I feel sorry for Manchester United.

They were always one of the teams I loved watching. I would watch them on TV hoping to play against them one day, and experience the football they played from the pitch itself.

When that day came it was great to see all the key players that they had in their golden era under Sir Alex. Keane, Scholes, Beckham, Giggs and the strike duo York and Cole, to name a few. All you could think of was that you better be on your game and play the best football. If you managed to earn a draw you could celebrate it like a win. 

Times have changed and it’s not like that anymore. Some of the players would struggle to get into a great Man Utd side because the competition level was higher and so were the expectations. At the back we know they might not find a Stam or a Ferdinand and Vidic duo anytime soon, but they were hoping that Maguire would steady the ship like Van Dijk did for Liverpool, but it looks like the fix is going to be much tricker. 

Last season when Solskjaer took the job myself and a lot of others thought he could bring back the old philosophy of United but it looks like the job is much bigger than expected. Too many key players got injured or wanted to leave. They sold Lukaku who is now scoring for fun in Milan, and they didn’t bring in a replacement so they’re missing a 20 goal per season striker.

James just arrived and players are looking for him to do some magic. That isn’t the Man Utd we used to know. It used to be the team you would play and the goal would sometimes be to try keep the score down. Now they’re a side that many clubs go to and expect to get the points.

Now it’s hard because the club has the history, but do players want to play there knowing that it’s going to be a long time before they reach top level again where they compete for the title or Champions League?

The way it looks now, they should be happy if they clinch European football next season and then hopefully they can attract some top players that want to come to Manchester and help the team. If not it looks like their big rivals Liverpool and Man City will be cruising to titles for some years and United will be watching them do so. #mmlove