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Once the undisputed giants of English football, Manchester United have fallen on hard times in recent years and for all of their financial success off the field, there has not been much to celebrate in terms of sporting achievements since Sir Alex Ferguson departed Old Trafford.
Having won seven of the first 10 and 13 of the first 20 Premier League titles, the Mancunians are yet to get their hands on England's top prize since 2013 and have seen their spot at the summit usurped by two fierce rivals in Manchester City and Liverpool.
Things have gotten so bad at the club that players are desperate to leave, while they have also lost the appeal that made them almost impossible to turn down.
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Lots of factors have contributed to the current malaise suffered by the Red Devils and while we could spend a lot of time discussing these factors, it is more effective to proffer solutions to the problems moving forward.
In this piece, we shall be highlighting five steps that Manchester United could take to rise back to the top.
#5 Get a Sporting Director
It is fairly obvious even to the most casual of fans that things are not going right in a sporting perspective at Manchester United. The reason for this is not far-fetched, as there are not too many people with a footballing pedigree in key decision making positions in the club's management.
Off the field, things have never been better and Manchester United have been raking in record revenues year on end, securing lucrative partnerships with global brands across the globe.
This is testament to the club's enormous appeal - despite the relative lack of success in recent years - but the Red Devils can ride on the waves of past achievements for only so long and if they are to continue struggling, it is not rocket science that they would lose touch with the next generation of fans which would concordantly affect their popularity.
Beyond achievements of the past, another reason why United have found financial prosperity in recent years is down to the work on one man, Ed Woodward.
The University of Bristol-trained accountant found success at global brands like Pricewaterhouse Coopers and J.P Morgan before delving into football after advising the Glazers on their takeover of Manchester United in 2005. Since then, he has progressed through the ranks and is currently the Executive Vice Chairman overseeing the club's daily activities.
In this role, Woodward handles the club's transfer policies and the very first one he handled in 2013 when the club acquired just Marouane Fellaini despite being linked to several players acted as proof of what was to come.
Since then, it has been one fumble after another in the transfer market, with United either handing mega contracts to undeserving players or falling short in their quest to sign quality targets.
While he might almost have a magic wand when it comes to lucrative sponsorship deals and endorsements, Ed Woodward is out of his depth in football matters, as his lack of experience in the business of transfer negotiations means the club usually gets the short end of the stick in the market.
The position of Director of Football has been around on the continent for a while and although relatively nouveau in England, clubs are slowly getting to accept it in the Premier League.
At the start of the current season, 15 of the 20 English top-flight clubs had Directors of Football including Arsenal, Manchester City, Everton, and Chelsea. One club conspicuously missing on the list is Manchester United and despite several promises in the past, there is still no space provided for the role in the current managerial hierarchy.
For as long as Ed Woodward acts as the decising authority at the club, Manchester United would continue to falter on the field (ultimately off it as well) and for their own benefit, it is imperative that a Director of Football is appointed.
#4 Identify a playing pattern and appoint a coach that fits the profile
Watching Manchester United play makes one question what all the time on the training ground is spent doing, as the players usually trudge about in a clueless manner, with rare victories attributed more to luck than any imposed system.
In the seven years since Ferguson departed, no less than four permanent managers have been appointed, with each bringing with him a different system which has culminated in this unidentifiable mess.
David Moyes was out of his depth from the moment he got the job, Louis van Gaal spoke about his 'philosophy' for two years with little evidence seen on the field, while Jose Mourinho was as far from the 'United way of playing' as is humanly possible.
By contrast, despite their relative success, the powers-that-be at Manchester City had long admired the Barcelona model and identified Pep Guardiola as the ideal manager to put them on par with the Blaugrana and they put systems in place to make his transition from Bayern Munich as smooth as possible.
Two long-term friends in Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano were appointed long before his arrival, while the club's academies were overhauled to imbibe the training systems and patterns of the senior team.
The result of this is that Manchester City have not only found immense success, they have done so by playing in an identifiable pattern of play and their entire transfer model is based on players' adaptability to this system.
Even the casual fan knows the traits sought in potential Manchester City players, with ability on the ball ranking high for defenders and goalkeepers, while midfielders and forwards must be able to retain possession in tight spaces. The same can be said about Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool, with high-energy players who can run for days integral to the success of his gengenpressing system.
Manchester United currently lack a clear playing pattern and for as long as this happens, sustained success would continue to elude them and the first step to addressing this would be to sign a proven manager and give him the requisite support to implement his ideas.
