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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 remain empty seats – a rare show for a Champions League match at Old Trafford – although we are not talking about vacant blocks like Manchester. City, which was ridiculed for its audience of 41,000 spectators in its first game in the Champions League against Lyon.
Manchester United's match support is based on a solid base: Barcelona and Real Madrid, the other two clubs that can claim to be 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. Matches against giants like Valencia or Juventus should be the highlights of the season and not a reminder of how much power has fallen to the ground.
In the Premier League, United only managed eight goals at home – only five other teams scored less. In the Carabao Cup, United was eliminated at home by the second-ranked Derby County.
The club has won three of nine home games this season and 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 the pressure, stay at home and when I say at home, I do not say stadium at home, I say at home and watch on TV," said Mourinho at the # 39, a press conference. Monday. "When people come to support, go ahead, I do not feel the pressure to play at home."
United was booed after the draw and Saturday's game against a team at the Crystal Palace having won just two games all 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 sounds 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.
Old Trafford tries to do its best to make noise. After work between MUST, the Red Army and the club, 1,200 additional places will be available at Stretford End next season for a vocal section.
But Old Trafford lacks the famous guttural roar when a team advances 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 becomes generalized as fans see the limits of their expensive and under performing team.
This team, with the second most expensive payroll in world football, gave United its worst start. to a season in 28 years. That was wrong two seasons ago, when 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 [19659019] Ian Darke puts into context Jose Mourinho's comments about some young Man United stars when 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 feel impressed during a visit to Old Trafford, without moving away to ask why they even bothered themselves.
The fans are now extremely tired. 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 get Lionel Messi to sign Barcelona at the start of the year, he would probably become so mean too.
United's fans just want to watch their team again, especially at home, but the joy is so great. And if fan loyalty is a huge virtue, it's also a curse. Fans go to games because that's what they do. Many talk about not renewing their season subscriptions, but that's often just because they're unable to break their ties – they support their team decisively.
Former leaders 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 integrate into a system – because no one really knows what's going on. is the United system nowadays.
It is unlikely that a new manager will be created or new recruits could reverse the situation when the problems seem so profound. United will play 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.
