COMMENT: United now realising it’s a long way back from the fall

ONLY 15 months after they won the league and three years after they reached the Champions League final for the third time in four years, it is already hard to fathom a way back for Manchester United after their humbling 4-0 defeat to League One MK Dons.

So much has come together at the same time, from the departure of Alex Ferguson and chief executive David Gill, the transfer bungling of Gill’s replacement Ed Woodward, the failure of the appointment of David Moyes to all of the downsides of the Glazers’ debt-laden ownership coming home to roost, leaving a squad desperately short on both quality and leadership.

The Glazers have been masters of making a huge club pay for the privilege of being owned by them but now the true costs of that are starting to be felt.