THEY brought in the second-richest man in Great Britain and the hottest young coach in Europe.
And yet, as the fans mourned the 20th anniversary of the Glazer family’s takeover yesterday, Manchester United are worse than ever.
It is easy to forget, after Ruben Amorim laid bare United’s desolate soul in his latest brutally honest press conference, what a coup it had been to land him in the first place.
How Amorim had been hailed as a cross between a young Jose Mourinho and Jesus Christ, when he oversaw a 4-1 Champions League demolition of Manchester City in his final home match in charge of Sporting Lisbon just six months ago.
Sporting boasted a 100 per cent record in the Portuguese league and Amorim was a charismatic tactical mastermind who was going to transform Old Trafford.
And what a game-changer it was supposed to have been when Sir Jim Ratcliffe took control of United’s footballing operation just 16 months ago.
This ruthlessly brilliant businessman, this local-boy-made-good, was going to lead the Red Devils back to the place he once held in the Forbes Rich List.
Now Ratcliffe’s ruthlessness is regarded as hateful penny-pinching, that business acumen has not translated into football — and United are two places above the relegation zone.
This rotten, stinking football club minces the reputations of the best of men.
As Amorim seems to have realised, according to his extraordinary round of media interviews in the wake of Sunday’s 2-0 home defeat by West Ham.
Words which left you seriously wondering whether Amorim wants out this summer.
The 40-year-old offered up the idea that if United could not change things "really fast, we should give our places to different people".
After all, the trend is clear: leave United and start enjoying football again.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, instrumental in both Hammers goals, has been voted West Ham’s player of the season by a landslide and is just one of many players to have left Old Trafford and thrived.
Scott McTominay is a key figure in table-topping Napoli’s bid for the Serie A title, Antony has inspired Real Betis to the Conference League final and Dean Henderson is heading for an FA Cup final with Crystal Palace.
You can list a composite starting XI of players who left United, either permanently or on loan, in the last two years — all of them considered either dead wood or wrong ’uns — which would probably beat Amorim’s team on current form.
The group includes: Henderson (Crystal Palace); Wan-Bissaka (West Ham), Willy Kambwala and Eric Bailly (both Villarreal), Tyrell Malacia (PSV Eindhoven); McFred (Napoli and Fenerbahce); Antony (Real Betis), Mason Greenwood (Marseille), Marcus Rashford (Aston Villa), Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest).
United have become a vast footballer recycling centre which buys good players and makes them bad, before selling bad players who become good again.
Like Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag before him, Amorim has identified a kind of concrete cancer at United which feels incurable once you have been inside the place for any length of time.
Win next week’s ‘Hell Clasico’ Europa League final against Tottenham in Bilbao and Amorim will have something to build upon.
Champions League qualification would significantly increase the budget, as well as the desirability of moving to United this summer.
Lose it and Ratcliffe is in the same position as last summer — wondering whether to back a manager who is failing badly in the Premier League.
Having erroneously handed Ten Hag a new deal and a hefty transfer kitty last year, would he dare do the same again?
Amorim is bright enough to realise this predicament, describing it as "a decisive moment in the history of the club."
Like all good managers, he had the ego to believe he could turn around United.
Once inside, however, he realised the full scale of that task was beyond him. Perhaps beyond anyone.
Under the ruinous Glazers, so many things have been wrong at United for so long that nobody even knows where to start when it comes to putting things right.
Dan Ashworth, one of the finest sporting directors in the game, was in and out of Old Trafford within months. Amorim may well follow suit.
Amorim was correct to suggest that United’s players have been turning it on for Europa League matches on Thursday nights and tossing it off in the Premier League on Sundays.
He was also bang-on when he identified that United players are no longer scared of losing and that not possessing "that fear" is "the most dangerous thing a big club can have".
What does the idea of ‘bigness’ actually mean when home defeats in the Premier League have become so routine that everyone knows they can beat you?
Since the start of last season, United have lost domestic matches at Old Trafford to Brighton, Crystal Palace (twice), Manchester City, Newcastle (twice), Bournemouth (twice), Fulham (twice), Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, Wolves and West Ham.
When Aston Villa win at Old Trafford on Sunday week it will mean that, of the 16 clubs United have faced in the Premier League both this season and last, only Chelsea, Everton and Brentford won’t have won at Old Trafford.
And only Everton will have failed to beat United either home or away.
United have been consistently terrible in the Premier League for two years now.
Should they fail to win the Europa League and should any one of the promoted clubs show any serious ambition, United will be genuine relegation candidates next term.
So we should not blame Amorim if he doesn’t fancy being around to oversee it.