, given how absolutely terribly we've been run, appointed managers and bought players - it's amazing that we've won 4 trophies, and had 2 x 2nd placed finishes and 2 x 3rd place finishes. There's also been a fair few Cup Final defeats too.

 

[Wilt]

Over £1billion spent and not even considered a top 4 club

 

[Irwin99]

It's been absolutely hideous if you consider where the club was and how we were perceived as the same level or thereabouts as Real Madrid, Bayern, Barca etc. when Sir Alex left.

I remember one United season review that said "to go one season without the league title was unacceptable, to go two was unthinkable". Obviously a bit of hyperbole but that mentality at the club was just elite. Often the seasons where we lost leagues were on goal difference or by single point. Ridiculous.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

Relative to the club's resources, spending, and overall standing in the game, I'd agree with the 0/10 appraisal.

 

[Son]

Possibly the worst run big club in the history of the sport for a decade we’ve been that poor.

Like others have said this club is a worldwide phenomenon. The fact we haven’t won a league title in 10 years is more impressive than winning one.

It’s failure of the absolute highest order. 2/10 considering we won a few trophies though and second placed finishes.

 

[spwd]

Is this really a question that needed asking?

 

[Leftback99]

Very difficult to have done worse for the money spent.

 

[Plant0x84]

Seeing it like this in the ETH thread, it was pretty stark. Courtesy of @DSG

Since 2013 post SAF

United Trophies:

FA Cup: 2015-15
League Cup: 2022-23, 2016-17
Europa League: 2016-17

Addendum: 2017-'18*, 2020-'21*

* 2nd place finishes; if City duly punished, potential winners of those seasons.

This is the full list of clubs and trophies won in the post-Fergie era

----

Given all that has gone on and the upheaval we've had as a club, how would you assess this period, accepting it to be one of the famed United slumps between success periods?

For further reference, these are the intervening years between Busby and Ferguson (1969-1986):

Division 2 Champions: 1974-75
FA Cup: 1976-77, 1982-83, 1984-85

Is this a serious question? How have we done? Really? I think the evidence speaks for itself and a few minor trophies won’t cover that up.
Also don’t pay attention to anything @DSG posts about tenHag, he is so blinkered against the manager it renders his opinion worthless.

 

[TsuWave]

Fell off incredibly hard

 

[Shake Jism]

2/10.

 

[fps]

Obviously disastrous. We were the top club and had every chance to stay there regardless of challengers. An appalling fall.

 

[T00lsh3d]

fecking awful?

 

[JB08]

Pretty much as bad as it realistically could've gone.

 

[Judas]

Shit? What other answer is there. I expected a dip, but the lows and standard we've ended up dropping to is genuinely unforgivable really.

 

[stefan92]

United is the only club in the top leagues that failed to convert a pretty dominant financial position into a proportional amount of titles.

So... terrible would be my rating in one word.

 

[Jersey Heel]

Could have been worse. The ground could have opened up and swallowed Old Trafford.

 

[Captmfla]

It's decent if you did not count the money spent on transfers. United is always playing for UCL qualification and almost every manager won trophies except for Ole who choked in semi-finals or finals.

 

[DSG]

Is this a serious question? How have we done? Really? I think the evidence speaks for itself and a few minor trophies won’t cover that up.
Also don’t pay attention to anything @DSG posts about tenHag, he is so blinkered against the manager it renders his opinion worthless.

Is this a serious question? How have we done? Really? I think the evidence speaks for itself and a few minor trophies won’t cover that up.
Also don’t pay attention to anything @DSG posts about tenHag, he is so blinkered against the manager it renders his opinion worthless.

Not to turn this into another ETH thread, but in the interest of discourse, the reason you think my opinion is worthless is because I said I thought ETH was a mediocre manager and proceeded to list reasons why. You have a different opinion, I guess you think ETH is a great manager. You still haven’t directly refuted or addressed my post, which was pretty comprehensive, with any kind of stats, reasoning, anything… didn’t even bring up injuries or the Glazers which would’ve been something.

