{"id":399169,"date":"2026-01-10T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/399169\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T11:55:08","slug":"manchester-uniteds-retrotopia-dooms-them-to-repeat-the-same-mistakes-again-and-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/399169\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United\u2019s retrotopia dooms them to repeat the same mistakes again and again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before yet another of Gary Neville\u2019s former team-mates, Darren Fletcher, prepared to take charge of his first game as interim head coach of Manchester United, the Sky commentator and pundit said United\u2019s start to 2026 has been \u201clike a movie that we\u2019ve all seen before\u201d.<\/p>\n

Neville mentioned Groundhog Day, an appropriate choice, and yet the doom loop in Groundhog Day does end when (spoiler alert) Bill Murray\u2019s character, Phil Connors, becomes a better person.<\/p>\n

In the 12 and a half years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired and the two since Sir Jim Ratcliffe assumed control of the club\u2019s football operations, United have evidently not become a better football club.<\/p>\n

In the days after Ruben Amorim\u2019s sacking, attention has returned to United\u2019s identity. Who are they? What do they want to be? Rather than Groundhog Day, they have, as a club, started to resemble one of the many podcasts made by members of the Class of 92, inviting on one former team-mate after another to take a turn reminiscing about the good old days from the dugout as much as in the recording studio.<\/p>\n

The football leadership team assembled by the Glazers and, more recently, Ratcliffe may as well be producers of The Overlap. \u201cShall we book Giggsy in this week? Carrick? How about Fletch? Ole was on recently, wasn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n

Who knew Sir Alex\u2019s legacy would be preparing a generation of players for a future as caretakers and content creators?<\/p>\n

Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt recently laid out the essence of United on their podcast The Good, The Bad and The Football. It\u2019s about risk-taking. Going for the throat. United can\u2019t settle for a 1-0. They go for a second, a third, a fourth. 4-4-2, not three at the back. Attack, attack, attack! That\u2019s United. This isn\u2019t. He is. He\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

When asked if they\u2019d take Roy Keane as the club\u2019s next \u2018manager\u2019 \u2014 a key distinction \u2014 both replied: \u201cYes.\u201d Keane\u2019s last managerial job, apart from assisting Martin O\u2019Neill with the Republic of Ireland, came at Ipswich. He was sacked from that role in 2011 when Sir Alex was still managing United.<\/p>\n

But at this rate, why not Keane? Why not make Patrice Evra his assistant? Neville \u201cwouldn\u2019t not\u201d have Solskjaer back, providing the club runs a proper process to hire someone in the summer.<\/p>\n

That was the intention in 2018, but the clamour for Solskjaer to be given the job permanently reached such a pitch after a 3-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain that the noise drowned out judgement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan United might not thank me,\u201d Rio Ferdinand said on BT Sport. \u201cBut get the contract out, put it on the table, let him sign it, let him write whatever numbers he wants, given what he\u2019s done now since he\u2019s come in\u2026 Ole\u2019s at the wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yessss Ole is officially at The Wheel\u2026 Signed, Sealed, Delivered! Manager of @ManUtd<\/a>! \ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffd I hope my Thank You is in post Ole \ud83e\udd23\ud83d\udcdd\u2764\ufe0f #MUFC<\/a> #Ole<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/lUUel4f6zw<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) March 28, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n

True to form, after Amorim\u2019s sacking, Ferdinand tweeted: \u201cI would go De Zerbi\/Tuchel \/Xavi or Darren Fletcher if does well.\u201d<\/p>\n

United\u2019s past is always at the wheel. As a club, they exist in a \u2018retrotopia\u2019, which sociologist Zygmunt Bauman defined as a tendency among people who are insecure and dissatisfied with the modern world to look for a solution to their problems in the days of yore. They are prisoners of the past.<\/p>\n

