By Phil McNulty – BBC
Manchester United are a club and a team flattered by suggestions they are going nowhere – because the brutal truth is that Sunday’s humiliation by Manchester City exposed the grim fact they are going backwards.
Manchester City’s victory margin of 4-1 was also an act of flattery because the gulf between these two sides, and these two clubs, is now a chasm that should have been emphasised by a more painful scoreline.
As United’s new chief executive Richard Arnold watched this embarrassment alongside the one-time laird of Old Trafford Sir Alex Ferguson, he could not have had a more graphic illustration of just how much work he has to do to get them anywhere near the club once scornfully referred to as “the noisy neighbours”.
Arnold has inherited a once-proud institution that has as many cracks as cheap crockery, a club waiting for firm direction and leadership on how to drag them away from their current status as also-rans.
This was ruthless and painful. It was every flaw exposed and even worse it was done in front of joyous Manchester City fans.
United’s plight is the result of years of ruinous off-field strategy and flawed team building that now leaves them struggling to finish in the top four this season, putting a place in next season’s Champions League in jeopardy.
Arnold’s in-tray will be piled so high he is in danger of disappearing from view.
Where do you even start? Well, the manager’s office might be the best place.
Ralf Rangnick is the interim struggling to get a tune out of a listless, disaffected squad that is not fit for the purpose normally required by Manchester United. It is close to inconceivable that the German will be fulfilling anything other than his proposed consultancy role next season.
And yet United seem no clearer on who they will home in on as their top target.
Are they hoping Mauricio Pochettino’s time at Paris St-Germain will come to a natural end or Erik ten Hag will feel his work at Ajax is done?
The idea that United might swoop on a top European rival and steal away their manager is not conceivable because they simply do not have that status any more.
Whoever gets the job also has a mammoth task rebuilding a squad that resembled a waste of money on a grand scale at Manchester City.
Rangnick may have lost Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani to injury, as well as Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw to Covid, but at Etihad Stadium they still looked like a United team that could not wait for this match to end – indeed, for this season to end.
Harry Maguire was not the sole culprit as Manchester United’s many flaws were placed under the harshest spotlight by Manchester City. He was, however, symbolic of their struggles.
Maguire’s right to be Manchester United captain has been questioned during a dismal run of form that has made him look more like a liability than an England defender. This was the sort of nightmarish personal display that will only bring further scrutiny.
He looked as far from an £80m defender as it is possible to be, while £50m Aaron Wan-Bissaka was targeted and torn apart by Manchester City.
Maguire was involved in City’s first three goals, inexplicably letting the ball go in a goalmouth scramble when Kevin de Bruyne put City 2-1 up. The challenge on the Belgian that brought a yellow card in the second half was a desperate, agricultural affair.
Varane is prone to injury, while Victor Lindelof has not delivered and Eric Bailly is also not the answer, meaning that for all the money lavished on the area, United do not have a single central defender they can truly count on.
And then we come to an injury-prone, ageing attack.
Ronaldo and Cavani have a combined age of 72, so they hardly fall under the bracket of planning for the future and the lustre is wearing thin.
It will unlikely send shockwaves through Carrington’s medical department that an attack of such advancing years is suffering wear and tear, although it does increasingly appear that Cavani succumbs to ailments on such a regular basis he should be written off after just 15 appearances this season.
Will the new manager want the ageing Ronaldo as the biggest star and biggest ego at Old Trafford? Would Ronaldo even want to dirty his hands with the Europa League if United miss out on the Champions League?
Bruno Fernandes, for so long a shining light, now spends more time showing dissent and trying to buy cheap free-kicks than playing his part as a creative force.
Paul Pogba, hooked in the second half, looks to be on the way out on the assumptions a suitable club can be found for such a talented but infuriatingly inconsistent performer.
Anthony Elanga is a work in progress but Marcus Rashford is still struggling to rediscover the old sparkle.
Other than that, as they say.
The one Manchester United player who could leave Etihad Stadium with his head held high was keeper David de Gea, who actually kept the scoreline from getting completely out of hand. The Spaniard was a barrier of defiance as United were taken apart time and again.
De Gea’s performance did not even qualify as consolation on an awful day for Manchester United.
If Arnold and those other Old Trafford decision makers had any doubts about the scale and scope of the giant task required to rebuild Manchester United, they will have been swept away after a chastening 90 minutes at Etihad Stadium.