Manchester United, a team once feared in both English and European football and at one point crowned the king of football, has now begun to fall from glory. The squad once fielded eight of 11 players in the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Best XI in the 2006-2007 season, including Edwin van der Sar, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo. But, the beginning of the end of this dominant era did not begin just a few years back.
Everyone has a different opinion on when Manchester United’s fall-off began. In my opinion, it was the day Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS Group took over football operations from the Glazer family on Feb. 20, 2024. While the decline in squad quality had already started years earlier, this is where the culture began to decline with both the players and fans.
The manager, one of the most important figures on a football team, has been a consistent issue for Manchester United. The constant carousel of managers has made it difficult for the squad to stick to one style and develop it. Over the past five years alone, including this season, the Red Devils have gone through seven different coaches, and 10 in the last 13 campaigns. This would not be as big of a problem if the team consistently found success, but for a club like Manchester United, success is a necessity. Since winning the league in the 2012-2013 season, United has finished second twice and third three times, while also finishing seventh, eighth, and 15th. The 15th-place finish in 2024-2025 was the club’s worst Premier League finish in franchise history. Even their trophy-winning seasons, including the Football Association Challenge (FA) Cup and League Cup in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, were overshadowed by poor league performances, especially the eighth-place finish in 2023-2024.
Being a club as big as Manchester United means attracting big-name transfers is rarely difficult. This was evident in the summer of 2025, when United brought in Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Å eÅ¡ko to create a new-look attack. The Premier League pointed out that their combined goals from the previous season were greater than United’s entire league goal total in 2024-2025. On paper, this seemed to be exactly what United needed. Mbeumo had established himself as one of Brentford’s best attackers, Cunha had proven he could create and score in the Premier League, and Å eÅ¡ko gave United the young, physical striker they had been missing. The problem has never necessarily been attracting talented players; it is what happens after they arrive. This is where I think United’s problems go deeper than simply having the wrong players. The club has spent years replacing individual pieces instead of consistently building one system. Every new manager brings different ideas, preferred players and styles of football. When the results do not come quickly enough, the manager is replaced and the process starts again. Players are constantly adapting instead of developing within one consistent system.
The arrival of INEOS was supposed to change that. When Ratcliffe’s deal was completed in February 2024, INEOS took control of football operations while the Glazer family remained majority owners. Ratcliffe described the project as an attempt to bring United back to the top of English and European football. New executives were brought in, the football department was reorganized and the club began taking a more structured approach to recruitment. Sky Sports reported that the new football operations team was focused on improving recruitment, selling players more effectively and operating more sustainably.
But rebuilding Manchester United is not like rebuilding an average Premier League club. There is an expectation that comes with wearing the red shirt that does not exist at most other clubs. At United, a bad month can become a major storyline, and a bad season can become a crisis. Every transfer is analyzed, every manager is questioned and every loss feels like another reminder of how far the club has fallen from the days of Alex Ferguson’s tenure. This pressure makes patience almost impossible. Manchester United fans are not used to rebuilding. They are used to winning. For decades, winning was not something the club hoped to do and was simply what Manchester United did.
This is probably the biggest difference between the Manchester United of the past and the Manchester United today. The old United had an identity that remained recognizable even as players changed. Ferguson’s teams were never exactly the same, but there was always a clear sense of what Manchester United was supposed to look like. Young players came through the academy, experienced players led them and the team played with an intensity that became almost synonymous with the club. Today, that identity is much harder to recognize. Manchester United has tried to recreate parts of that identity by investing in its academy and younger players. However, signing young talent is only one part of rebuilding a club. Those players still need a stable environment, a clear tactical system and enough time to develop together.
It all comes back to management. Manchester United has to decide what it wants to be before deciding who it wants to buy. If the club chooses a manager because of his style, recruitment needs to support that style. If that manager is fired a year later, United cannot simply start over with another group of players. Otherwise, the club will continue spending enormous amounts of money to solve problems that it keeps creating for itself.
Manchester United’s fall from the top was not caused by one bad transfer, manager or season. It has been the result of years of decisions that have slowly pushed the club away from the standards that once made it one of the most feared teams in the world. INEOS may eventually be able to change that, but fixing Manchester United will require more than spending money or replacing another manager. It will require creating an identity that players, coaches and fans can believe in again.
