God knows the number of times I've asked myself that question; a club that claims to have over 58 scouts and yet proper identification of talent is almost non-existent for the club. The club, as recently as 2018, upgraded their scouting department and the relative inefficiency of the system left the then United manager, Jose Mourinho baffled. It was said that Mourinho knew little about what many of the club scouts do, save for chief scouts Marcel Bout and Jim Lawlor with whom he was in contact.

Football writer James Homecastle told BBC 5 live sport that the Red Devils don't make enough use of your network as it is. If that is the case, it makes no sense for there to be such a large number of talent spotters and yet talent cannot even be spotted. Even executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward - for all the flak he's taken - recently admitted that Manchester United's recent scouting has been shambolic.

The United chief has said he wants the recruitment under Ole Gunnar Solksjaer to be judged in the 'coming windows' and has admitted that the system to identify talent was fundamentally wrong.

Woodward told United We Stand via Goal.com: 'The system wasn't set up in the right way. Twelve scouts reporting to one chief scout was more set up to say no - too many exceptions to the process were made historically while this was being fixed. We also have to hold our hands up and say that recruitment wasn't at his best in recent years.'

I've always been of the opinion that every newly appointed Manager enjoys a 'honeymoon period' - a period where whatever he does is correct, whatever he touches turns to hold and whoever he plays, he wins. Some have an extended honeymoon period, others don't (take the case of Jose Mourinho at Tottenham).

For example, let's take a look at Ole Gunnar Solksjaer when he first arrived at Manchester United, they were tearing teams apart, every player, all of a sudden, was performing to levels they never reached before and the fans were all happy and jubilant. Well, they - the Manager and Fans alike - were all thrown back into reality after that eventful night in Paris and seeing this happened, I couldn't help but declare within myself that the honeymoon period had expired. Similar scenes are playing out right now at Arsenal and Everton where I can effectively say that these Managers are still in their honeymoon period.

But for Lampard and Chelsea, the honeymoon ended too soon. Chelsea appointed Frank Lampard at the start of the season with high hopes and expectations and the first few matches he managed didn't cut it, then all of a sudden bang, everything they touched seemed to turn to gold. After the loss to Liverpool on the 22nd of September 2019, they went on a six-match unbeaten run in the Premier League whilst also holding the fort in the champions League notably with victories over Ajax and Valencia. Then came the loss to Manchester City on the 23rd of November 2019, a game in which the lead at one point before being pegged back by the blue men from Manchester.

Ever since then, they've never really recovered, losing 5 and drawing two of the 11 matches they played from that point till now.

Looking at the Arsenal match, they always seemed to have the upper hand in the game and fortune even favoured them with the David Luiz red card but as nothing is ever really sure in football, they went on to draw with 10-man Arsenal.

This season in the Premier League, statistics show that they are performing very good overall and are currently fourth on the table winning 52% of their matches. On average, Chelsea score 1.7 goals and conceded 1.3 goals per match. 57% of Chelsea's matches this season ended with both teams scoring and this inability to keep clean sheets has continually clock the wheel of progress of Lampard and his boys. Recently their transfer ban was lifted and if they are to face the harsh hands of reality they've got to take care of an obvious problem, which is their defence.

Widely regarded as the best defensive midfielder as well as the best box-to-box midfielder around, the last few months have been nothing but torrid for the little man from France.

Watching Kante do his thing on his day, you get the feeling of watching a Sports Car put into overdrive; he is just relentless and never tiring. He covers every inch of grass breaking up play, making interceptions and most importantly of all, winning the ball for his teammates; many of whom have confessed that with him around, they just relax and wait for the ball. These qualities are what have endeared him to the heart of every true Football Fan.

Fast forward to the World cup final where he had arguably his worst performance in a France shirt; he was substituted after just 55 minutes of the match, with the score at 2-1. There were rumours afterwards that he had been struggling with an unidentified injury. This was to be the beginning of his injury struggles as he also played the Europa League final in Baku inspite of his knee injury, where he needed pain-killing injections to play.

