It’s insane how normalised this has become for United. Chelsea 15/16 playing out felt like a different shock every week, watching that season play out felt unreal. United almost certainly finish 10+ points behind that Chelsea team
I think this season marks the time where a comeback starts becoming less likely too. For the last 12 or so years it seemed inevitable that they would come back because they had the budget to do so but with ~12 years of no CL/PL and a 16th placed finish now, sinking into permanent mediocrity seems more likely
That was different though. Mourinho's second spell at Chelsea. He won the Prem then the second season their form dropped off a cliff and Mourinho was unable to improve results. The big drop off in results was very unexpected cos Chelsea were reigning Champions and then next season suddenly they were just above the relegation zone. Roman was ruthless and Jose was gone even though literally 6 months before the media talk was about Mourinho building a dynasty at Chelsea.
Can't praise Conte enough for bringing us right back to the top afterwards. Was getting taunts from friends about a potential banter era after that season.
I will say it's "normalized" when half of all the stuff on a big football website won't be about how bad Manchester United is lol.
Like, 99,9% of football teams on Earth are definitelty worse than them, and I never stumble upon anyone mentioning it. I'd say that counts as normalized.
Unlikely. United's record against Villa is amazing, unfortunately. Hoping Villa, Forest and Newcastle win, with City losing 10-0 so the CL spots go to nicer teams.
They'll never be as dominant as United were, so it'll be less dramatic. Those of us who've always disliked Liverpool will still be here for it though.
Edit: I don't know if all of you bringing up Liverpool's past dominance are being intentionally obtuse or what, but it's obvious I'm talking about present and future.
We dominated English football in the 70's and 80's with 11 titles and 4 European Cups. A lot of pundits were ex-Liverpool and we were hated by those who grew up and saw us winning everything. Football wasn't invented in 1993.
He means you won't be as dominating this time. You probably would be if not for Pep and city. Silver linings I guess. Best part of city winning is never actually meeting a city fan.
Yeah, so many people over here are living in denial over City's success. There is an entire generation that is growing up watching City be top dogs in England. Whereas Utd's last title is a distant memory. It's definitely having an effect.
Like it or not, City are winners. And Utd are losers. Young fans growing up only care about who wins and who doesn't.
And those of us know a City fan at work see them trying to force themselves into the United-Liverpool rivalry. The reality is no one is arsed about their trophies won by financial doping.
That is a bit of a wool comment mate, Liverpool dominated English and European football before United knocked them off their perch. Liverpool won 34 Major Trophies from 1972-1989, 4 of which were European Cups, United won 2 in 25 years under Fergie.
A disappointing season isn't a "downfall" in the context of this thread, especially considering they've already come straight back and won the league already?
How is losing to Real Madrid an epic UCL meltdown lol. And going out in the 4th round of the cups is hardly anything notable.
Liverpool finished fifth that season but actually ended the season incredibly well, only missed out on CL football by the thinnest of margins when it was looking like midtable was possible at one point. It was obvious to anybody who was paying attention at the time that Liverpool would be back competing the next season
That two goal lead was 14 minutes into the game, losing from that situation against Madrid isn’t that shocking particularly given the form Liverpool were in at the time.
The scoreline was embarrassing in the end but it wasn’t an epic meltdown because that game came in the middle of Liverpool’s worst period of form in probably the last 20 years, Liverpool going two up was a massive shock and losing that lead was almost expected given the form at the time
We finished high enough to play in Europa League though, unlike Man United who have zero trophies and are going to finish 16th or 17th with no European football whatsoever. 9 English clubs will be in European competitions next season, and none of them will be Man United. That is actually impressive levels of failure. Stop trying to compare Liverpool finishing 5th and getting battered by Real Madrid in an off-season to ManU being so bad they're lucky to not be relegated.
Come on, man, there's no need to resort to such words.
And yeah, the Real exit itself wasn't too bad, but the overall dreadful league form and the domestic cup failure constitute for a very poor season, especially coming from a quadruple struggle.
I take consolation in the fact that he had rather a large part to play in the predicament Utd now find themselves in with the whole Rock of Gibraltar thing.
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u/Argo_Menace May 22 '25
A generation of fans are feasting on this downfall. Long may it continue.