By the way, feck off. It’s a forum. We share opinions. I don’t make sweeping statements about your contributions, and I’ll kindly thank you for not making sweeping statements about mine. Especially just because we disagree on one single topic.

 

[pocco]

It actually hasn’t. It’s been bad but it could have been 10x worse.

Theoretically, yes. But nobody apart from the scousers thought we'd drop off so badly for at least 10 years. And if you told somebody that would be the case and that we'd spend billions on players in the process, they'd have thought you were insane. Yet here we are. It's been a disaster

 

[JoeyJoJoJrShabadoo]

Incredibly poor some seasons, ok other reasons. Hodge podge system for recruitment of players and managers. We are lucky we haven't been finishing lower than 7th in all honesty

 

[noodlehair]

In my assessment: Bad

 

[eire-red]

Not only did we underperform on the pitch, but it felt as well that we lost our identity as a football club. That has been one of the hardest things to take.

I remember Souness comparing United now to what he played in the 80's. Obviously Liverpool were dominant, much like City, but I remember him saying that United were still a good side for the most part. They'd beat us at Anfield, we'd do them at OT. Now we just seem to get rolled over by all the top teams way too often.

Having said that, I like that you put in the trophy haul post Busby too, because it shows how barren that period was as well. Was nice to get a couple FA Cup wins, and I don't know our average position in the league, but I believe it was a bit inconsistent and we had a good few managerial changes.

I think it shows that it can be quite difficult for a club to regain what it has lost when someone like Sir Alex or Busby leaves. Liverpool felt it too I suppose with Paisley and Dalglish, but they weren't there as long as Sir Alex and it still took them so long to get back on track, with a few sporadic cups here and there.

The only thing different for us has been the money spent and size of the club. It has been a sheer failure of management given our resources, but I think all sport has shown that these boom-bust periods of dominance are quite common. Modern media narrative has blown it out of proportion in my opinion.

Even if we had all the proper structures and better recruitment, I still think Pep would be dominating English football. Not to say that as an excuse, we should be challenging better, but maybe the trophy haul would still have been sparse.

 

[Sassy Colin]

In my assessment: Bad

Isn't that a bit too obvious/simplistic, if accurate?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

2/10

 

[Carolina Red]

Poorly. The club has yet to develop an identity on the pitch. Unless lacking an identity has become our identity.

 

[Offside]

Club is way off its potential but we haven’t even had 1 season out of the CL and have won multiple trophies. Other non oil big clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool have been on worse runs in the past 15 years with nowhere near as bigger highs as we experienced under Fergie. It could get a lot worse.

 

[DrRodo]

I cant imagine real madrid or barcelona having a 10 year run as poor as ours. The glazers really f*ck us epic style

 

[UnofficialDevil]

0/10

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Any other club, other Real or Barcelona, would've been run into the ground if they had to endure utter the mess we've experienced under the Glazers. The fact that we've not fallen into obscurity is a testament to how strong we are.

Everything will turn out fine in the end. Football has changed and I'm not expecting dominance in the same manner that Sir Alex led us to, but we'll be back as contenders in this modern era - make no mistake about that.

 

[1988]

Pretty shite. Thanks a lot Woodward you nob.

 

[neverdie]

Shite to be concise.

Mourinho not being backed fully second season still sits with me. Had just won some trophies, had to go insane over a winger who later went on to have a great season.

 

[Galactic]

This is a question that does not need to be asked. We all know the answer to it. A better question would be: who are we blaming it for? Even that is a dumb question. Not sure what OP wanted to achieve here that hasn’t been debated/talked about to death already.

 

[RedBanker]

It's bad beyond words can describe. More than a decade later, and we have not yet made a single worthwhile managerial appointment. We have spent billions but don't have any WC players in our team as on date. All this while our rivals have pulled further away from us. Even fecking Arsenal.

 

[P-Nut]

Its obviously been shite, but I was surprised to see that only Chelsea and City have won more trophies than us since Fergie retired. Obviously if City hadn't been so dominant the others would have won more, but that would also mean we'd won the league twice in the time period.

The reason we are looked at as a shambles and none of the other big clubs are is simply prestige, we are expected to come out on top every single year, so when we don't it's a failure.