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Only once in the past decade have Manchester United dropped out the top three of the annual Deloitte Football Money League.
Even then, in 2014, they fell only to fourth place and swiftly rebounded, jostling with Barcelona and Real Madrid year-after-year for financial and commercial supremacy as they always do. As recently as 2018, they were the wealthiest club in world football.
The hundreds of millions of pounds United rake in from their global popularity each year gives the illusion they deserve to be considered among the very highest echelon of the game.
David de Gea and Harry Maguire react with dismay as Manchester United crashed out of the Champions League and into the Europa League on Tuesday night
United only needed one point from their final two group games to make the knockout rounds but lost them both, to Paris Saint-Germain and then RB Leipzig
Their exit will pile the pressure on manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but it’s just the latest setback in a Champions League slump that has lasted almost a decade now
Their dismal Champions League performance during that same decade paints a very different picture.
Since reaching the 2011 final, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s team lost to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona at Wembley, United have played seven Champions League campaigns.
In three of those, including the present one, they crashed out of the Champions League after the group stage and parachuted into the dubious consolation prize of the Europa League.
On the occasions United do make it into the Champions League knockout rounds, they typically don’t make it very far.
Since 2011, United have won just two knockout ties in the competition, against Olympiacos in 2013-14 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2018-19. And even then, they had to overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit in both.
Wayne Rooney scores for United in the 2011 Champions League final with Barcelona – this was the third season in four United reached the final of Europe’s top competition
United lost the 2011 final 3-1 to Barcelona but could be considered among Europe’s top clubs
They duly lost in the quarter-finals on both occasions. United just don’t cut it in the Champions League and haven’t measured up to Europe’s elite for quite some time now.
Once the conversation is moved away from revenue and legions of sponsors, can Manchester United as a football-playing club be considered one of the best in Europe? Not any more.
It’s certainly a far cry from the golden period that saw them reach three Champions League finals out of four between 2008 and 2011, winning one and losing the other two, both to an all-conquering Barcelona.
Back then, United had little problem overcoming opponents over two legs at the business end. Now, more often than not, they watch such games on television merely as envious spectators.
Tuesday night saw a fresh low. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side had complete control of their destiny after matchday two and matchday four of the group yet, requiring just one point from their final two games to qualify, they lost to both Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig.
As shocking as their defending was in Germany, United were left to rue a similar shambles at the back when they were surprisingly beaten by Istanbul Basaksehir in Turkey on matchday three.
That was the real reason they have bombed into the Europa League. Had they won or even drawn that game, they would have been home and dry with two games to spare.
But despite having the preferable side of the equation against Leipzig – only needing a point to qualify – they were completely outclassed for the most part with their latest late rally proving inadequate.
It’s tempting to use Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 as the breakwater when talking about United’s decline in Europe.
Sir Alex Ferguson guided United to three Champions League finals in four seasons
But the same United side bombed out to Basel a few months later and the rot set in
And, yes, their win ratio in the Champions League has dropped from 54.12 per cent over 194 games under Ferguson, or 61.33 per cent in his last seven seasons, to 45.71 per cent from 35 games under the four managers since.
In the same time span, former star Cristiano Ronaldo has outscored United 84-62 in Champions League matches.
But there is the caveat that their slump actually started on Ferguson’s watch. In 2011-12, just a few months after reaching that Wembley final, United were on course to make it through their group, sitting top after four matches.
They only managed a draw at home to Benfica and then surprisingly lost away to Basel to end up in the Europa League. Once there, they barely scraped past Ajax before being outclassed by Athletic Bilbao.
In 2012-13, Ferguson’s final season, they won their first four group games to secure top spot before losing dead rubbers to Galatasaray and Cluj with fringe teams.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored against United as they went out to Real Madrid in the 2012-13 season
Under David Moyes, United lost a quarter-final with Bayern Munich in the 2013-14 season
It had taken a Robin van Persie hat-trick to overturn an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Olympiacos in the last-16 – one of only two Champions League knockout ties United have won since 2011
They were rather unlucky to be paired with Real Madrid, who’d come second to Borussia Dortmund in their group, in the last-16 and any hope of one final Fergie fairytale ended.
David Moyes took United to the quarter-finals in 2013-14 though they had to overcome an embarrassing 2-0 defeat away to Olympiacos in the last-16 before finding themselves far inferior to Bayern Munich in the quarters.
Louis van Gaal returned them to the Champions League for 2015-16 but they made an absolute pig’s ear of the group, losing to PSV Eindhoven and, fatally, to Wolfsburg on matchday six.
Consigned to the Europa League, they fumbled past Midtjylland before losing to Liverpool in the round of 16.
Dejection all round as United lose to Wolfsburg and exit the 2015-16 Champions League
Manager Louis Van Gaal couldn’t bear to watch as United bombed into the Europa League
Jose Mourinho won the Europa League with United in 2016-17 but, even though the trophy completed the set of European honours for the club, it was no secret the real reward was a return to the Champions League.
Once there, United exited to Sevilla in the last-16 following a 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford, another opponent they should have been too strong for.
Solskjaer’s miracle in Paris in 2019 won him the manager’s job permanently but his team were outclassed by Barcelona in the next round and after Sevilla returned to haunt them in last season’s Europa League, their latest shambles sees them back there again.
Contrast that to the period between the Treble in 1999 and 2011, which saw United reach four Champions League finals, winning two of them, two semi-finals and four quarter-finals.
Nemanja Matic and Eric Bailly look dismayed as Sevilla eliminate Mourinho’s United in 2018
Solskjaer was handed the job after the win over PSG in 2019 but fortunes haven’t changed
Ed Woodward has overseen a period of commercial success for United but they have fallen away from European football’s elite on the pitch
Going deep in Europe’s top competition was par for the course at Old Trafford but standards have slipped dramatically.
Since 2011, United have watched as their principal rivals in the money league – Barca, Real and Bayern Munich – have lifted the trophy eight times between them.
And this decline comes against the backdrop of unprecedented spending on players – over £1billion since Ferguson’s retirement, which ushered in the Ed Woodward era at Old Trafford.
This enormous spending on big names may have helped fuel record commercial growth in recent years but United seem to be further away from European glory than at any point in the past 30 years.
This prolonged slump isn’t the fault of any one player or manager but goes much deeper. Perhaps a similar slump in the money league might prompt a change of direction.
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