If You Cant Support Us When We Lose Dont Support Us When We Win

“Die Meister, Die Besten, Les Grandes Equipes, The Chaaaampions”. It`s official, these mesmerizing lyrics won`t sound on Old Trafford next spring. It`s because Manchester United lost against Wolfsburg in a dramatic match on Monday night. Goodbye Champions League, hello Europa League. It`s harsh to accept this because I know that it is not where my club should play. Manchester United is bigger than this and deserves to fight against the best teams in the Europe. But I wouldn`t be honest with myself if I don`t recognize that my team is playing poor boring football since the start of the season.

Recently, I found this in my Facebook memories. It`s Robin Van Persie celebrating his winner goal against City in derby back in 2013. And I was wondering: “How is it possible that the best player of the 2012/2013 English Premier League campaign suddenly became one of the worst in the next year?

It`s hard and painful to be a Manchester United fan nowadays. After Sir Alex Ferguson`s retirement in 2013, something went wrong at United. Ok, we all expected that things might not go properly because it`s impossible to replace such a mogul. But we have not expected that players and the club were so Ferguson-addicted. Manchester United suddenly became a suffering junkie and the club owners tried to pump in new drugs. Being addicted 27 years to a drug, it is not so easy for a junkie to adapt to new drugs.

David Moyes

Personally, I think that “The Chosen One” was one of the biggest mistakes of Sir Alex Ferguson that in the end lead us where we are today. It sounds crazy, but it is true. Ferguson has also recognized that. Manchester United struggled under David Moyes and set up several EPL anti-records (West Brom first ever win against United at Old Trafford, 81 crosses against Fulham and so on). I think it was not only me who felt awkward about United`poor football and the overall 7th place in the EPL table. We were spoilt with beautiful attacking footbalI and trophies under Ferguson`s reign and now suddenly we have become a sort of Everton- an average middle table team. I was against him since his appointment as the new coach of Manchester United. It was obviously that a coach who`s managed Everton for 10 years without being in the top-flight, would struggle at United. But he was Scottish and maybe Ferguson saw himself in Moyes. I was expecting for Mourinho that summer and was a bit disappointed in the end, but it was Ferguson`s decision, not mine. It was a relief for me when in April, after another defeat, he was sacked. He was too toxic for us.

Louis Van Gaal

I was so excited to heard that he will be our new manager, even despite the fact someone told me that he will cause problems at United and the team will play boring football. I was like “C`mon, You can`t be serious. You are just jealous”. How can a LvG team can play boring football when he just destroyed the most boring team in the World- Spain!? I was even more excited when we bought Angel di Maria and loaned Falcao. I was thinking: “Yes, that`s the Manchester I used to support and defend against critics from my friends. This year will be our year!”. But then came MK Dons and beat us by 4 goals in the first round of League Cup. “Not a big deal!”, I said to myself and continued to argue with everyone that this year will be our year. Then Leicester beat us 5-3 in the championship and I have tempered my expectations. I was so full of confidence that Manchester United will be in top 3 that I bet with an Arsenal fan that my team will end the campaign on a higher place than them. “I can`t be wrong”, I told myself. “They always finish on the 4th place”. In the end, we took the 4th place and I lost the bet (That bastard might be reading this article right now).

The 2015/2016 EPL campaign started with high hopes, for both me and the club. The players said they finally understood Louis`s philosophy (ooh, You can`t imagine how much I hate this word since LvG came at United) and I saw it in club`s friendly games. The new Manchester United controlled the game through possession. It was a little bit boring but we won 3 of 4 games, even against Barcelona. Ok, Messi and Neymar weren`t playing that game. We`ve lost against PSG, mainly because of De Gea. I had mixed feeling regard his Real Madrid transfer saga. On one hand I was ready for his departure because he is Spanish and had his family and girlfriend in Madrid. Ferguson used to say: “If a Portuguese or a Spanish stays at your club more than 5 years without pushing a transfer to Real Madrid or Barcelona, consider yourself a lucky man!”. It`s well known that every Spanish kid dreams to play for Real or Barca. On the other hand, as a selfish fan I was blaming him for his possible transfer. In the end, we`ve won the battle against Real and kept the player who later brought us half of the points this season.

I would describe this year European campaign as “frustrating and disappointing”. The Champions League campaign started even worse than I could imagine. I was somehow prepared for though games, but the first game against PSV was a disaster. I`ve got 0 points and the best player at the moment terrible injured. I think all the problems started after his injury. The left-back was an important man and suddenly United defence became vulnerable. It was so strange to see Manchester United struggling against CSKA and PSV at home. But it was even more frustrating to see how they`ve been overplayed by Wolfsburg. LvG said at the post-match press conference that Manchester United will try to win the Europa League trophy but I frankly don`t think that my club will even pass the 1/16 round.

In the end

Sir Alex Ferguson used to say that a big club reaches its peak once in 4 years. After the best season, the results in a certain competition may fall. Usually, it is necessary 3 years for strenght the actual team with new players and fit them in the mechanism. Ferguson was a master in doing this and that`s why he needed less time to bring United to peak form.

As the graphic shows, the best season was 2008. Manchester United won the CL and EPL trophies in that season. In 2009, they`ve could have been the first team who won CL 2 years in a row. Those were glory days. As you can see, there was a huge decline after SAF retirment. Two years has been passed since his retirment and I still can`t see how can we become a big team again.

Maybe the easiest way for me is to forget about Manchester United and become a Barcelona fan because it`s always fashionable. They have the best player in the world while we have Rooney, they have the best young player in the world while we have Young, but as a true fan you would always support your team no matter how they play and who plays for it. Because if you can`t support them when they lose, you don`t deserve to support them when they win.
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