As such, United are pure Hitchcockian cinema.<\/p>\n

In Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s film Rebecca, wealthy widow Maxim de Winter marries again and moves his new bride to Manderley, his English country estate. The house is overwhelmed, however, by the lingering presence of Maxim\u2019s first wife, Rebecca. Her handwriting and initials are everywhere. Her routines are maintained by the housekeeper. Everyone speaks of her as the most beautiful woman, the greatest. Maxim even tries to dress his new wife in Rebecca\u2019s clothes.<\/p>\n

It is a story about the past tyrannising the present and how constant comparisons shape and affect identity. Only when Manderley burns down can the protagonists start anew.<\/p>\n

If the same narrative device holds true of United, it will only be when they leave Old Trafford, the Theatre of Memes, for a new stadium that things will change.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not dwell on fiction.<\/p>\n

There is, after all, nothing wrong with what Jose Mourinho called \u201cfootball heritage\u201d. Down the road at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola used to complain his club didn\u2019t have enough of it to call upon, particularly on European nights when United and Real Madrid could reach back into the past for belief. These intangibles seemed to make the amazing routine.<\/p>\n

United, for too long, have appeared overwhelmed by their history rather than inspired by it.<\/p>\n

They have to stop thinking like United, or at least always referring back to what worked for them under Ferguson. Back then, their identity wasn\u2019t bound up in concepts like 4-4-2, wingers and attack, attack, attack. It was bound up in Ferguson himself, but, at 84, he isn\u2019t going to be in the technical area again, chewing gum and pointing at his watch. That United\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

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\n \u2018Fergie time\u2019 seems a long time ago (Andrew Yates\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In Italy, Milan went through the same problems under former owner Silvio Berlusconi. They made Leonardo, Clarence Seedorf and then Pippo Inzaghi coach in the forlorn belief that one of them might be a younger version of Fabio Capello or Carlo Ancelotti.<\/p>\n

None of them were and Milan, based in a league that didn\u2019t have the growth mindset of the Premier League, entered the wilderness without the safety net of more and more TV money.<\/p>\n

They only emerged out of it when new owners were able to persuade Paolo Maldini, who came back to the club as a technical director, to think not in terms of what worked for Milan decades ago, but what works for a club now.<\/p>\n

That meant no longer using Berlusconi\u2019s Milan as the one and only reference point. It meant being humble enough to look at upwardly mobile teams such as Dortmund and Atalanta, shopping where these teams shopped, not with a Ballon d\u2019Or shortlist in hand, and learning from them while also trying to stay true to Milan.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t an easy process. In fact, it was far from perfect, but in 2022, Milan won the league after 11 years and reached a Champions League semi-final without anywhere near the resources available to United.<\/p>\n

If Ratcliffe\u2019s leadership team were to bring back Solskjaer, Carrick or Ruud Van Nistelrooy \u2014 all in the running for the caretaker role<\/a>, having all done it previously \u2014 how could they claim to be any different from United\u2019s much maligned executive setup that pre-dated their acquisition of a minority stake?<\/p>\n

It smacks of trying to signal that they\u2019re in touch with United\u2019s \u2018identity\u2019, but only underlines that they are out of touch with what a modern football club needs to be successful.<\/p>\n

Upon listening to Jamie Redknapp make the case for United to go, right this minute, and get Andoni Iraola from Bournemouth, fellow Sky pundit Tim Sherwood cheekily asked if Bournemouth should hire Solskjaer to replace him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not,\u201d Redknapp replied. \u201cNo one else in the Premier League would. We like Ole, everyone likes Ole. But if he was that\u2026(good)\u2026 why hasn\u2019t he got a job in the Premier League since he\u2019s left?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Are Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (left) or Michael Carrick really right options for United? (Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

At a stretch, Fletcher as interim interim and, potentially, Solskjaer or Carrick as permanent interim could be defended as a logical short-term fix.<\/p>\n

