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Will Manchester United be great again?

Since the advent of the Premier League in 1992, Manchester United have dominated the landscape of English football. In the 27 completed seasons since, United have been crowned champions a staggering 13 times, finishing second on a further six occasions. However, since the retirement of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of the 2012/13 season, United have fallen off their perch. Having never finished lower than third in the Premier League under Ferguson, they have done exactly that in five of the six seasons since. Are the years of domination over or will Manchester United be great again? Here are our arguments for and against.

 

Will Manchester United be great again?

 

Yes, Manchester United WILL be great again

Will Manchester United be great again? Of course they will. It’s undeniable that errors have been made since Sir Alex retired but there are signs that the club are beginning to learn from them and are heading back to the top.

After some expensive and high profile flops, their recruitment has been fantastic under Ole Gunnar Solskjær. The Norwegian has overseen the signings of Daniel James, Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Bruno Fernandes and Odion Ighalo. It is difficult to argue that any of these have been anything other than a success.

Even Ighalo, whose signing was mocked as symptomatic of United’s decline when he joined, has been superb for the club, netting four goals in eight appearances which has led to United extending his loan spell.

The best signing of all though has been Fernandes who has slotted seamlessly into United’s midfield and won the Premier League Player of the Month award in his first month after joining. Such has been his impact that even the occasionally unmotivated Paul Pogba seems to have been enthused to play alongside him. He genuinely looks like the catalyst to take United to the next level and should help attract other big signings.

However, the biggest reason of all to suggest that United simply have to become great again is their global fanbase. They are comfortably the world’s most popular club and a 2019 report by Kantar indicated that United have an estimated 1.1 billion fans worldwide, 14% of the world’s population.

With such an absurdly large fanbase, it is no surprise that United are a financial juggernaut. A corporate giant, United are the masters of signing lucrative sponsorship deals across multiple industries. Their diverse list of corporate partners includes Chevrolet, Adidas, Cadbury, Deezer, DHL, Konami, Marriott Hotels, Remington, Tag Heuer and Visit Malta to name but a few.

Wealthy owners at other clubs come and go, United’s global appeal continues to broaden and it is just a matter of time until they are great again.

 

No, Manchester United WON’T be great again

Will Manchester United be great again? No, the glory days are over and anyone who believes otherwise is living in the past.

Manchester United’s dominance of English football ended with the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson and you only need to look at the seasons before and after his departure to see what an impact him leaving had.

In Ferguson’s final season, United won the league with 89 points, which was nine clear of Manchester City in second place. The following year, with largely the same squad but David Moyes at the helm, they finished 25 points worse off in seventh. Even Everton, the club who Moyes joined from, finished above them. Following in Ferguson’s footsteps was never going to be easy but United regressed so much, so quickly that other clubs have overtaken them.

Since then their managerial appointments have been disastrous. United have lurched wildly between the contrasting managerial styles of Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer. For over two decades United had a distinct style, strategy and ethos but now they have abandoned their identity. This is not something that can be said of their two most hated rivals, Liverpool and Manchester City, whose own philosophies have seen them streak past United.

As the season was postponed, Manchester City had been suffering their worst campaign for years but United were still 12 points behind them. The gap to Liverpool was an absurd 37 points.

Even United’s corporate strength is being overshadowed, such has been their demise. The latest Forbes list of the most valuable clubs in the world has seen United leapfrogged by Real Madrid, while City and Liverpool are closing in rapidly.

Additionally, while United were dominant in the 90s and 00s due to a lack of competition, an array of the world’s wealthiest people are snapping up rival Premier League clubs and making the league incredibly competitive. Chelsea’s takeover by Roman Abramovich started the trend but was overshadowed when Manchester City’s mega-rich owners arrived. Both are now set to be dwarfed by the imminent takeover of Newcastle United who could become the richest club in the world by a mile.

So will Manchester United be great again? They’ll always be a successful club but the competition is now far too fierce for them to ever dominate again. The Manchester United-era is over.

 


 

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