Manchester United have the opportunity to end a decidedly rubbish season on a high this evening, should they beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
But ex-United hero Rio Ferdinand has branded manager Louis van Gaal a failure at the old club regardless of the match’s outcome.
United have gone 12 years without winning England’s famous old cup and and have failed to claim any major silverware since Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
But Ferdinand said that the club’s fifth-place finish and failure to qualify for the Champions League means the Dutchman has fallen well short of expectations.
The former England defender added that Champions League football comes above anything else for a club of United’s stature, even eclipsing Wembley glory.
He told The Sun: “Beating Palace will add a bit of gloss to the end of the season but you still can’t get away from the fact they haven’t qualified for the Champions League. It’s as simple as that.
“The FA Cup might be a trophy but the Champions League is the Holy Grail now. It is sad to say but it outweighs winning at Wembley.
‘The Champions League is such a big tournament in terms of financial gain and exposure. You have to be in there.”
Ferdinand reflected on his own time at the Manchester club, when a top-four finish was seen as nothing more than a formality. They would aim to win trophies but finishing outside of the Champions League places wasn’t even mentioned.
“When I was at United we would say we had to win a trophy,” he said. “Now they could achieve that this season by lifting the FA Cup but they are going to do it without qualifying for the Champions League.
“We always qualified for the Champions League. We never even contemplated winning a trophy without finishing in the top four.
“Not once did we even speak about trying to finish in the top four – that was a given. Nowadays when you ask anybody at United what their aim for the season is, they will say it is to qualify for the Champions League.
“That tells you the shift we have seen at the club in the last three or four years.
“Since Sir Alex Ferguson left, things haven’t really gone the way United were used to.”
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