I captained Man Utd when they were last relegated in 1974…this team are WORSE than us and history can repeat itself

MANCHESTER UNITED’s flops were warned by the team’s captain in their recent relegation that they’re not too good to drown.

Willie Morgan was the Red Devils’ skipper when they pulled out of Division One in 1974.

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And he delivered a scathing verdict on the current crop of Old Trafford flops, telling them: “You guys are worse than us.”

Former Scotland winger Morgan told SunSport: “They say nobody’s too good to go down and that old adage certainly applies to the current group of players.

“Alarm bells need to be ringing at Old Trafford because we went down and we were a better team than that crowd now.

“We had better players, a cohesion that bound us and a real camaraderie, but it still fell short.

“We made the mistake of initially feeling too good to go down but we were unlucky with injuries and we were very unlucky.

“Current people are really pathetic – they’re not as good as us, so they’ll pray Lady Luck doesn’t turn against them.”

In 1973-74 Morgan skippered a team in turmoil as Sir Bobby Charlton retired, terrace idol George Best went off the rails and Denis Law joined arch-rivals City.

United had reached the pinnacle of club football under Sir Matt Busby when they beat Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final at Wembley, but the Scot’s departure sent the club into freefall.

A staggering 5-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in December 1972 under boss Frank O’Farrell was a sign something was to come and then Tommy Docherty failed to stop the rot.

And United’s 36-year uninterrupted streak in top-flight football ended in 1974 when Law famously returned to Old Trafford.

He doomed the Red Devils to relegation with a lagging winner he called a “coincidence”.

Morgan, 77, said: “The fortunes at United have clearly dwindled this season and anything that could go wrong did go wrong for us.

“You just don’t think that when you’re at a club of United’s stature you could potentially go down, but everything seemed to be conspiring against us.

“And once you’re in that situation and gravity is tugging at your legs and nothing is going your way, it’s amazing how difficult it is to get out of trouble.

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“It’s too early to say that the current team is in a relegation battle because we’re only two games down, but they have to pull themselves together and do it quickly.

“The current side looks spineless and that’s something that could never be equalized on our side and the way people like Harry Maguire fall apart speaks volumes.

“But what really worries me will be the fact that they are a real mess on and off the field. It’s a sad state and it breaks my heart because I love the club.”

Morgan, who played 236 times for United, says the Glazers should be blamed.

He said: “The club is drifting dangerously in the wrong direction and that must be down to the owners and the people who appoint them to the top positions.

The Glazers are clearly only in it for the money and have no clue about football

“Clearly the Glazers are only in it for the money – unlike the City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle owners who are in it for the power and glory.

“They may be glad the club is continuing to spend dollars on them, but they keep making big decisions wrong and that means they keep appointing the wrong people to key positions.

“The Glazers obviously know nothing about football. If they weren’t clueless who else would the club get rid of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and bring in Ralf Rangnick on an interim basis.

“And then they make matters worse by hiring someone who comes across as more like an underperforming school teacher than a football manager.

“He doesn’t have the flair of a manager in any way. He has no idea. He has no authority.

“That surprised me because when he came in and told them he didn’t want Rangnick around I thought that showed he meant business.

“NO BLAME RONALDO”

“It was a promising start but he should have gone further and cleared the board of at least ten players to make way for the kids to liven things up.

“But the way he’s messing around with Cristiano Ronaldo is a joke. I don’t blame Ronaldo for not wanting to play with that shower.

“When he wanted out, they should have gotten rid of it immediately. It’s a terrible mess and the situation with Ronaldo is creating chaos.”

Bitter rivals Liverpool will look to add to United’s misery when they travel to Old Trafford on Monday.

Morgan said: “The fear factor of Old Trafford is no longer there, but the current players can take a big step towards bringing back the good old days against the old enemy.

“It should focus heads and bring out the best in underdogs. I hope they get back on track in the interest of the fans.

“If we went down, God forbid, I don’t think we’d come back for a while.”

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