Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yet few at Manchester United could have predicted such history ever being matched.
Under Sir Alex Ferguson, this was a club that ran so far into the distance, that some wondered if the chasing pack could ever catch up. Their twenty league titles might be equalled this month, however – worse still, their famous Treble might be bettered. Time creeps up on you and suddenly, the biggest club in the country are a decade on from their last league triumph next season.
Yet there's another historical achievement that many thought could never be equalled: the seventh-placed car-crash campaign of 2013/14.
David Moyes' only season was the bottom of the barrel, after all; an aberration, we assumed. The season following Fergie's swansong is highly regarded as the low point in the club's modern history – and rightly so, up to now. Sure, they were relegated in the 1970s – but the Moyes debacle stands as a monument in Premier League history.
That was the season that the league opened up. The biggest club that the competition had ever seen simply capitulated: it's been a reference point since, not just for how dreadful future managers' seasons could shape up, but for how not to replace a leader. And yet with every season that passes, Moyes' solitary almost-year as the fall guy in that particular Manchester United machine doesn't look that bad. Especially now. Especially after this season.
He inherited a team of eroding rocks, to be fair to him: Vidic and Ferdinand still keeping guard long into their 30s; Michael Carrick 33. Tom Cleverley and Darren Fletcher were still regulars, too; Adnan Januzaj and Danny Welbeck were the future. This was not a terrible team by some standards – but part of the shock of that season was it was Manchester United who were tanking. We'd never seen it before.
Well, we've certainly seen it since – and it looks much worse with hundreds of millions' worth of superstars. Ralf Rangnick took over a team that had finished second the prior season, before his predecessor added Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo. He wasn't overseeing a team at the end of their cycle: this was the campaign they were meant to push on for a title. At the start of this season, fans and pundits alike expected that: now, the man who guided them through this second half of the season has called for a minimum of 10 new faces.
It's important to remember that United were not out of top-four contention – even top-three – when the gegenpress guru stepped in. Yet instead of turning this team in the right direction, he's captained a voyage of misery into sixth. Does that make him worse than Moyes?
That's another discussion – but the very trajectory of this season has been far more depressing. The 2013/14 season was a sinking ship, but one that capsized with all the hysteria and panic of a real crisis. United were flailing in the icy water, expending body heat, but at least they were respecting the gravity of the situation. The 2021/22 campaign has been a slow drift into mediocrity with little urgency – on or off the ball.
Rangnick was supposed to make United better at pressing. They're not. He was supposed to bring in a little more identity to a side that eked out wins under Ole Gunnar Solksjaer through individual brilliance and a good, old-fashioned passion. They even look passionless, now, switching from a hopelessly imbalanced 4-2-2-2, to 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3, via the back three that they displayed at Liverpool.
It's those Liverpool results that are merely the checkpoints where you'd restart the console if you could. That United have looked so meek next to their rivals is unforgivable: that we haven't expected much else this season is damning of where this club has drifted since the Moyes era.
It may only be with hindsight that you can look back at the Scot's season in seventh and realise that actually, it was a theme of things to come. But in so many ways, it's so much worse now.
Manchester United transfer news
Manchester United have been linked with a vast array of talents ever since Erik ten Hag was confirmed as manager, with one surprising forward from Ajax emerging as a potential buy for the club this summer.
Rumours persist that Benfica forward Darwin Nunez may well be bought, too, while Frenkie de Jong is an apparent target for Ten Hag following their time together at Ajax. Brentford midfielder Christian Eriksen is another player being talked about in relation to a move.
It's not all incomings at Old Trafford, either: one report lists the rumoured departure list out of Manchester. Paul Scholes, meanwhile, has been sharing how much of a disaster the current dressing room is from his chats with Jesse Lingard.
