Manchester United's current struggles on and off the field are becoming increasingly obvious by the day as Ruben Amorim continues to struggle to get a tune out of his underperforming side.
The Red Devils sit 13th in the table, a position which could worsen with a defeat away to Tottenham on Sunday in Premier League action, and look firmly on course for their worst league finish in the top flight of English football since 1990 should they cling on to their current position, or 1973 if they were to drop any further.
Struggles on the field have been met with an equal sense of hopelessness off the pitch, with mass redundancies to members of staff forming the tip of an iceberg which stretches deep into the heart of a club rotting from the inside.
Alan Shearer fires frosty prediction amid Manchester United struggles
Pundit and Premier League icon Alan Shearer gave a scathing review of the current situation at Old Trafford in a recent interview, claiming the road back to success looks longer than ever before.
The former Newcastle man, ranked at No.2 in FourFourTwo's list of the best Premier League strikers of all time, is no stranger to the Red Devils, having turned down a move to Manchester during Sir Alex Ferguson's reign before establishing himself as the most prolific goalscorer in Premier League history up in the Northeast.
"It's not going to be a quick fix at Man United on or off the pitch," Shearer told Betfair.
"Clearly things have been left to rot for so long and Jim Ratcliffe has had to come in and make big decisions. But some of those big decisions have been so poor. Big decisions in terms of ticket prices, firing staff, bringing his own staff in and then firing them and there are so many things that have looked poor in terms of cutting costs, getting rid of staff and former players off the books.
"It's been and will continue to be tough for Man United. In terms of PSR too, how they can go out and spend a shed load in the summer which is what needs to happen to bring quality players in. I don't know how they're going to get around PSR.
"The reality is, although it's Manchester United in name, the Man United that we grew up with and I played against right throughout my career and were giants, is gone. They're not a giant of a football team anymore. They haven't been for a while and will continue to be that for a while longer yet. I don't know how long that's going to take to fix, but they're miles off the Man United I played against and that I knew, they're a million miles away."
Manchester United have now gone over a decade without a league title, while their record of 20 top-flight trophies looks set to be matched by Liverpool this year as yet another key piece of their historic legacy falls away.
Another year outside of the Champions League places could spell disaster for the club's finances moving forward, only furthering the seemingly endless downward spiral of late.
