Have Man Utd become the unmanageable club?

The cycle of doom that has ultimately engulfed every Manchester United manager since Sir Alex Ferguson now has the hapless Michael Carrick in its unforgiving grip.

Carrick recreated a familiar scene - the same one acted out by predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after a 4-1 loss at Watford in November 2021 cost him his job - by raising his hands in apology to supporters who had just seen United humiliated by the same scoreline at Como in the Champions League.

Carrick is the seventh full-time manager since Ferguson stepped down in 2013 after winning 38 trophies during 26 years in charge.

Since then there have been days of success under Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Erik ten Hag, and moments of hope, but the final outcome is always the same - dismissal.

Carrick will need something miraculous to change that storyline, with results poor and revolt within the dressing room as defender Lisandro Martinez took aim at director of football Jason Wilcox after the Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid, while captain Bruno Fernandes questioned the tactics in Como.

It hints at something rotten in the state of United.

So should it really be crestfallen managers standing in front of those disappointed supporters?

Can it really be United's managers every time? Should not even more scrutiny now be aimed at those who appointed them, then decided the direction of the club?

Have United effectively, through years of decay, decline and appalling decision-making, become the unmanageable club?

There have been those seven full-time managers - David Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Solskjaer, Ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Carrick. There have also been spells as interims for others such as Ryan Giggs, Ralf Rangnick, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Darren Fletcher.

United's leaders, from former executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward to the ruling Glazer family and now part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, have effectively tried every trick in the book to recreate the Ferguson era.

Moyes, an ill-starred appointment led by Ferguson, found the job too big for him after leaving Everton. Van Gaal and Mourinho were tried and trusted operators with stellar track records of success at Europe's superpowers. Solskjaer was effectively the anti-Mourinho without any sort of managerial track record that suggested he would succeed at United, but appointed after a successful spell in temporary charge.

Ten Hag got the job on the back of leading a superb young Ajax side to the Champions League semi-final. Amorim was regarded as European coaching's hottest young property when he was lured from Sporting in Lisbon.

All ended up sacked. All eventually found the unwieldy beast that is United impossible to tame.

Van Gaal won the FA Cup in 2016. Mourinho won the League Cup and the Europa League in 2017. Ten Hag won the FA Cup in 2024 with a landmark win against Manchester City.

Slim pickings compared to previous glories.

United, however, have not become a bad or dysfunctional club overnight. They have been heading towards this point ever since the succession plan to Ferguson - not easy, admittedly - was botched so badly.

Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp all felt able to resist the lure of Old Trafford, leading to what should have been red faces all round in December 2019, when they were all managing within 35 miles of each other in the north-west but none were at United.

Ancelotti was at Everton, Guardiola was at Manchester City. Klopp was at Liverpool. United had Solskjaer, an over-sentimental choice made on the back of a feelgood interim spell. He lasted less than three years.

With every passing day, Carrick looks like Solskjaer Mark II.

Carrick is a former fan favourite who did well in temporary charge, but whose previous managerial career was a sacking at Championship club Middlesbrough. Solskjaer shared that same unwanted distinction, sacked by Cardiff City in September 2014 after only nine months in charge as they struggled in the Championship.

It has all brought United to the point where the question must be asked. Since Ferguson's departure, has it ever been worse than it is now? In recent times, has there ever been less hope than there is now? Has morale ever been lower than it is now?

United will always find a manager should they require one, but their current parlous circumstances mean they are no longer the attraction they once were.

They will not have the pick of the globe's finest. They will need to persuade someone that there is a future at Old Trafford that contains something other than future dismissal, a sobering state of affairs for the self-styled "biggest club in the world".