I saw Man Utd relegated in 1974 – there are three signs they’ll go down again

Résumé détaillé

Docherty had the experience and chutzpah to pull it off. Michael Carrick’s legitimacy came from his time as a United player. His coaching credentials were just not there. In the…

If Mauricio Pochettino has five minutes to spare between plotting the downfall of Haiti and preparing Manchester United for his first engagement at Anfield, he might take a moment to familiarise himself with Old Trafford before Sir Alex Ferguson.

Pochettino owes his appointment to the powerful realisation that a club the size of Manchester United might actually go down. The danger will not necessarily pass with his arrival.

Though Pochettino begins from a position of political strength, he faces the same structural failings that hampered Michael Carrick; inadequate squad depth, worst-in-class football executives and clueless owners. As Tommy Docherty discovered half a century ago, charisma alone won’t keep United up.

The team were in steep decline when Docherty became the third permanent hire following the retirement of Sir Matt Busby in 1969. Docherty replaced Frank O’Farrell in December 1972. Though he kept them up that season, he was essentially an undertaker, laying to rest Sir Matt Busby’s last great creation, the team of Law, Charlton and Best.

The young players coming through weren’t good enough, and an increasingly panicked transfer policy made things worse. Feel familiar? The likes of Steve James, Jim McCalliog, Mick Martin and an ageing George Graham were never going to lace those once golden boots.

Charlton retired at the end of 1973. Best left in acrimony in January 1974. Law, in the service of Manchester City, backhealed United into oblivion four months later. Then, as now, United were victims of the same kind of anomie that sucked rational thought out of the equation.

This stuff has its own momentum. Pochettino has Premier League experience at Southampton, Spurs and Chelsea, has managed marquee names at Paris St Germain. But the demand at a global institution like United is of a different order when the energy turns toxic.

In the argot of today’s elite foreign coach, Docherty had to ‘suffer’ in order to live again.

Docherty had the experience and chutzpah to…

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