Kante has had almost a half-dozen other injury issues - ranging from ankle problems to hamstring complaints - throughout this season causing him to miss a total of 14 games. When he has been available, Kante has not had the same impact in recent years and remarkably, Chelsea are winning more without him in the side. Chelsea have only won 33.3 per cent of their league games with Kante in the team and 87.5% without him. In all competitions it gets slightly better but they have still won only 36.8% with him and a surprising 71.4% without him.

Against Newcastle , Kante struggled, missing the big chance of the game and uncharacteristically failing to dominate his opponents through the midfield. He won just 29.4% of his 17 duels, gave away four fouls and squandering most of his passes.

He just is not himself these days and its left for Lampard and his handlers to work out how to restore him back to his former state.

Back in the 90's and 2000's, if you had watched football at least once or twice then you must have definitely heard of Manchester United. So unrivalled was their dominance of English Football that other clubs just couldn't see any light at the end of their tunnel. Week after week, Sir Alex Ferguson and his boys produced incredible results, season after season they carted away the loot of their warfare coupled with their famed academy which continually churned out mega superstars; there was no near end in sight to their unbridled success.

Then the unexpected happened - Sir Alex Ferguson's health started deteriorating and his advisers began preaching to him the gospel of retirement. Sir Alex Ferguson being the legendary and enigmatic figure he is, decided that the perfect sendforth would be winning one last Premier League title. The 2011/12 Premier League season was one of the most keenly contested seasons in the 27 year history of the League and of English Football as a whole. The season saw both Manchester Clubs go toe to toe and shoulder to shoulder for superiority with City, reinvigorated by the Arabians and their vast fortune, coming tops. To Sir Alex Ferguson, this was only delaying the inevitable. He got his wishes as United won the 2012/13 Premier League title thanks to the brilliance of their Marquee signing - Robin Van Persie and Sir Alex Ferguson moved on. Not many people saw it coming but David Gill, the Man who had always been by Ferguson's side managing the administrative affairs of the club decided to leave as well.

If you had asked any United fan about the future at this point, you would have gotten a reply full of optimism; well they were free to dream as not many foresaw the impending disaster coming the way of the club. The moment Ed Woodward took charge as the Vice President of the club, it seemed as if the football gods stopped smiling on Manchester United. One bad decision after another, one bad transfer after another, it was as if Pandora's box had been opened and all its contents poured out on the club.

Does the above narrative remind you of anyone? Of course, who else but United's greatest rivals - Liverpool.

Liverpool had enjoyed large amounts of success in the 70's and 80's and at that point they were the biggest and most successful club in England with the likes of Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Kenny Dalglish and most clubs of that period were playing catch-up.

Just like United, they never expected the slump that followed the inception of the newly formed Premier League - a change from the old English Football League season. To this day, this is still their last League title but it seems that is about to change with the current happenings. This didn't come about by chance but by meticulous planning after the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) took over the club on October 6, 2010. After about 5 years of takeover, the result of their work was clear for everyone to see - they got one of the best Managers in the business on board in the person of Jurgen Klopp and this singular appointment has turned Liverpool from perpetual underachievers to the all-conquering juggernauts they are right now.

All this underlies the importance of having a management with well-laid out plans run a club and at the moment, Manchester United have no such thing. The sooner United get the management side of affairs correct, the sooner their return to the top; else it would be a case of Liverpool all over again.

It took Liverpool 30 years to get it right, with the way United are going, they might never get it right.

Rayhandrinni:
so wrong.
I'm a fifa fan cos I think pes is too easy, they add assists to everything.
Fifa, you have to do it yourself.
As for graphics and reality. PES is top notch. Game play and club licensing belongs to Fifa .

Please sir when was the last time you played PES?

Rayhandrinni:
so wrong.
I'm a fifa fan cos I think pes is too easy, they add assists to everything.
Fifa, you have to do it yourself.
As for graphics and reality. PES is top notch. Game play and club licensing belongs to Fifa .

Please sir when was the last time you played PES?

Handsomecole:
This 2016

We shattered Arsenal at their home
Demolished Chelsea at their home
Crushed Leicester
Humbled Man U
Destroyed Manchester city
YNWA...

Humbled Man U?? I am nt understanding.... How?