Two Manchester United transfer targets embarrassed the club against Brighton

When the spectacular happens in sport we are fond of the idea that these scripts just cannot be written, but with Manchester United this season they really can.

The performance in beating Brentford on Monday was the best at Old Trafford under Rangnick but five days later on the south coast it was as if it hadn’t happened, that it had all been a dream.

Rangnick picked the same team that played so well against Brentford and here they were on the end of the greatest humiliations in the club’s modern history.

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It was a dark day that began with a player United tried to sign scoring his first goal for Brighton and it got progressively worse after that. At the break it felt like that might be the story. In the end, it was barely a footnote.

They were lucky to be only 1-0 down at half-time, when Rangnick made a double change to try and alter the travel of the game. Within 15 minutes it was 4-0.

By that point some United fans had already started the journey home. Those that remained belted out ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’ and these players will forever be associated with one of the most shameful seasons a United team has produced.

But Rangnick must also take some of the blame. If some of the win against Brentford belongs to him then these chastening defeats must be his as well.

This was a disaster tactically in the first half and the second and the sight of the much-maligned Chris Armas stood next to Rangnick at 4-0 trying to solve the issues probably helps to explain why. These coaches aren’t good enough, just as some of these players aren’t good enough. Armas has no authority whatsoever with a group of players who had never heard of him and compare