State of Manchester United goes beyond ‘favourite soap opera’ status

Last Sunday, during Manchester United’s embarrassing 3-0 loss at home to Bournemouth, supporters in the Stretford End of Old Trafford unveiled a giant banner in protest of their club’s decline.

Beneath depictions of three iconic captains — Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Bryan Robson — it presented a single word: “STANDARDS.” It wasn’t lost on anyone, as the Red Devils slumped to their meek defeat, that the banner represented the only “standards” in the stadium that afternoon.

The players were booed off the field, and the rest of the week was spent rehashing the inquiry of what, this time, might be wrong with England’s biggest club — an ongoing conversation the BBC has described as “one of the nation’s favourite soap operas.”

Inevitably, the public looked to the trio of greats whose likenesses looked down on the Bournemouth debacle to help make sense of the performance, of the ever-lowering bar of expectations and of the club’s more deep-rooted problems.

Robson obliged with an exclusive column for the Daily Mail in which he wrote that he “never needed reminding” of the standards at Manchester United, and while his previous managers might have reinforced them, he, himself, knew what was expected.

Keane — true to form — went on the attack, remarking on The Overlap that goalkeeper Senne Lammens had been a letdown, that manager Michael Carrick and the coaching staff needed to “grow a pair” and that current captain Bruno Fernandes’ public criticism of Carrick was just the latest display in a “circus act.”

Cantona’s comments last month, in which he told an audience in Ireland that he wouldn’t have signed for United under its present ownership, also resurfaced, as did his previous criticism of co-owner Jim Ratcliffe, who he accused of sapping the club’s soul.

All three made important points — and quite different from each other’s, interestingly — that are worth unpacking.

Given that he played 12 years at the club before winning a title, Robson’s point of view is both extremely relevant and painfully simple.

A professional footballer, and especially one at a club with a large stadium, a global fanbase and, supposedly, ambition to win trophies, should not require prompting to meet basic standards of performance. Robson might have been a gifted athlete, but he won hearts at United and with the England team as much through willpower and commitment as positional sense and eye for goal.

He also played the balance of his career in a United side that won the odd cup while being mostly irrelevant in the league. There’s not a single player in the current United team, or any of the past decade and more, who will command similar respect at retirement.

Keane, too, was as well-regarded for the fire in his belly as his presence in the centre of the park. And while his frequent and vociferous criticism of his former club is often self-serving, he wasn’t wrong to highlight the recent on- and off-field humiliations.

Yes, Lammens has struggled this season, and for all his poise between the sticks the 24-year-old is prone to a gaffe and has benefited by following-up the disastrous tenure of André Onana.

As for the “circus,” Keane was also correct in calling out Fernandes’ disrespect of his manager and Lisandro Martinez’s outburst at the United board, in which the defender blamed technical director Jason Wilcox for failing to strengthen the squad — a sentiment nevertheless shared by many supporters.

And yet, Keane was pointing to the symptoms of disintegrating standards; not the cause.

For that, enter the insightful if offbeat Cantona.

Back in April 2025, the Frenchman told a gathering at non-league outfit FC United that Ratcliffe would “destroy” the club and that it needed “to find its soul again.” And the soul, as he saw it, was much more than the playing personnel. Crucially, he pointed to United’s plans for a new stadium.

“The stadium is iconic,” he said. “Can you imagine Liverpool playing in another stadium than Anfield? It’s impossible. I don’t think United can play in another stadium than Old Trafford.”

It’s an observation that blew past the symptoms to the heart of the matter, to an organizational malaise that has eaten away at the standards Cantona, Keane and Robson had within them and that they lent to the makeup of their teams.

Shortly after acquiring a minority stake in the club in early 2024, Ratcliffe mused about building a 100,000-seat “Wembley of the North.” It might have been received as little more than speculation but for the decrepit state of Old Trafford, which has been allowed to crumble during the majority ownership of the American Glazer family.

Built in 1910 and rebuilt after its bombing in the Second World War, Old Trafford expanded while Sir Alex Ferguson was manager — the Scot taking personal pride in developing the “Theatre of Dreams.”

The ground become synonymous with Ferguson’s exacting standards. After he retired in 2013, and as the Glazers took more and more money out of the club, its leaky roof became emblematic of the loss of them.

Standards are set at the very top. When they’re unenforced or simply lacking, a lethargy can seep into management, into coaching, into performance. It’s why Manchester United of 2026-27 is unlikely to improve much beyond what it’s already shown.

Ratcliffe isn’t setting the standard, and the Glazers certainly aren’t. So who is?

Carrick? Even if he wanted to, he doesn’t seem to have the respect of his squad. That’s on the players, though they could be forgiven the sleight if they at least set them for themselves.

Fernandes? Clearly not. And his disparaging of Carrick should signal the end of his United career. But that would mean Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada would possess their own set of standards, which they don’t.

Whatever standards Manchester United once had have been lost. All that’s left are reminders of them, recalled in banners displayed in a stadium its owners will bulldoze.

Memories, it seems, are the only measuring sticks that remain. And as they fade, even the recollection of standards will diminish, until one day a lopsided defeat will be met with indifference.

That day is almost here.

winnipegfreepress.com/jerradpeters