Best moments of 2024 for Manchester United

A look at the calendar year for MUFC.

Transcript

00:00Rich, looking at Manchester United and across 2024, obviously a managerial change, a few

00:07changes with the board as well, a bit of an uncertain situation throughout a few spells

00:13of the calendar year, but looking back across 2024, what's been their sort of best moment?

00:19Now obviously the FA Cup triumph would probably be quite clearly there, but how do United

00:25fans assess 2024 as a whole? Can they sort of view it as maybe a bit of changing tides

00:30with, you know, ahead of 2025 with a new manager, the new sort of board situation? What sort

00:36of stands out across the calendar year?

00:39I think, you know, there's two significant things that have happened, or three things

00:42that have happened significantly this year. Like you said, change of manager, change of

00:46ownership, and then the FA Cup win. In terms of on the pitch, it's got to be that day at

00:50Wembley, because it's ludicrous to think that United were such long odds to beat Man

00:55City, particularly after what we've seen Man City become. But a derby, a one-off game,

01:00you'd almost always back the underdogs anyway, but United were rank outsiders for that. If

01:04they hadn't have won the FA Cup, they wouldn't be in the Europa League now. Ten Hag would

01:08have been sacked in the summer, and just so much changed that day. In a weird way, winning

01:14the FA Cup set United back three or four months, because it meant they kept Ten Hag and then

01:18sacked him, rather than making the change when they had to have done it and when they

01:21should have done it. So that's a really quirky one, the way that that sort of transpired

01:25and the way it worked. In terms of sort of notable off the field issues, the managerial

01:30change always felt like it could still happen, even after they won the FA Cup. United didn't

01:35give Ten Hag a new contract, they just extended his previous one by another year. That kind

01:40of indicated that, look, this wasn't a show of faith, this was just United keeping him,

01:44because they were backed into an awkward position where they'd spoken to candidates,

01:48there was no one available who was a better fit than Ten Hag at the time, and they just

01:54didn't really want to go against the fan base, because at the time, it was a very popular,

01:58unanimous decision amongst fans, I would say, for Ten Hag to remain. And the other has to

02:03be the ownership. Ratcliffe hasn't got off to the best start as Manchester United owner,

02:08there's been the protests over ticket prices, there's been the mess up of the Ten Hag situation,

02:12the mess up of the Dan Ashworth appointment now that he's left the club as well, and the

02:18fact that he is working with the Glazers rather than against the Glazers. Most United fans

02:23want the Glazers gone completely. What they've got is someone who's working alongside them,

02:27who gets on very well with them as well. But in terms of the longevity, the legacy of that,

02:33we will find out in the years to come how successful it is. We might look back at the

02:37Sir Jim Ratcliffe era and say, look, he made awkward, ruthless decisions that were required,

02:44those 250 redundancies, which seem really harsh, and you've got a lot of sympathy for everyone who

02:50lost a job. From a blunt business perspective and background, they might be things that have

02:54enabled United to do more in the future. At the moment, the jury is very much out,

02:59feels that Ratcliffe has an uphill struggle to win all the fan base over, but his takeover

03:05will be the defining moment of 2024 in the years ahead.