Another woefully trophyless season at Manchester United, but viva Atletico ‘the Spanish Burnley’ Madrid – The Warm-Up

WEDNESDAY’S BIG STORIES Man Utd succumb to Atletico Ad/> Make that five years without a trophy for Manchester United Football Club. FootballPique to Haaland: If you want the Ballon d'Or, don't join same team as Mbappe03/02/2022 AT 10:36 An unfathomable prospect back in those days, but now it has become the norm. That era, and even the Europa League win under Jose Mourinho, is a distant memory.

Now it’s near-misses with a sprinkle of early exits, expensive recruits failing to deliver, and former Manchester United players pointing the blame in every direction – and some current ones too. This is Manchester United we're talking about here. The long and short of it is that they simply aren’t good enough (shall we just end the article there?), with United looking years from challenging Manchester City and Liverpool domestically, and not smart enough to contest for the Champions League.

Perhaps hiring the right head coach would go some way towards correcting their faults. They couldn’t find the right person in November and so just brought in Ralf (they couldn’t do that in December 2018 either and so they just brought in Ole) but it is a must this summer, and last night was yet more proof as they were outclassed by a side who danced to their manager’s tune. Atletico Madrid were far from the “bang average” Owen Hargreaves described them as at full-time.

They were clinical, they were persevering, they were everything we’ve come to expect from a Diego Simeone side – even if that hasn’t been so present this season. You know you’ve annoyed a whole fanbase when “Spanish Burnley” is trending on Twitter. You know you’ve outsmarted the man in the opposing dugout when he’s left questioning the official and minutes added on.