Given Manchester United’s storied Premier League history, it has been a dark and difficult time for them since Sir Alex Ferguson hung up his hairdryer but the 2024/25 campaign has become utterly bizarre for the Old Trafford outfit.
With two games remaining in the current domestic season, new manager Ruben Amorim has overseen a mare in the league and they could very easily finish in either their current 16th place in the top flight division, or even down in 17th and had the three sides in the bottom three not been so atrocious this year, it could easily have been worse.
But they are also preparing for a Europa League Final against fellow strugglers Tottenham Hotspur, and in amongst all the previous player fallouts and Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s determination to cut costs, they have announced this week that there will be no formal celebrations even if they lift the trophy.
With staff numbers and ambassador roles being cut, normal employee freebies have also been slashed and basically a day after the announcement that the club were not planning on holding a parade should they taste European success (and would instead simply hold a barbeque at their Carrington training base instead), they have again confirmed that the end of season awards dinner for players has again been scrapped for the second successive year.
Whilst there will certainly be those fans out there who concur it has not been a season to celebrate, a European success would be and the end of season gig is also for the Women’s team (have qualified for the Champions League and could lift the FA Cup) and their youth sides, and allied to no European parade, fans will certainly be questioning the choices.
Particularly on the back of prior cost cutting measures which have also included redundancies, the removal of free staff lunches and players being limited to two free Final tickets (and having to sort their own travel for family and friends for additional tickets purchased), whilst knowing they jet out almost immediately to Asia for a double header of post game friendlies ahead of the international commitments.
In some ways the timing could not have been worse as the latest ‘cost trimming’ has coincided with the news that Dan Ashworth could be set to return to his job at the Football Association, and all in that failed experiment is reported to have cost the club and eye watering £4.1 million for just a paltry five months of work.
The 2025/26 season could be a very interesting one to watch for neutrals.