Sunderland vs Manchester United: Five lessons we learned

5. The class of ’13.

The Class of ’13?

Nearly every football fan that doesn’t support Manchester United is very, very happy right now. United is struggling to score goals, struggling to win matches against weak teams, they have a new manager and their star player might just go away next year.

The United era is definitely over, or so they feel.

These people only have to look at United’s history to realize they are betting on the wrong side.

When Sir Alex took over in ’86, the team was in doldrums. Liverpool was gobbling up every trophy that came their way. United was struggling to match the pace of the top teams in Europe.

Fergie remained true to the United tradition of promoting young talent and delivered the class of ’92 to the world. David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers all formed the core of a team that went on a rampage in the next decade.

Circa 2013. United find themselves scrapping for every victory. There is a huge gulf of class between United and Europe’s elite at the moment.

Wilfred Zaha, Adnan Januzaj, Jesse Lingard, Micheal Keane, Alex Buttner, Nick Powell; names that are hot property in European football right now; names that, one day, might go down in history as United’s Class of ’13.