Erik ten Hag is remaining dignified in defeat. He entered the hushed press conference room at the Community Stadium and addressed the assembly with a "good evening".
There was nothing good about Ten Hag's evening. Long-time United supporters likened the debacle at Brentford to Frank O'Farrell's last sorry stand - a 5-0 humiliation at Crystal Palace in 1972. Before full-time, Sir Matt Busby had approached the Scotland manager Tommy Docherty in the directors' lounge about succeeding O'Farrell. Docherty did.
United have shipped at least four goals in seven of their last 33 Premier League fixtures and their next opponents, Liverpool, inflicted an aggregate evisceration of 9-0 last season.
Also read: Dressing room row erupted between United players before Brentford debacle
Liverpool loomed ominously before the mauling by Brentford. Defeat to the Champions League finalists would mean the last two Ajax managers who have managed in the Premier League have played seven and lost seven.
At full-time on Saturday, a handful of intrepid players approached the away end and were greeted with V-signs, middle fingers and outstretched arms. Some fans politely applauded. For Diogo Dalot, it completed a galling hat-trick; he struck an identical pose in front of the away end at Everton in 2019 and Brighton in May. Both scorelines read 4-0.
Bookmakers wasted little time in dubbing Ten Hag "Ten Games". The first press release detailing his shortened odds to become the first top-flight manager to be sacked dropped into inboxes at half-time at Brentford. A cheap publicity stunt that capitalised on the morbid curiosity of United's demise.
Frank de Boer, the "worst manager in the history of the Premier League" in the withering words of Jose Mourinho, oversaw four Premier League defeats at Palace in 2017 without his side scoring. A United player has not scored in their last four games and they have lost their last seven on the road.
Southampton, United's next opponents after Liverpool, purportedly have a manager on the brink yet the players still had the resilience to recover from 2-0 down with 18 minutes remaining to draw with Leeds United.
Ten Hag, like De Boer, is still in Ajax mode, operating without a defensive midfielder as if the Premier League remotely resembles the Eredivisie. The Dutch league was where United had arranged to send Amad on loan a year ago and he could not hold down a place for Rangers in Scotland this year.
Brentford predictably preyed upon the airsick Lisandro Martinez and other teams will, too. Mining the Eredivisie is not sound recruitment. You could have imagined Ajax acquiring Tyrell Malacia and moving for Marko Arnautovic to offset Sebastian Haller's sale.
A 4-0 defeat in August, a left-footed loose cannon of an Argentinian centre-back and an unsustainable approach; Louis van Gaal tried it and failed with United eight years ago. Someone needs to tell Ten Hag he is not in Amsterdam anymore.
There are justifiable doubts about Ten Hag though the notion of dismissing him is senseless. Changing manager would not change anything at United. To do that, they have to cut the head off the snake and drain the venom.
With Todd Boehly now on the scene at Chelsea, the Glazers' reputation in the States, largely unblemished with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Super Bowl triumph 18 months ago fresh in the memory, could come under scrutiny. Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal - all under American ownership - have spent vast sums this summer, improved their squads and have the fanbases onside.
The Glazers are responsible for the worst United team in decades, a stadium that has become decrepit through their lack of investment and a sub-standard training complex. They do not have the funds to finance a sufficiently strengthened squad and redevelopment of Old Trafford and Carrington.
When a former United employee took umbrage with coverage of the waterfall gushing down from the Streford End roof hours before the April 2019 derby, they wailed that supporters want a better stadium and a better squad but "can't have it both ways".
United have saddled Ten Hag with players incapable of executing his style and there has not been a sole significant player sale. Fulham took Andreas Pereira off United's hands but he had spent the last two seasons on loan in Italy and Brazil.
Last season was a true gauge of the United squad, not the false finish of second in empty stadia. The "potential" in the squad that Ten Hag and football director John Murtough have cited is simply not there.
When an objective troubleshooter and recruitment specialist diagnoses "surgery of the open heart" and recommends "10 new players" you ought to listen. That compliant culture Ed Woodward fostered at United has been maintained by his successor, Richard Arnold, with the expulsion of Ralf Rangnick and the non-existent squad rebuild. Woodward renovated United far more proactively in response to the David Moyes season eight years ago.
Rather than restructure the club, United reverted to the old way of letting the manager cherry-pick targets without any serious scrutiny. Their approach in the transfer market is now no different to Sir Alex Ferguson's era.
Ferguson's return to the fold, a populist's move, is additional evidence United cannot divorce themselves from the past. With a row of leather-padded seats in the directors' box with his named plaque screwed onto them and a seven-figure ambassadors' fee, some extra influence keeps Ferguson sweet and onside.
It was Ferguson's avarice over the racehorse Rock of Gibraltar's stud rights that prompted the Irish racing tycoon John Magnier to sell his shares in United to the Glazer family, resulting in their inevitable takeover.
When Wayne Rooney fluttered his eyelashes at Manchester City in 2010, the Glazers panicked and placated him with a salary hike to £250,000-a-week.
"I told them I did not think it fair that Rooney should earn twice what I made and Joel Glazer immediately said: ‘I totally agree with you but what should we do?’" Ferguson wrote in his last book, Leading. "It was simple. We just agreed no player should be paid more than me."
Someone close to Ferguson admits he would have to resign as an ambassador and from the impotent football board if he was to speak out against the Glazers and "that's not right". Several supporters would disagree.
Ten Hag has no attachment to United other than that they were his favourite English club as a 'Tukker' in east Holland. The appointment of Steve McClaren, ever the optimist during the first drinks break at Brentford, is a move Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might have made and it remains to be seen whether it is truly effective.
Liverpool only became a credible force again when they ended the Boot Room culture and empowered Gerard Houllier as standalone manager in 1998, having attempted a short-lived co-manager experiment with Roy Evans. Under Houllier, Liverpool won four trophies and finished second to Arsenal in 2001-02.
United need a good evening against them next Monday.
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