Manchester United: Juan Mata, Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez problems head issues for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Manchester United’s leading executive, Ed Woodward, welcomed Juan Mata into his office inside Old Trafford’s main stand after Manchester United’s tame 2-0 home defeat to relegated Cardiff City. The extra security called in case of fan discontent at the game wasn’t needed, but one fan told Paul Pogba exactly what he thought of him after the defeat and it wasn’t complimentary. Though Pogba is popular with younger fans and his shirt is a bestseller, the vocal critic in the Stretford End is not alone in his sentiment.

United have won two in 12 and finished closer to the relegated Welsh side in the league than champions Manchester City. That is the biggest gap that United have been off the top of the league since they were relegated in 1974. The statistics are dreadful. United haven’t won a home league game and kept a clean sheet for a year.

United, with nothing, are nowhere. Though there’s no agreement yet, Mata wants to stay and United want him to remain. The club need good people like him around, a gem of a person in an industry full of the affected. Mata doesn’t need to be in the starting line-up every week, but the dressing room is lacking leaders and positive influences. Whether Mata stays or not is only a side issue.

And fans will do that, at least most will at games where there’s an ageing demographic of the resigned who’ve seen their team win the lot, star-struck tourists and patient, supportive fans. It’s a blessing and a curse since they’re loyal to a fault. United were the best supported team in England when they played in the second division. That loyalty is admirable – and profitable.

There’s a permanent online fury, but it’s the boy who cried wolf with those fans. They were absolutely furious when United had the audacity to only draw a game at Swansea on the way to last winning the league in 2013. They’re never going to be happy, so they get ignored.