Exit adds to post-Fergie woes
Print Edition
FEW Manchester United fans thought life after Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford would be easy but fewer would have imagined the possibility of a second successive season without any silverware and devoid of Champions League football.
Monday’s 1-2 home defeat by Arsenal, which ousted United from the FA Cup, means United faces the longest trophyless run since the early days of Ferguson’s silverware-laden era.
Ferguson, who succeeded Ron Atkinson in 1986 after the latter lifted the FA Cup in 1985, barely kept his job during his first four barren years in charge but continued in the hot seat when he ended the drought by winning the competition in 1990.
Ferguson’s fellow Scot and successor David Moyes lasted less than a season and was sacked last year when it became clear United would miss out on any European competition, with Ryan Giggs briefly taking over the reigns before handing them over to Louis van Gaal. Heavy spending by the Dutchman has resulted in little improvement as United continued to look a side vulnerable at the back, bereft of ideas in midfield and lacking firepower up front against opposition of any quality.
Having enjoyed consistent results which flattered its performances largely thanks to superb goalkeeping by David de Gea, United paid the price for the many chinks in its armor in Premier League defeats by Southampton and Swansea City before the FA Cup fiasco.
Although in no immediate danger of following in Moyes’s footsteps through the exit door, van Gaal must be revisiting some of his transfer decisions although he put on a brave face in the wake of his reject Danny Welbeck putting his former club to the sword.
“It was a surprise that Wenger put him in the lineup in that position,” he said after Welbeck, deemed surplus to requirements after misfiring Colombian Radamel Falcao was hauled in on loan from Monaco, struck an opportunist second-half winner.
“Also, a lot of times against the club who a player was playing for, he shall be very motivated. But I think we gave that goal particularly.”
With Chelsea and Manchester City seemingly poised to fight it out for the Premier League title, United now has only a top-four finish to play for and with games against all its main rivals yet to come in the home straight, van Gaal will feel the heat.
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