Should any football club fit the Great Man theory of history it is Manchester United. In the past 100 years, only Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson have knocked the club into shape. A pair of 20th-century Scotsmen, born 15 miles apart in Bellshill and Govan respectively, found the key.
Otherwise, United has been a managerial dustbin, Michael Carrick the latest likely lobbed on the pile. Busby and Ferguson built the club around themselves, possessing the charisma to convince others that theirs was the path to follow. Carrick, an insider, a club man, is falling victim to the same isolation as his predecessors in failure.
Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martínez going off-piste in TV interviews to depth charge Carrick were actually following club tradition. With glamour comes decadence, the faded grandeur that has so often chased a United manager out the door. Beyond Busby and Ferguson, each United manager who also served felt the lash of desperation of a falling giant.
Each of their defenestrations has featured an infighting that would not have been out of place in ancient Rome. Favouritism, nepotism, self-interest, entitlement, complacency and sentimentality have been the betrayal of a legend, to use the title of Michael Crick’s and David Smith’s “j’accuse” book from 1989. Living with the legend and influence of those two managers leads the list of difficulties.
United fans know such history too well. Busby himself had done the deed. A December 1972 meeting at Selhurst Park with Tommy Docherty as Crystal Palace beat United 5-0 hastened the end for Frank O’Farrell.
His sacking in 1977 after an affair with the physio’s wife was announced by the club secretary, Les Olive, from behind the oak door of the chairman Louis Edwards’ Cheshire mansion. Dave Sexton was sacked in 1981 despite winning his last seven matches. Falling attendances at “Cold Trafford” did for “Whispering Dave”.
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