It was part rallying cry, part warning. Darren Fletcher had not been told his time as Manchester United’s interim head coach was over, but he seemed to sense it. And so his parting message to the players who had just exited the FA Cup was laced with an awareness of the worst-case scenario. “Don't waste the season,” he said.
Those words could have been aimed at the directors’ box given that, if United’s campaign ends in failure on all fronts, much of the blame will rest the hierarchy who first appointed Ruben Amorim, then stuck with him last summer. Or, Amorim’s admirers – a band who may not have fully scrutinised his time at Old Trafford – may insist, not retaining him at least until June. Certainly, the feeling is that he was sacked without any kind of succession planning. The powerbrokers who had a manager who won just 31 per cent of his Premier League matches somehow did not seemed to have considered the question of who came next, beyond a crowd favourite who could be a caretaker.
