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Tickets for the Manchester United home game against Juventus (and Cristiano Ronaldo) last month cost £ 250 on the black market. For Tuesday's Champions League match against Young Boys, they are still on general sale.
There will be empty seats – a rare show for a Champions League match at Old Trafford – although we are not talking about empty blocks like in Manchester City, which have been ridiculed for their 41,000 spectators in their match. opening of the Champions League against Lyon.
Manchester United's match support is based on a solid base: Barcelona and Real Madrid, the two other clubs that can be called the biggest in the world, are experiencing much greater fluctuations than United, but cracks are beginning to appear at Old Trafford.
It's easy to see why. Watching Manchester United at home has become a nuisance. Not only has the team failed to arrive on time for its last two European home games, but it has not scored either. The games against giants like Valencia or Juventus should be the highlights of the season, not remember how powerful have fallen.
In the Premier League, United only scored eight goals at home – only five other teams scored less. In the Carabao Cup, United was eliminated at home by second-tier Derby County.
The club has won three of nine home games this season and has failed to score four times. It would be a compensation if the football was entertaining, but it is rarely. It's as serious as under Louis van Gaal.
"If you feel that pressure stays at home and when I say at home, I do not say stadium at home, I say at home and watch on TV," Mourinho said at a news conference. Monday press conference. "When people come to support, come in. I do not feel the pressure to play at home."
United was booed off the pitch after the draw and Saturday's game against the Crystal Palace team, who have won just two games of the season. It was not a mbad shame, but the defiance of the fans that was evident after the 3-0 defeat in August against the Spurs at home, is gone. United fans are resigned, deflated and unfriendly.
I met a group of palace fans at Piccadilly Station who was returning to London after Saturday's match. "What's going on in your club?" they asked. "It's like a club losing its soul, what kind of football are you trying to play, why is the atmosphere so calm?" And these are legitimate questions.
Inside Old Trafford, many fans are trying to make noise. After work between MUST, the Red Army and the club, a further 1200 squares will be available at Stretford End next season for a vocal section.
But Old Trafford lacks the famous guttural roar as the team sweeps forward because it has largely stopped doing so. Jose Mourinho has rightly congratulated Crystal Palace for its compactness and difficulty in defeating it, but we expect more results against its opponents with stature and poor performance: United is closer to the bottom of the table than Fulham. Manchester City side. And the fans do not know it.
There is flatness on the field and in the stands at United. It started earlier this year after the defeat against Sevilla and it is becoming general as fans see the limits of their expensive team badembled and underperforming.
With the second most expensive payroll in world football, United has had its worst start to the season in 28 years. That was wrong two seasons ago, while the league's form was even worse after 13 games, but United had won the Community Shield and was about to win the League Cup.
2:50
Ian Darke puts in context Jose Mourinho's comments about some of his young Man United stars while the CF team discusses the character of young players.
United was often terrible in the 1980s, but football tickets were cheap at the time. Not now. For their £ 40 or £ 45 at Old Trafford, fans receive a monotonous football and win a win every three games. I helped Spanish friends get tickets for Saturday's match. I apologized to them a day later. As a fan myself, I want visitors to marvel and be moved on a visit to Old Trafford, without moving away to wonder why they have bothered.
There is a deep lbaditude among the fans now; Managers and defaulting players have ensured this. There is no optimism that an incursion into the January transfer market may help because of the high failure rate of recent signings. Alexis Sanchez was an excellent player in Barcelona and Arsenal; he does not look like one now. Paul Pogba should be a great player. he does not look like one either. If United managed to sign Lionel Messi from Barcelona early in the new year, he would probably become as mean.
United's fans just want to watch their team again, especially at home, but there's so little joy. And if fan loyalty is a huge virtue, it's also a curse. Fans go to games because that's what they do. So many people are talking about not renewing their season subscriptions, but it's often just because they are unable to break their ties – they support their team on both sides.
Former directors lost their jobs because they lost the crowd, but what if United replaces Mourinho? United's manager is not the only one to blame in a club that revolves around glory rather than whether a player will fit into a system – because, well, nobody really knows what that's the United system nowadays.
It is unlikely that a new director or new recruits can reverse the situation when the problems seem so profound. United will come back again, but it takes a lot longer than expected and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel for fans who have been suffering for a long time.
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