Richard Kurt: Manchester United's darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn

Here we are yet again, in ‘new season = new manager’ mode for the third time in three years, wondering whether this is now going to be A Thing.

“Repeat to fade” is the phrase that springs to mind: isn’t this how the former Manchester City died away, in the good old/bad old days of the ’70s and ’80s?

Actually, I’m proposing that purely for rhetorical effect. Nobody I know is thinking along these lines — we’re all too excited, repeatedly banging the ‘11’ button on the Giddy-O-Meter like e-numbered kids at the funfair.