Ten days before Christmas, Manchester United announced Chris Smalling had signed a contract extension until 2022. A platitude from manager Jose Mourinho was wheeled out to validate this curious piece of business. Forty-eight hours later, following a 3-1 cuffing at Liverpool, United sacked Mourinho. Smalling did not play, he was injured.
On February 8th, United, with no little pride then announced their injury-prone centre-half Phil Jones had signed a contract extension until 2023.
It was a fortnight before Jones’s 27th birthday and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, still United’s caretaker in name, said: “Phil knows what it takes to be a Manchester United player.”
Last Sunday, Solskjaer felt sufficiently embarrassed to apologise to United’s travelling fans at Goodison Park following the 4-0 walloping by Everton. United’s central defence consisted of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones until Jones departed injured at half-time.
Solskjaer’s verdict was: “That performance was not good enough for a Manchester United team.”
It may seem harsh to connect those two Solskjaer statements. Then again, it may not.
Everton was United’s sixth defeat in eight matches and on Wednesday it became seven in nine when Manchester City left Old Trafford with a 2-0 win.
As each of these losses has unfolded and the situation worsened, there has been a focus on the likes of Paul Pogba, David De Gea, Alexis Sanchez and Anthony Martial. Those are United’s celebrity players and they are easy targets when things go wrong. In some games, they have made themselves easy targets.
But there has also been a recognition that defensively the team is struggling and the problems are so deep only a change of personnel will rectify them. This, though, would entail selling the likes of Smalling and Jones who have just been handed two further long and lucrative contracts.
Questions about United’s lack of overall strategy and their recruitment process only grow when this obvious incoherence is pointed out. Who would be the takers for such players? Any club in the top six? Not likely.
From owners to boardroom to dugout to playing staff, there are issues at a club once held together by the force and intelligence of Sir Alex Ferguson. Since his retirement six years ago he has proved to be, literally, irreplaceable.
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The decline has somehow seemed both sudden and gradual; now the moment is urgent.
Tomorrow United face Chelsea and if their record becomes eight losses in ten then the Reds of Manchester can kiss goodbye to thoughts of next season’s Champions League. Realistically, given their inferior goal difference, they will be unable to catch Tottenham or Chelsea.
Were United to summon a winning display, however, their last two matches are Huddersfield away and Cardiff at home. They could get to 73 points and Chelsea and Arsenal might have another slip-up within them.
Finishing fourth after the grim end to Mourinho would be an achievement and the second half of United’s season would be a justification for his removal.
The clear trouble with this is the feelgood factor generated by Solskjaer post-Mourinho - and in full flow as recently as six weeks ago, when United beat Paris St. Germain in the Champions League - has vanished.
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Those who felt that there was always the possibility of a drop-off once the initial burst of Solskjaer’s different enthusiasm faded were not too concerned by it – there is no shame in losing to Barcelona for example.
But the Everton result was preceded by a warning from Solskjaer about some United players requiring a “reality check” and in its aftermath one headline was: “Spineless. Abject. Woeful. United are humiliated.”
Solskjaer spoke of “basics” and his squad’s lack of them. This was alarming talk. “We know our fitness is nowhere near good enough,” he said. Basic fitness?
Gary Neville, a pundit at Goodison Park, called the display “rancid” and added: “If you’ve got weeds in the garden, you’ve got to get rid of them.”
Roy Keane piled in on Wednesday, describing the players as “bluffers”. On it goes. There is a cycle of criticism which only performances on the pitch can interrupt.
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There were some voices always querying the rush to give Solskjaer the post full time and they have got louder. His record at Cardiff is not forgotten.
The managerial appointment, when laid beside the contracts for the likes of Jones and Smalling and Ashley Young, who was given a one-year extension in February that takes him past his 34th birthday, form a pattern.
Continuity is usually admirable in a short-term industry such as football, but not in this instance. United needed change – that was apparent even when Solskjaer was prospering.
As a metaphor, the sight of water gushing through Old Trafford’s leaky roof prior to Wednesday’s game should have been self-explanatory.
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