It’s most certainly not a season to be jolly but of folly in which the once austere Manchester bastion has now been compelled to endure all manner of embarrassing defeats. That being the tone set for the season, one would hardly have expected the biggest humiliation of all to come, and yet it did – Saturday’s 4-0 decimation by Brighton.
The unsuspecting Red Devils were shamefully stripped bare to the bones by the Seagulls on the south coast, which added further weight to accusations that United’s current crop have neither the requisite attitude nor aptitude to proudly represent the club. This has long been an issue gnawing at the roots.
Interim manager Ralf Rangnick had no other recourse but to brand his side’s showing at the Amex as “terrible” as United’s players were again lambasted for lacking fight, spirit and didn’t even show even an ounce of desire. And, like an ominous omen reaching out from the past, this isn’t the first time that the club’s players have been accused of being totally indifferent.
Back in October of 2018, Jose Mourinho had even then stuck the boot into the butt of his own players after a 3-1 Premier League defeat to West Ham had left his Red Devils languishing down in 10th. It was then that Mourinho made his provocative yet incisive remark that “some [players] care more than others” at the club as his revealing admission stripped bare the depth of United’s decay even then.
“Every player is different, no player is the same,” Mourinho said. “I see different actions but what you see is not really inside. I see upset people, some people that don’t look like they lost a game.
“I see so-so but in the little two sessions of training we had [since Saturday] everything was normal, desire to work and play. What I can do to improve things I do, and I will improve the things that depend on me and my work.”
The Portuguese manager’s comments may have been made over three-and-a-half years ago yet one could be forgiven for thinking the current Roma boss made the remarks in the wake of United’s latest humiliation at the hands of Brighton as Saturday’s debacle proved nothing seems to have changed at the club since then.
Innumerable excuses have been proffered by United’s players on where it has all gone wrong this season, but it’s scary that the biggest issue is the one latent in Mourinho’s comments back in 2018 – quite a number of this United team just don’t give a damn and until that mentality can finally be extirpated from the club for good, the Red Devils can expect a greater deluge of humiliations to descend on them.