Devil tag becoming a bit too real
The 2024/25 season will not be one that fans of Manchester United fans will look back on favourably. For the first time since the inception of the Premier League, the club finished outside the top ten, back in their peak, anything less than a Champions League finish would've been a travesty, but with the current position of the club, such a placement would be seen as pipe dream.
It wasn't only domestically, in which they struggled, although they made it to the Europa League Final, they failed to follow up on the perception that they were favourites in Bilbao, and fell to 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, meaning any chance at a saving grace for this season had gone up in smoke.
In light of this, the treachery of both his and the club's position following the defeat Manchester United manager, Reuben Amorim, held his cards close to his chest on the damage that was caused because of the loss, as quoted on the Official club website, he said:
"It's in the future, I'm not going to talk about the future. This loss, the pain of losing this match. I can see it was clear, we were the better team but then we managed not to score again, so it's very hard to win football matches but the guys tried everything to win the game. In the future, we will have time to assess everything."
Amorim also tried to be as honest as possible when talking about United's hope for next season, continuing:
“I think I was always really honest with you guys. We didn’t perform perfect today, but we were better than the opponent, and the opponent also played. In the second half, we try everything – with the central defenders, with the players wide, crosses going inside the box. I think I’m really honest with you guys, so I expect the same and there are some days where I said we were really poor. I think today was not the day. We were not perfect. We have a lot to improve, but I am always honest with you guys.”
https://www.manutd.com/en/news/detail/key-quotes-from-ruben-amorim-press-conference-after-final-loss-to-spurs
United watch Tottenham lift the Europa League| Photo : Getty Images
United watch Tottenham lift the Europa League| Photo : Getty Images
The Drawn out pain
United went some decent way in the transfer window, to cleanse their squad of individuals, letting the likes of Jason Sancho and Antony out on loan, the egos of both seemed to be of detriment to the club.
In terms of expenditure, that hit £246.30 million, the biggest arrivals came in the form of Lenny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte and Mathias De Light. All of the most lucrative purchases done by the club were defenders, perhaps then Manager, Erik Ten Haag, had found one of the roots of their problems.
However that didn't work either and it proved to spell the end of the Dutchman's tenure at Old Trafford, despite delivering two more domestic trophies to the cabinet, his sacking, along with the departure of his backroom, put together with the cost to bring in Amorim, reportedly cost the club over £20 million. This went a long way to United being either distracted or financially unable, if not both, which meant they didn't improve the squad in January, to such an extent that their season turned around.
There was as much chaos on the pitch, as well as off it. Come the end of 2024, United held just since league victories, granted one of them came against the great rivals in the blue side of Manchester, it was hardly the form of a club with a credible, at best, shot at the European places, nor the form of the dominant United teams that have proceeded them that many of the Old Trafford faithful will remember well.
Bruno Guimares scoring in Newcastle's 4-1 victory of United | Photo: Getty Images
Bruno Guimares scoring in Newcastle's 4-1 victory of United | Photo:Reuters
They had five more months from that point to turn their season around, but nothing changed. They claimed less victories in the second half of the season, even with the mediocre tally they set in the first few months, just five more were pocketed. United ended the season in their worst ever position in the Premier League, with a 15th place finish. In what would be previously known as a normal season, with 40 points being the threshold to stave off relegation, the Red Devils would have only just beaten the drop, with their tally of 42 points.