It was former Scottish international Gordon McQueen who once said: “Ask all the players in the country which club they would like to play for and 99 percent would say Manchester United. The other one percent are liars.”
It’s a quote that United fans wear as a badge of honour as it’s emblazoned on one of the thousands of different tee-shirts sold by the hawkers and peddlers who flog their wares on Warwick Road every match-day.
But either McQueen’s take on United is no longer valid - or there are an awful lot of liars playing the game at the moment.
It’s damning enough that United failed to get even a single new signing over the line during the transfer window.
Or that interim boss Ralf Rangnick has warned that it is impossible for him - or anyone else - to implement the kind of high-energy pressing game that has put Manchester City and Liverpool into a league of their own at the top of the Premier League.
Of even more concern for United at the moment is the number of players who just don’t want to be there.
Anthony Martial and Donny van de Beek got their wish by joining Sevilla and Everton on loan.
But they left behind a raft of other players who also wanted to be set free.
Jesse Lingard was so desperate to quit the club he has supported all his life that he was willing to take on a relegation battle with Newcastle.
Dean Henderson was ready to face an even more unenviable task at Watford despite signing a four-year contract worth £100,000-a-week just 18 months ago.
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Paul Pogba, re-signed from Juventus for £89million in 2016, has spent the last three-and-a-half years agitating for a move.
United will lose him for nothing for a second time in six months when his contract expires.
And the Frenchman is only still at Old Trafford anyway because the club triggered a one-year extension against his wishes.
Rangnick had to convince Edinson Cavani to help him to rescue United’s season.
Eric Bailly’s agent had lined up a loan deal to AC Milan.
And there have even been reports that Cristiano Ronaldo will not fancy playing in the Europa League next season if Rangnick is unable to finish in the top four, while talks over a new contract for Bruno Fernandes are on hold.
United, it seems, are in a bit of a mess - and that was before Mason Greenwood was taken into custody by the local constabulary following serious allegations concerning his personal life.
It’s not as though Rangnick hasn’t had an impact.
Results might not have been spectacular since the German took over from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but they have been effective.
One defeat in eight has taken them into the top four and they will meet Middlesbrough in the fourth-round of the FA Cup on Friday night.
You would have thought that United’s new chief executive Richard Arnold might have wanted to make a bit of a splash in the transfer market to herald his arrival in the new job.
Rangnick certainly needed him to - and even expected to have his squad reinforced.
One of his first moves on arriving at Old Trafford in December was to open talks with his former club RB Leipzig about midfielder Amadou Haidara.
Leipzig did not want to sell, but sources in Germany knew that the Mali international was ready to force the issue if United offered close to the £33million buy-out clause that will come into effect at the end of the season.
It may be that United are waiting for a new manager to come in during the summer before spending more money in the market.
But should the biggest club in the world be content to write off the rest of the season when there is so much to play for?
The explanation for bringing in Rangnick as manager for six months was that the 63-year-old would then be employed for the next two years as an adviser.
He would be getting a head start at shaping the direction United would be travelling in for the medium and long-term.
Instead, United are treading water.
It was in February 1978 when McQueen felt the need to explain why he had left Leeds to join their hated enemy west of the Pennines in a £500,000 deal.
Then, like now, United didn’t have what it takes to win the title.
The difference was that at least they were prepared to try to do something about it.