#3 Stop living in the past and accept the reality
Manchester United fans pride themselves on being the most successful club in English football history but the reality is that they are no longer anywhere near being considered an elite club (by performance on the field).
They have not lifted the Champions League since 2009, the Premier League since 2013 and perhaps most damningly, they are light years away from genuinely being contenders in both competitions.
Another mantra held onto by fans is the club's tradition of having produced legendary players from the United academy but again, this is a false dawn and supporters would do well to get rid of it.
Marcus Rashford is the only academy graduate to have truly broken into the first-team in the last decade and while Scott McTomminay has impressed thus far, it is to early to gauge his overall impact.
The club were lucky to have so many talented players come through at the same time in the academy who progressed to form the backbone of the first successful era of Ferguson's tenure but such group of players do not come around every time.
It's been seven years since the last member of the famed 'Class of '92' kicked a ball in a United jersey and since their graduating class, Manchester United have not come anywhere close to producing players of such quality.
In keeping to terms with current trends, the club would have to spend a lot of money to get back to the top and fans would have to make do with not too many academy graduates cutting it in the first team.
Manchester United are currently miles off the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool and they are no longer an attractive draw for the top talents and fans of the club would do well to accept this, limit expectations, and face the current realities.
#2 Have patience, lots of it
For almost two decades, Manchester United swaggered around as the top dog in town and blitzed their way to trophy after trophy, doing so while playing an exciting brand of attacking football that was pleasing to watch.
Some of the best players in the world wore the jersey of the club and they generally represented Manchester United to the best of their ability, with fans genuinely looking forward to the next time their beloved team took to the field - Old Trafford was a happy place and a fortress.
Every positive attribute listed above has been substituted with an extreme opposite in recent years. Strife, apathy, and disappointment are some of the adjectives you can use to describe Manchester United right now.
As already indicated, the Red Devils are numerous levels beneath the clubs at the summit and the fact that the 20-time champions were closer to the relegation places than the top of the Premier League in each of the last two seasons is indicative of this.
While not impossible, it is going to be very difficult for Manchester United to get back to where they once were and it would take a lot of near-misses and pitfalls for them to get their house in order.
A parallel can be drawn with Liverpool, with the Reds themselves falling spectacularly from grace to grass but they persevered, which has led to them reaping the rewards in recent years. The same would have to happen at Old Trafford and fans of the club have to endure, show a lot of faith and patience for their rebuilding process to kick into gear.
#1 Break free from Sir Alex Ferguson's shadow
With 38 major trophies won as Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson is not only the most successful coach in the club's illustrious history, but also one of the most successful of all time.
It is hard to imagine the club attaining the level of success they did without the input of the great Scotsman and Manchester United's history is not complete without a wholesome chapter or two dedicated to the contributions of one of the greats of the game.
The 78-year-old has achieved almost godlike status at Old Trafford and he is still highly revered to this day. Over 60% of the total trophies won by the club came during his managerial tenure, while some of the best players to have represented United were his proteges.
However, as much as fans of the club would like to romanticize the past and immortalize Sir Alex Ferguson, the sad truth is that they have to let go and move into the future. This is of course easier said than done, as Fergie spent the best part of three decades at the helm of affairs and left behind a shadow so large that getting out of it would be very difficult to achieve.
He was the last of a dying breed of managers who oversaw everything at clubs and had a say in almost every decision down to the minutest detail; but this hands on approach actually left United lagging behind their counterparts.
David Moyes was said to be genuinely shocked at how outdated the club's scouting methods were and how much input they needed from him.
Also read: How Sir Alex Ferguson partly contributed to Manchester United's current struggles
It has been seven years since Ferguson departed Old Trafford but for how frequently he is mentioned, you would think it was just last year.
This is of course not helped by the fact that numerous TV and Radio stations are filled with former Manchester United players-turned-pundits like Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, and Rio Ferdinand who keep going on about the 'United way' and how things were done under Ferguson.
Ole Gunner Solksjaer tows the same line by pretty much referencing Ferguson every week and almost attempting to do things and handle his players the same way his former manager did.
However, Ferguson was in charge of a different era and the dynamics of today's football means that players are less likely to adapt to his management methods like the infamous 'hairdresser' technique.
Sir Alex Ferguson's contributions at Manchester United cannot be erased and he is guaranteed immortality as long as the club exists. Every new manager walking into Carrington knows that the Scot is the standard to be measured against but they do not need everybody second guessing their work and comparing their methods to those applied by the legendary manager.
