sport news Man United: Sportsmail answers the big question: WHO is to blame for a decade ... trends now
Manchester United's decline over the past ten years hit an astonishing new low at the weekend as Erik ten Hag became their first boss since 1921 to lose his first two league games.
A shock defeat at home to Brighton on the opening weekend was followed up by an even more disastrous performance in a 4-0 thrashing at Brentford, leaving United bottom of the table after two matchdays for the first time since August 1992.
The scrutiny on their sluggish on-field performances has been exacerbated by another shambolic transfer window in which they have so far failed to land their No 1 target in Frenkie de Jong and address other key areas.
Man United hit a new low in their decade of decline in their 4-0 thrashing by Brentford
Ten Hag's start at United has also been overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been trying to engineer an Old Trafford exit all summer in vain and there are now concerns of the effect he is having in the dressing room.
All the unrest has already seen banners protesting against the Glazers' ownership, with Gary Neville in particular adding renewed pressure on the American owners to sell up.
So who is to blame for the glaring and growing nightmare at United, from their inertia in the transfer market to their barely believable displays so far? Sportsmail's writers try to answer the biggest question in football...
All the unrest has already seen banners protesting against the Glazers' ownership
Sami Mokbel, Chief Football Writer
Apportioning blame to the fiasco otherwise known as Manchester United isn't necessarily as straightforward as it would seem.
The answer for a significant bunch of match-going United fans is simple owners: the Glazers. And yes, of course, the Americans should shoulder their portion of blame for the downward spiral of this once great football club.
But as ever with these things, it's never just a single reason or entity but rather a myriad of factors to explain failure. Perhaps the most overriding reason of them all is the recruitment in the post-Fergie era.
You can't blame the Glazers for that, can you? 'We spent a billion pounds on players. We have spent more than anyone in Europe,' said chief executive Richard Arnold during a meeting with fans earlier this year.
High profile footballers have arrived for big fees and huge wages but haven't worked
Of course, supporters will point to the vast sums of money the Glazers have extracted from the club over the years.
But, with that said, the owners have also backed their respective managers with transfer funds without the required reward.
High profile footballers - far too many to name individually - have arrived for big fees and huge wages.
But for whatever reason, far too many of those signings haven't worked. Those failures lie with the people who identify the talent - not the owners.
Martin Samuel, Chief Sports Writer
For all their faults, it wasn't the Glazers who failed to deliver football's basic requirement against Brentford. That was the players.
They might be lacking confidence but run and there's always hope. There are reams of statistics showing the chance of losing decreases the more a team runs.
Erik ten Hag is failing to extract even the bottom line from his men. This doesn't absolve the owners from blame, but at United the suits are always the protective shield.
If Lisandro Martinez is being exposed in the air as a centre-half because of his height it is not the fault of the owners. They paid the money for him, at the request of the manager. Blame them for otherwise poor recruitment, for poor planning – but Martinez was the manager's call.
If Lisandro Martinez is being exposed in the air as a centre-half it is not the fault of the owners
Not all of United's problems stem from the boardroom. Marcus Rashford looked a better player in his first ten games for United than at any time since – that's not down to the Glazers, either. Where are the coaches in all this; where are his team-mates?
Now it is being suggested ten Hag is willing to let Cristiano Ronaldo leave, having spent months resisting and with the campaign now in chaos. Was there no-one to advise or negotiate?
How has ten Hag not seen an inevitable denouement in unhappy superstar, failing club? Let's hope the coach has kept all the favourable write-ups he received pre-season; they could be the best reviews he ever gets at United.
Joe Bernstein, Mail on Sunday Sports Reporter
Fingers have been pointed at owners, players and managers but the single biggest factor in Manchester United's decline has been the club's executives.
Ed Woodward's judgement and decision-making stunk from the moment he took over from David Gill in 2013 and it's hard to see Richard Arnold, part of the failed regime, being any better.
Yes, the Glazers have taken money from the club but they've still provided substantial funds not too dissimilar from those used wisely by Klopp and Guardiola.
Yes, the players are accused of shaming the shirt but most of them just aren't good enough to be title winners, rather than a lack of application. Most of them would struggle to have gotten into Fergie's squads let alone starting XIs.
