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Manchester United’s loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final robbed the Red Devils of their last get-out-of-jail-free card.
This season was already confirmed as United’s worst Premier League season on record before Ruben Amorim’s men flew out to Bilbao, but returning with silverware – and a place in next year’s Champions League – certainly would have eased tensions.
In truth – Micky van de Ven’s goal-line heroics aside – neither side stamped any sense of authority on the game, but the Red Devils’ luck ran out, and the wide-reaching criticism has already flooded in.
Manchester United legend feels Red Devils got what they deserved
United have never finished lower in the Premier League than this season, regardless of the result on Sunday at Aston Villa, and they will not feature in Europe in any capacity for the first time in 35 years next season.
The only thing that makes that worse? Most of the greats from the Red Devils’ best teams are now pundits in one form or another, and their standards haven’t slipped, so their words are often sharp.
That’s never more true than when former United captain Roy Keane – ranked no.6 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best Premier League midfielders of all time – gets his hands on a microphone.
“They've been getting out of jail with European football, and it's been covering the huge cracks at Man United,” Keane told CBS Sports after the Europa League final. “All season, they have been so easy to beat. They got lucky a few times in Europe and then tonight again. Ultimately, it's not good enough."
On more than one occasion, Amorim has used Harry Maguire as an auxiliary striker to good effect, but the plan didn’t work in Bilbao. Keane sees this simply as another footnote in the desperation of United’s season.
“Just when you think things can't get any worse for Man United,” the Irishman summarised. “It's been the story all year.”
In FourFourTwo's opinion, it's never easy to satisfy Keane on matters of football, especially when it comes to United.
But he is right that the Red Devils' smash-and-grab wins against the likes of Lyon in the quarter-final have been a welcome distraction to much larger issues at Old Trafford.
That shield has now been shattered. Plenty of introspection is needed at United over the summer.
United next face Aston Villa when Premier League action returns for the season finale this Sunday.
