Premier League 2018-19: Is Alex Ferguson to blame too for Manchester United's current struggles?

Manchester United have been going through a tough few weeks, rather a tough few years. Things haven’t been well at the club for a while, and there is a sense of deja vu as the debate on what needs to be done to rebuild the club starts again.

Fans, ex-players and critics have been pointing fingers at the players, at the various coaches (there have been four in the last six years) and at the executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward. There have been huge debates on how the club has failed to find the right coach post Sir Alex Ferguson, and there is hope that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will finally be the right choice.

But as fans and critics reminisce about the good old days under Fergie, one can’t help but wonder whether he has been partially responsible for this mess by not leaving behind a team which was capable enough to keep succeeding in the years to come.

Fergie loyalists will say that this is utter rubbish, especially given the fact that he won the English Premier League in his last season (2012-13) as coach. And yes, there is no doubt that Ferguson did an amazing job in guiding United to victory in 2013 and that too by a huge margin.

But that season was also about a team punching above its weight in trying to give its manager a perfect send-off, and about a certain Robin van Persie having a scintillating injury-free season. If one looks at the team which was left behind at the end of that campaign, one starts to realize why United struggled so much in the seasons to follow.

On the face of it, the 2012-13 Manchester United team had some world-class footballers who would strike fear in the hearts of any opposition. Names like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra would suggest that United were in a great position to dominate the English league for years to come.

A deeper look at the squad would, however, suggest otherwise. All the stars except Rooney were on the wrong side of 30, and went on to retire very soon. Most of them lasted just one more season for United. Even Rooney was well past his heyday and not a regular in the team anymore.

Looking at the players who were below the age of 30 at that time and ideally should have gone on to form the core of the future United teams, gives a clearer picture as to where it all went wrong for United.

Players like Shinji Kagawa, Tom Cleverley, Anderson, Rafael, Nani and Danny Welbeck are by no means top class players and are at best squad players. They soon went on to leave United and currently can’t find a place in the starting XIs of any of the top teams in the world.

Even among the ones who stayed on, only David De Gea is a world-class player who has shown his worth time and again. The others like Ashley Young, Chris Smalling or Phil Jones are in the squad just because the team lacks talent in those positions.

These players would not find a place in the current Manchester City, Liverpool or even the Tottenham teams. And Solskjaer is surely going to be looking at replacements for all of them in the coming transfer window.

This gaping hole left by Ferguson becomes even more apparent when we compare the situation to the other teams that finished in the top 3 in the 2012-13 season. The runners-up that year, Manchester City, had Sergio Agüero, David Silva and Vincent Kompany (he may not play often now but he is still a leader in the dressing room and the pitch) in their ranks, and these three have been the pillars upon which the current unassailable City team has been built.

Chelsea, who were third that year, had Eden Hazard, César Azpilicueta (current club captain) and David Luiz and these three, especially Hazard, are still the the first names on the team sheet. Hazard and Azpilicueta were instrumental in Chelsea winning the league in 2017.

One can always argue that six years and the millions of dollars spent are enough to rebuild a team. Just look at Liverpool and Spurs. The difference though has been that Liverpool and Spurs have actually been rebuilding the team as a whole over a period of time, while at Manchester United the past few years have been more about finding the successor to the great Sir Alex; the right coach who would keep delivering the trophies like he did.

The expectation from these coaches has been to deliver success immediately and match up to Fergie, when instead it should probably have been to build a team for the future like Fergie did when he took over United in the late 80s.

Solskjaer is the current chosen man to take on the Herculean task of rebuilding Manchester United, and take it back to the upper echelons of European football. He must work with Woodward with a vision and plan which are 3-4 years out, and buy or groom players who can help them get there.

Only time will tell whether he is able to pull this off or not. But if he is to succeed, the fans and the management will have to be patient and back him to the hilt for the next couple of years to come.