Ed Woodward's judgement and decision-making stunk from the moment he took over
I feel David Gill's departure in 2013 was as significant as Ferguson's. Woodward talked a good game about United remaining a manager-led club but really he thought he could run the show on and off the pitch.
He ignored Ferguson's advice to cash in on a declining Wayne Rooney and instead gave him a bumper new deal that sucked resources from elsewhere.
That car crash first season under Moyes turned out to be a template for the next decade. Woodward was obsessed with the global brand so hired Mourinho, Pogba and Alexis Sanchez when they weren't what United needed.
He tried to be ruthless like Abramovich's Chelsea, firing van Gaal minutes after winning the FA Cup, but lacked the expertise.
United have lurched into a nosedive. Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and others were given world-class salaries to stay when their performances were average.
Luke Shaw and others were given world-class salaries to stay when their performances were average
Boasts were made about the exhaustive recruitment process before paying £50million for wan-Bissaka. Laughable. So was last season's decision to appoint an interim caretaker (Carrick) before a caretaker (Rangnick) who was given a long-term role that was never fulfilled.
Woodward has now gone but those he worked with remain in senior position. It's the blind leading the blind.
The Glazers should sell because unless they realise the people they've entrusted are hopeless, their asset is going to decline in price. No wonder they want the Super league - It's their only salvation.
Having burned through a billion, the money is now gone. Just like 1986, United need to find a new manager with the energy and long-term commitment to start again from the bottom.
Mike Keegan, Sports News Correspondent
We can now call it Manchester United's decade of misery. Why? Because, after just two games, it is fairly safe to say there is going to be no dramatic upturn in fortune before the end of the year.
Who is to blame for the terrible ten? Take your pick. Since Sir Alex Ferguson called time on an era of glittering success in 2013 much has changed.
Five permanent managers have been installed. If you include caretakers and interims, that figure rises to eight. And yet one thing – along with pathetic underperformance on the field – remains the same. The owners. The Glazer family.
The group who borrowed money to buy the club and then stuck that debt onto the club. The group who take dividends when creaking Old Trafford is in desperate need of investment. The group who continue to leave around £500m – their stinking legacy – on the red section of the club's accounts.
It would be wrong to say they have not spent. At times they have gone big. Managers have been backed. Hundreds of millions wasted. The lack of off-field leadership and expertise has killed them and the blame for that lies at the feet of the Glazers. Take, for example, the case of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Five permanent managers including David Moyes (left) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (right) have been installed
The Norwegian should never have been given the job in the first place but those upstairs, giddy after a camouflaging unbeaten run, jumped the gun and gave a man who should have been nowhere near the dugout at a club the size of United the gig full-time. How the rest of the Big Six laughed at that one.
To be fair, Solskjaer initially made a decent fist of it. United, we were told, were going back to what made them great. A commitment to youth, with exciting young players. And then they signed 36-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo, presumably to stop him from going to City, and it all fell apart.
These people flip flop. They panic. They make poor decisions. Incompetence is now the United DNA. A manager needs so much more. Ask yourself – why did Jurgen Klopp turn them down, only to surface later at Liverpool a year later?
The disease has spread. There are concerns over a serious lack of discipline and direction in the once-admired academy. Last time out the Under 23s lost 5-1 at home to Crystal Palace. Come on.
We have been told a number of times over the years about how the top brass are revamping the scouting network, how they have hurled resources at scouring the globe. And then they go for Marko Arnautovic before the inevitable latest flip flop. Other targets all seem to have close links to Erik ten Hag. So much for helping him out, as another shambolic window draws to a close.
We have heard from the top brass they they have hurled resources at scouring the globe only for them to go for Marko Arnautovic (front)
I am an Oldham fan. Mark Hughes's volley in the 1994 semi-final triggered close to three decades of misery at Boundary Park but I am infuriated for my friends and family who have spent fortunes following United.
My fellow Oldham supporters very recently played a huge role in changing things at their club. They made the point to their own useless custodians that they would not be getting another penny from them.
Suddenly, they were willing to sell - and now they are now gone. On Saturday, a crowd four times that of the one the old regime would have