But all of this suggests Amorim\u2019s dismissal was unplanned, despite Ratcliffe telling The Times Business podcast as recently as October that the Portuguese \u201cneeds to demonstrate that he\u2019s a great coach over three years\u201d. Asked if that meant he\u2019d get the three years, he replied: \u201cYes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ratcliffe also cited Arsenal in his thinking, pointing out that Mikel Arteta had \u201ca miserable time the first couple of years\u201d. Arsenal stood by him. United gave up on Amorim.<\/p>\n

At least Amorim departed on his own terms, as a manager not a head coach (would Ferguson have accepted anything less?), having taken them to sixth place and on track for Champions League qualification. They had injuries, too, and players away at AFCON.<\/p>\n

None of which is to say United should have stuck with him. But if you make that decision this early, with 18 league games remaining, the obvious question is why you wouldn\u2019t at least appoint someone who offers greater assurance of a strong finish than a coach whose experience is confined to United\u2019s under-18s (Fletcher), one who was sacked by Besiktas after losing to one of Ratcliffe\u2019s other clubs, Lausanne, in the Conference League (Solskjaer), a man who earned plaudits in the Championship with Middlesbrough but only finished in the top six once in three seasons (Carrick), and another who helped contribute to Leicester\u2019s slump to relegation last season (Van Nistelrooy).<\/p>\n

Are they a better bet than Amorim?<\/p>\n

In 2024, Roberto De Zerbi had his own press conference moments at Brighton that seemed as provocative, if not more so, than anything Amorim or Enzo Maresca recently said. He questioned the ambition of the owner. He wanted to know the \u201cTony plan\u201d \u2014 a reference to owner Tony Bloom \u2014 because \u201cif I don\u2019t feel comfortable, I don\u2019t feel the right motivation, I can\u2019t stay any longer\u201d.<\/p>\n

That was in March. Did Brighton fire him there and then? Did they make Adam Lallana interim coach? No. They kept De Zerbi until the end of the season and then made their move.<\/p>\n

Chelsea\u2019s appointment of Liam Rosenior is at least understandable in terms of his work within the BlueCo network, which begs the question of why Ratcliffe\u2019s own multi-club operation could not provide United with a wider network to tap into.<\/p>\n

Nice, for instance, have fired Franck Haise and, fair enough, you could quibble with bringing him in and scoff at his profile. But Haise did lead Lens to the Champions League for the first time in 20 years, finished one point behind PSG in 2023, and did, to pluck a one-off game out of the ether, oversee a 2-1 win over Arteta\u2019s Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Are these achievements any less impressive than what Iraola got up to at Rayo Vallecano, Oliver Glasner at Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt, or Regis Le Bris at Lorient?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a United manager\u201d is a familiar refrain, but nobody is these days.<\/p>\n

Could United not, for instance, hire an Edin Terzic or Thiago Motta until the end of the season and then review in June?<\/p>\n

You will have your opinion on whether such candidates are right or wrong for United. The point is that there are options.<\/p>\n

And besides, is it really beneficial to wait for someone to become available after the biggest and therefore longest World Cup ever, when pre-season will be shorter?<\/p>\n

Can United be trusted to get the appointment right then, anyway, after the decision to retain Erik ten Hag and hire Dan Ashworth and Amorim?<\/p>\n

And is there really a lack of top-class managers up for grabs for Premier League clubs in 2026, as my colleague Michael Cox argues<\/a>? Is it not also the case that English clubs have become very prescriptive, perhaps too narrow, in what they want \u2014 a coach, not a manager. Someone who prepares the players for games and is also prepared to stay in their lane.<\/p>\n

The club has to come first. Recruitment, for instance, can\u2019t exclusively be run by the coach. Otherwise, you get something approximating Ten Hag\u2019s team at Old Trafford; Ajax reunited, an Eredivisie side expected to compete in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

Surely, though, there has to be some compromise, an acceptance that a top-class manager will challenge and provoke his employers every bit as he challenges and provokes the players, particularly if he is the only one facing media questions about decisions taken by people above him.<\/p>\n

In the meantime at United, the doom loop clicks on and on and on. How did Albert Einstein define insanity, again? Wasn\u2019t it the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?<\/p>\n