Sir Alex Ferguson has been proven right about Antonio Conte amid Manchester United links

Manchester United's experiment has failed.

After turning to Ralf Rangnick, a man that had that had only been a manager for two out of the last ten years, to salvage their season and to try any guide them to a top-four finish to secure Champions League football for next season, United now face the grim reality of missing out on Europe altogether. Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Everton was the latest reason for why United's supporters won't be rushing out to buy the season review DVD.

In a season that has featured too many embarrassing performances and disappointments to list, the defeat on Merseyside felt like a new low. Rangnick is not to blame for all of United's current woes, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he has failed to get the best out of a talented group, even though it is fair to ask if anyone else could have done any better in the circumstances.

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This group of players, not for the first time, has let a United manager down; it happened under Jose Mourinho, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and now under Rangnick. So, therefore, in that sense, it does confirm that the players are to blame for United's continued demise. But with the greatest of respect, United have failed to appoint an elite coach since sacking Mourinho in December 2018.

Figures such as Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte have been and gone when United ought to have made inroads for either of them. Conte, as revealed by the Manchester Evening News less than 24 hours after the harrowing 5-0 defeat to Liverpool back in October, was open to taking charge at Old Trafford in the event of Solskjaer being axed.

The prospect of him taking charge gauged a mixed