“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Winston Churchill
I'll be making this as personal as possible. A few years back I was reading a football executive's interview about how he planned to use knowledge from past failures to widen the gap between his next project and failure.
Where did he start from?
He started by studying extensively football clubs that dominated their league for years only for their dominance to vaporize and then get usurped by the others. Despite the varying landscape and conditions of the clubs he studied, they had peculiarities that predicated their fall from grace. That simply means their collapse wasn't out of the blue. It was a result of wrong choices made over a particular period.
Presently, Man United is probably the club to study if one wants to embark on a similar research exercise. Dominant in English football from the mid-90s to the early 2010s, they've been a caricature of the team they once were. Why? What caused their tumble? Well, it's way too familiar with that of the other very dominant teams of yesteryears.
Though Man United has been in a state of comatose for the last 12 years, the fact that they kept on going around in circles and doing the same shit means history continues to repeat itself. One of those things that made the once-dominant team of yesteryears stay long in their vegetative state is that during their dry spells, they do have some sprinkling of good luck that they mistake for success. This always deceived them into believing they were on the path back to the top only to realize they were towing a well-worn road to disappointment. Right now, Man U is romancing that tricky box of failure.
Isn't it termed madness when one does the same thing endlessly and expects different results? Who would've thought a club that had the same manager for about 27 years would burn through 9 managers( interim and permanent) in the space of 12 years? And to make it worse, none of them have achieved the stability the club enjoyed during their time at the top despite spending billions of pounds on talent recruitment within that time frame.
Though achieving success in top level football isn't the easiest of tasks, it shouldn't be the hardest also for a team with the financial leanings and global outreach of the same of Man United. However, one thing that has necessitated the failure we've endured is the lack of team structure.
Most of the consistently successful teams have relied on having a team structure and bringing in managers to that effect. Barcelona's core has always been about high-intensity possession-based football. You rarely see them deviate from that and they buy players who fit that model. So even if they sack an underperforming or disgruntled manager, the next one that comes in will be able to use the playing staff to great effect. Simply put, this club buys players for the club, not for the coach.
Man United on the other hand has been buying for the coach for the last decade. And when the coach gets sacked (and they eventually will), the new guy comes in and will demand for his players. The players acquired under the previous boss become surplus to requirements and will be sold at a loss. The new manager comes in, buys players fit for his pattern, gets sacked, and we sell at a loss again. Same song and dance.
Well, we are already at it again with the 3-4-2-1 loving Ruben Amorim. He's already sanctioned the sale of four wing forwards because his system doesn't need them. They will be sold for cheap because the market knows they are surplus to requirements. Then, when Amorim eventually gets sacked, we'd be back to square 1. I guess we are not ready to act right.
