We are a Europa League club now.
It's sad and crap and our standard has to go up. It has to stop being tolerated.
Tolerated by whom is the question though...I don't mean this to be confrontational, I agree with the sentiment but it's hard to quantify...
Tolerated by our support?
I don't see anyone being happy with dropping out of the Champions League at the group stages...depends what you mean by 'tolerate'. Should we stage a protest or a boycott or some sort of civil disobedience every time we end up in the Europa League? Do we ask for every manager who finishes outside of the top 4 or knocked out of the Champions League Group Stage to be sacked (we pretty much have and got nowhere)?
How do we show we won't tolerate it? I don't really fancy white handkerchiefs and booing every home game...but if not that how do we show our dissatisfaction? Rant on forums or social media? Like anyone at the club gives a feck?
Tolerated by our managers?
Do they just say feck it and play the reserves as a show of defiance? You're on dodgy ground if it backfires...and you'd have to say that the manager (unless new that season) has been in some way complicit in getting us in there as opposed to the Champions League....so would look a bit daft unless it was a genuine statement about squad size or quality...big gamble with your job mind you!
Tolerated by our players?
Players will not or should not refuse to play if picked...they would be destroyed for doing so. They could not join the club....but then they have that decision anyway. Nobody is holding a gun to their head to join United. If they are under long contract they can't leave...(unless there is some mad clause in their contract which would be pretty much suicidal).
Tolerated by our owners?
They have shown themselves to be entirely incompetent in pretty much every way apart from serving their own agenda...draining money out of the club, sticking United in a shed load of debt that was never necessary and getting an abundance of sponsorship deals from across the world. I would say that Woodward and The Glazers have made significant improvements to the commercial revenues of the club and its ability to diversify sponsorship and marketing opportunities on a global scale...but they have no great interest in United beyond that vehicle. Since Fergie left (who was holding their shoddy outfit together) they have made an abundance of piss poor decisions relating to the footballing side of things.
Should they sack every manager that fails to meet the grade? Well they have tbf...and it's got us nowhere. I wouldn't trust the fecking shithouses throughout the upper echelons of our football club to manage a fecking piss up in a brewery.
This is about more than the Europa League. It's about the structure of the football club from the top down. It's going to be tough to change without fundamentally changing that structure...and even then it's not going to be instant. It will probably see us at this level for further years whilst changes are made and come to fruition...which may not materialise for a number of reasons.
1. The owners have no desire to sell, and I am not overly sure there are too many viable buyers anyway in this climate.
2. Fan power is difficult in modern football and unless a significant rule change is made to ensure fan ownership models...that shows little sign of changing.
3. The only way we as fans can really demonstrate any great power away from the ownership model, is to disrupt the revenue streams as a whole in a very public way.
Mass boycott (which hasn't worked for various reasons), widespread civil disobedience at or outside the ground (which will never occur in high enough numbers...unless it does all that happens is it gets labelled as a 'mindless thug minority'...plus people have jobs/families and responsibilities they'd be putting in the firing line), or outwardly embarassing the clubs image to make it less desirable as a cash cow to the leeches to convince them it's not worth a bother.
All of these options would have to be backed by match going and non match going fans alike and sustained for a significant period of time. It seems very unlikely...
People seem convinced we need a director of football within the club structure, I agree in principle. However, if they are being appointed by the same dysfunctional higher ups, what guarantee is there they will get that right? What if it doesn't work after 2 or 3 years? Do they then get the sack and start all over again?
This club is either being run by people who don't care about the footballing side (or at best see it as secondary to their main aims), or have no great understanding of it but are so arrogant they think perceive that they do.
The scattergun approach to managerial appointments, transfers of players, the inexplicable offering of new contracts to players that offer no value to the club and the complete lack of any long term strategy is there for all to see...and this is what you get for that. It's not all on the owners of course (how ever much I can't stand the cnuts), managers, players etc have a significant portion of blame also.
A billion pounds odd has been thrown at transfers since Fergie left...with no great continuity or consistency of player or plan...and you can blame managers for that of course, but the overall strategy comes from the club. It's not simply a complaint of money spent, it's a complaint that it's been dispersed poorly...whilst allowing other players of value to simply run down a contract and leave for free (Herrera) or selling for peanuts.
At the end of the day though, you need a solid structure with the footballing interests of the club at the forefront. Our ability to win trophies (or compete at the highest level consistently) hasn't really hit their business model, money in their bank accounts or the level of sponsorship they have managed to acquire to achieve it.
