Dynasties in disarray

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This article was published 29/10/2021 (1752 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An embarrassing defeat. A manager under fire. A midtable position at the quarter-mark of the season.

Are we talking about Manchester United? Yes. What about Barcelona? Yup, them too.

Both clubs — among the biggest in world football — have oscillated between mediocre and abysmal so far this term, and while they began their campaigns with rather different expectations it’s almost impossible to imagine either of them achieving their objectives.

For United, this meant at least challenging for Premier League honours and winning a trophy — any trophy at all.

Having tripped out of the League Cup at the first hurdle, their only chance at the latter is now the FA Cup. The title is surely gone, and the Champions League is a non-starter. And it’s not even November.

Anyone who didn’t see last weekend’s trouncing by Liverpool coming a mile away undoubtedly had the blinders on. United had barely seen off Atalanta midweek, but manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer nevertheless deployed the same system — and, crucially, the same back six — against the Reds.

What’s surprising is not that he didn’t learn his lesson, or has ever learned it, or has had the tactical nous to try something, anything, different, but rather that he’ll still be in charge when the Red Devils face Tottenham Hotspur in London on Saturday (11:30 a.m., DAZN, NBC).

This despite going winless in four matches—a run that has left United seventh in the standings—and overseeing an on-pitch setup that somehow gets more chaotic by the week.

What, exactly, do United do in training? And what, pray tell, was the board of directors thinking when they backed Solskjaer in Tuesday’s emergency meeting?

To the latter, we know that legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson as well as fellow board members Richard Arnold and Ed Woodward pled the Norwegian’s case before co-chairman Joel Glazer, who ended up taking their advice.

The thing is — and, again, it is painfully obvious — that nothing improves from here.

Can United win at Tottenham? Sure. Does that change the trajectory? Nope. And, really, it’s not even Solskjaer’s fault. He’s done what he could, he’s reached his managerial ceiling. But this is a clunky club that does nothing expeditiously, or, heaven forbid, proactively.

Antonio Conte is reportedly willing to take on the Old Trafford project—a pleasantly surprising development the board should jump at. And yet, nothing.

Nothing will change unless the share prices drop, in case anyone had any lingering doubt as to the priorities at the club.

You could almost forgive United fans for being jealous of Barcelona, who sacked their manager on Wednesday.

In the end, it was a 1-0 defeat at Rayo Vallecano that did in the embattled Ronald Koeman. Although the recent Clasico failure wouldn’t have helped, nor the humiliating loss to Benfica in the Champions League.

Not that the Dutchman was ever popular at Camp Nou.

His football hardly sizzled, he froze out certain players and he sometimes seemed incapable of making in-game adjustments when required. Following a late-season fade that conceded La Liga to Atletico Madrid last spring, club president Joan Laporta quite publicly scoured the landscape for a new head coach, rendering Koeman a lame duck.

It was contemporary Barcelona in a nutshell — that is, an incompetently-managed outfit that let Lionel Messi leave for nothing while paying bit players bloated contracts that will have the club in financial danger for the foreseeable future.

In a way, you can actually feel for Koeman.

Hired in the aftermath of Barcelona’s 8-2 destruction at the hands of Bayern Munich in a 2020 Champions League quarter-final, and taking over at a time when Messi was threatening to leave and Luis Suarez was being forced out, his tenure was never going to be a stable one — a sort of place-holder residency while a hopefully better, more long-term option was identified.

That option, as long rumoured, is almost certainly current Al Sadd manager and iconic Blaugrana midfielder Xavi Hernandez.

Upon his appointment, the 41-year-old will take over a team tasked with securing Champions League football, nevermind it presently sits ninth in the Spanish top flight.

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With the likes of Pedri, Gavi and Ansu Fati offering considerable promise for the future, Xavi’s project might seem on the surface to be an attractive one. But there is rot at this club, and it starts at the very top. Any near-term success for Barcelona will be achieved in spite of that reality.

The same goes for Manchester United.

These are two clubs that shouldn’t be where they are. And as necessary as managerial changes might be, they will only serve to cure a part of what is ailing them.

jerradpeters@gmail.com Twitter @JerradPeters