Darren Fletcher and Mikel Arteta (Photo by Michael Regan, Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
It’s back to the drawing board – again – for Manchester United in this post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, with the sacking of Ruben Amorim and heated debate over what’s next.
I’m not the only one who watches it all and immediately thinks of a viral clip posted by comedian Michael Spicer…*checks notes* seven years ago. You’ve probably seen it pop up many times over the past seven years, as it somehow remains as true now as it did at any time then, and is perhaps the best summary of what Manchester United are about, and perhaps, by extension, how they think of themselves.
“This is Manchester United Football Club we’re talking about here, you know, Manchester United Football Club. One of the biggest football clubs, you know, in the world.”
All the football pundits are talking about Man Utd. pic.twitter.com/78Pnt5RJjl
— Michael Spicer (@MrMichaelSpicer) November 2, 2019
Why does this ring true? Because for all the talk of Manchester United’s ‘DNA’ and needing to get back to their roots, to the ‘Manchester United Way’, it all rings hollow. Am I alone in thinking that there is simply no such thing as Manchester United DNA?
That’s not an insult, by the way, because if you ask most fans around the world which clubs have their DNA, the two that stand out are Ajax and Barcelona. It is no coincidence that the two are linked by the legend Johan Cruyff, who played for and managed both clubs, and whose philosophy still applies decades later.
There are many great football clubs that have a lot to be proud of in their history, and Man United is one of them, but no one else can honestly say that they have stayed true to one philosophy for so long. Apart from the Sir Alex Ferguson era, United are probably equal to the likes of Aston Villa in terms of standing in English football.
There’s a reason you’ve never heard of ‘Ferguson football’
And, most importantly, Ferguson himself was not a person who was married to one philosophy – in his 26 years in charge at Old Trafford he went through a variety of ways of playing, always refreshing his coaching staff every few years to bring new ideas and tactics, and rarely sticking to one game plan even during one season, let alone several at a time.
When pundits talk about Manchester United’s ‘method’ or ‘DNA’, they mean they wanted Ferguson years ago, and why wouldn’t they? But at least be honest and realize that there’s a reason we never hear about ‘Ferguson’s football’ the way we hear about ‘Wengerball’, Pep Guardiola’s ‘tiki-taka’, Jurgen Klopp’s ‘heavy metal ball’, or Jose Mourinho’s ‘bus parking’.
United’s biggest problem is undoubtedly that they have allowed one man to define them in a way that they have never defined themselves. Ferguson was no Cruyff or Guardiola, he left nothing behind when he retired, and now United need to be ready to part with him.
Ferguson was one of a kind in his handling of men, brutality, and adaptability, and it is unlikely that any club will ever find his like again. United need to be able to let go of the past if they are to have a bright future.
And this brings me to Arsenal – where Man Utd stubbornly refuse to let go of the old, Arsenal are a team stuck in their own.
Can Arsenal shake the nerves in their bid for the Premier League title?
You may have heard that Arsenal drew 0-0 with reigning champions Liverpool last night to go six points clear at the top of the Premier League and it’s a disaster.
Social media is full of panic from Gunners fans and happy rivals, as the panic inside the Emirates Stadium is perhaps frustrated with the players as they did not come to the game which many feel should have been an easy win and a chance, maybe the only chance, to go eight points clear and end the title race. Who knew that two points in January could win or lose the title?
I can’t go on with my sarcasm – the truth is, Arsenal are a club that can’t put their past traumas behind them. Every poor result is a disaster, every game feels like it’s make or break, regardless of the situation, which is what Mikel Arteta’s team has shown time and time again this season that they are the best in the Premier League, and possibly the best in Europe. After all, they are at the top of both the Premier League and Champions League tables, almost every basic data point to the absolute side that scores the most goals, concedes the fewest, and tends to dominate almost every single game, both by contribution, and by the high volume of big chances created and the low volume of big chances blocked.
But if you repeat something often enough it becomes true. Arsenal are a bottleneck. Arsenal will get your hopes up and let you down. It is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, and now it may be the biggest obstacle for Arteta this season to try to calm everyone, from the fans in the stadium to the players in the dressing room, to believe that, in fact, this is a club with 13 league titles (only Man United and Liverpool have more), and countless other major trophies, rather than being known as a center of club failure.
Manchester United are winners, so their predicament makes no sense and they just need to get back to being Manchester United, while Arsenal are still stuck being Arsenal, so any good they do is leading us down the garden path to inevitable failure.
Or, perhaps, could 2026 be the year that these two clubs begin to rewrite their own history? For one of them, at least, the first step is the willingness to change.
But can they? And why should it? After all, this is Manchester United Football Club we’re talking about here.
