AS torrential rain lashed down on Bilbao in the early hours of this morning, the forecast for Old Trafford looked bleaker than ever.
’s bullet-ridden squad and their weather-beaten supporters made their retreat from the Basque country with a chilling prospect ahead.
Because, while almost half of the will compete in Europe next season – six of them in the – United’s players will be on their sofa watching Corrie.
For only the second time in 35 years, will not host continental competition next term – a reduced workload which might just help United avoid relegation.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, then it is not a major one.
United are so bad that the three clubs promoted from the must regard them as potential rivals in the top-flight drop zone next term.
For a second consecutive summer, and his crew will be backing a failing manager in the transfer market – hoping against hope that their decision to stick by does not backfire on them like last year’s gamble on .
Whoever lost Wednesday night’s Final knew they would be heading into a pit of despair and after , it is the Red Devils who face a hellish summer.
This is a team which has managed to lose four times in one season to the worst side in half a century – failing to score in three of those meetings.
It was clear from that shocking display in Bilbao, as well as their form throughout the club’s disastrous campaign, that United do not even have the foundations to build a successful team.
Their £72million centre-forward, , barely looks like a Championship-level player, their keeper is a liability, they are desperately lacking in creativity going forward and are frequently undone by basic defensive errors.
And Amorim, despite the sky-high reputation he had forged at , is not even getting the best out of the rag-tag squad he does have at his disposal.
The Portuguese is too dogmatic in his 3-4-3 system – and needs a major summer overhaul to build a squad which suits it.
But, against Spurs, he also got his team selection badly wrong.
Choosing over the pacey on the left of his front three was a glaring error – and the to that decision lays bare the lack of collective spirit inside Amorim’s squad.
United are most certainly not united.
Garnacho described their season as ‘s**t’, while Amorim was .
The manager’s selection of in a deep midfield role saw the captain gifting possession frequently in dangerous areas – including in the build-up to Tottenham’s goal.
Fernandes is United’s one obvious elite footballer but he did not show up in Bilbao. And Amorim didn’t help matters by selecting him as part of his central midfield two, rather than further forward.
The Portuguese is wanted by Saudi Pro-League bosses and to raise funds.
Ineos chief Ratcliffe has stated that United must pay a further £89m this summer in instalments on players brought before he arrived at the club.
Now, without any income from European competition, the transfer budget will be thinner still.
A deal is in place to but the hot-headed Portuguese attacking midfielder will cost £62.5million and has missed six matches through suspension since January.
striker is now more likely to join than United but a striker has to be a priority given that it is becoming genuinely cringeworthy to watch Hojlund play.
It all means that United may have to cash in on homegrown players such as Garnacho and – two of the club’s most promising stars – in order to strengthen while complying with PSR regulations.
For a club rightly proud of its record of promoting from the youth system, that is a galling prospect – and Garnacho’s obvious displeasure at being benched for the final makes his exit look even more likely.
Chief executive Omar Berrada said, when announcing the last round of job cuts, that United’s financial projections were based on being in the Europa League, not the Champions League, for the next four years.
But now they have no European football at all, club staff – – will fear even worse is to come.
Next season, the rest of the ‘Big Six’ will probably all be lording it in the Champions League along with , while , and are also primed for European competition.
Yet the club which dominated the English game for two decades under are slipping into obscurity and irrelevance.
Much more of this and the unthinkable may soon be upon us – the day when supporters of other clubs start feeling sorry for Manchester United.
