Manchester United's £62m transfer makes perfect sense after Europa League final failure

Manchester United's dismal season reached a new nadir as they were beaten 1-0 by Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final in Bilbao.

Ruben Amorim's side turned in a woeful performance at San Mames in what was their biggest game of the season and never threatened to get back in the contest after Brennan Johnson's scrappy opener at the end of the first-half.

Rasmus Hojlund came closest to equalising when his header was spectacularly cleared off the line by Micky van de Ven but United lacked quality and creativity yet again and were beaten by Spurs for the fourth time this season.

It means their woeful campaign can't be saved by a trophy and Champions League qualification, and the curtain will come down on their worst season in more than 50 years at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Fernandes runs out of fuel

This was Bruno Fernandes' 199th game for club and country in the past three seasons, so any criticism of his performance should be tempered by an understanding of his ludicrous workload, not to mention the fact that he has bailed out this team so often.

If anything, the fact they rely so heavily on their captain and talisman only adds to the pressure. Almost every time, Fernandes rises to the occasion, but in Bilbao he just ran out of steam.

His passing was wayward, including for the goal, and too often he got balls wrong as United tried to build some pressure. Maybe he was trying too hard, but this was a day when relatively simple passes went astray. With Fernandes, it is usually the ambitious, defence-splitting passes that don't always come off.

Given the lack of goals in this time, it is Fernandes who normally needs to deliver. He had one half-chance, from Noussair Mazraoui's cross with 20 minutes to go, but couldn't