Man Utd reaching the FA Cup final was nothing to celebrate ...
United may have won Sunday's semi-final on penalties, but the overriding sensation was disbelief, and the Dutchman can't expect to survive much longer
Sir Jim Ratcliffe had spent his Sunday morning running the London Marathon, clocking a hugely impressive four-and-a-half hours at 71 years of age. But for Manchester United's minority shareholder, pounding the capital's tarmac must have felt like a breeze compared to the emotional rollercoaster he went on at Wembley Stadium later in the day.
Ratcliffe arrived at United's semi-final against Coventry City at half-time when United were 2-0 up, taking his seat next to majority owners Avram and Joel Glazer, whom he had paid £1.3 billion ($1.6bn) for the privilege of being involved in the club. He has described investing in United as the most exciting project he's been involved in, and if he wanted excitement and drama, he is sure getting it. Just not in the way he had imagined.
After seeing Bruno Fernandes put United 3-0 up, he then watched the team do what they have done throughout this season: take their hand off the steering wheel and go on a truly wild ride. They ended up with the same result as they looked to have when they were 3-0 up, a ticket back to Wembley to face Manchester City. But as all keen travellers will tell you, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. And someone as driven as demanding as Ratcliffe will have been horrified with the way United got there.
Wilcox's first impression
Ratcliffe and the Glazer brothers were not the only high-profile members of United's hierarchy at Wembley to witness their most unconvincing of passages to the final. INEOS sport director Sir Dave Brailsford was there alongside United's latest recruit, technical director Jason Wilcox, who was officially hired on Friday.
Wilcox was headhunted from Southampton, but built a lot of his reputation as head of Manchester City's academy. The City Football Academy has produced an incredible conveyor belt of talent over the past decade, including Phil Foden, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb and Cole Palmer, as well as a number of stars who have had impressive careers away from the Etihad Stadium.
City academy graduates often look like factory products, programmed to play in a certain system, to show confidence on the ball and move it around seamlessly while remaining in control. But United are a team with no control at all, especially in the latter stages of games.
They say you only get one chance to make a first impression, and Wilcox's impression of United was of a team that was unable to negotiate their way past a team that are eighth in the Championship, a club that was in the fourth tier of English football as recently as 2018.
Always on the edge
Ten Hag felt a mixture of pride at reaching a second successive FA Cup final and of horror of the fact they almost contrived to throw it away. "Mixed feelings is clear. It's a huge achievement to be twice in a FA Cup final in two years. The last 20 years, United was in five times. Now two times in two years, a huge achievement," he said.
"But when you are so in control in a game, dominating, you should bring it over the finish. The way we did was not good. I have to say in the penalties, how we act there, how determined, that was a good sign showing good character. From 70th minute to the end we made mistakes and it shouldn't have happened."
The ragged end to the game was far from an isolated moment. It formed part of a clear pattern of a team that are always on the edge, even when they appear to be in control.
Alien to control
If you're being kind about United you could say that small margins have been the difference between them having a good season and the chaotic, inconsistent campaign they have endured. Ten Hag has tried to make that case repeatedly, lamenting referee's decisions that have gone against them and calling their habit of conceding penalties "a curse".
Another version is that they have actually been lucky not to have had even worse results. They were spared a humiliating defeat to Coventry by VAR, a fractional offside against Haji Wright ruling Viktor Torp's 121st-minute goal out. Coventry coach Mark Robins joked that Wright would have been onside "if he had cut his toenail".
But United should not be getting themselves in these positions. They are incapable of taking the sting out of games and slowing the play down. Chaos seems to be the only way they know.
United have won just two of their previous 10 matches over 90 minutes. Those victories were against Everton and Nottingham Forest, who are both fighting relegation, and neither of them were particularly convincing. They beat Forest with a last-minute header from Casemiro and Everton with two penalties, having conceded 16 and 23 shots, respectively.
'I don't like them'
"Coventry looked like a Premier League team and Manchester United looked like a Championship side," said Roy Keane on ITV. "Manchester United play in moments, they always give you chances. We've seen it already in the FA Cup this season with the games against Wigan and Newport County. [Harry] Maguire said he saw character but I don't see character. I'm almost getting to the point where I don't like them."
Keane is not the only one. Although United sold all their tickets and packed out their end for kick-off at Wembley, scores of empty seats could be seen late in the game. More appeared when the game was sent to extra-time, and more still when it looked as though Torp had sealed an incredible comeback victory for Coventry.
When Rasmus Hojlund eventually ensured United would be going to the final, there was no great celebration. The fans who had stayed emptied the stadium in a flash, no doubt feeling a sense of shame at the way they had come so close to being knocked out. By contrast, there was a touching bond between Coventry's players and their supporters, who had felt the pain of a penalty shootout defeat at Wembley 11 months previously in the play-off final.
'Don't see how he stays'
Coventry boss Robins is famously known as the man who saved Sir Alex Ferguson's job, his goal in the FA Cup third round against Nottingham Forest in 1990 changing the course of football history. Thirty-four years on, he was an inch away from surely wrecking Ten Hag's hopes of remaining in charge of United. But the shootout victory did not feel like a turning point at all, and there was nothing to celebrate.
A full-strength, fully-fit Manchester City could cause real damage to United in the final, and even if United somehow pulled of a famous victory, it would be another false dawn, just like the epic 4-3 win over Liverpool in March. In case you needed reminding, United have not win a single game since then.
In the five matches that have followed, they have thrown way the lead on four occasions, giving up seven goals in the final 20 minutes. Since February, they have let in seven goals in the 90th minute or later. They have conceded three goals or more in 12 matches for the first time in a season since 1962-63.
"We were all watching there in the end and Mark Robins famously kept a Man United manager in a job, and I think that result today cost a Man United manager his job," said Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports. "I don’t see how he stays. I don’t. I would imagine that dressing room is the most embarrassed dressing room you could remember of a team who won a big game."
Ratcliffe has completed one marathon, but running this dishevelled club will be more like British extreme athlete Russ Cook's 10,000-mile odyssey through Africa. And he must now decide whether he wants Ten Hag to stay with him on it. Watching how events unfolded at Wembley, he would be crazy to say yes.
