Manchester United got what was coming to them in Bilbao

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There is only so long a team can ride its luck for and on a cloudy night in Bilbao, Manchester United found out they had rolled the dice once too often. There is to be no salvation this season. No silverware to wash away the stains of mediocrity that have engulfed this football club.

For two years, United have been failing upwards. Last season, they lost 14 times in the Premier League and finished eighth. This season, they have lost 18 times (with one still to play) and could finish 17th. They've been getting worse, but somehow climbing closer to the promised land.

On Wednesday night, they finally fell to Earth. Now the reality will sink in, and it will be a painful one for the players and Ruben Amorim and his staff. Amorim's song was still being belted out long into the night in Bilbao, but he is mostly responsible for overseeing United's worst season in more than 50 years.

For months, United have clung to a Thursday night tightrope, overcoming a series of games that promised to define their season. But the journey was going to end one way or the other in the Basque Country, and this time, they couldn't keep their balance. Instead of the Champions League, there will be a season that could be as short as 40 games.

There will be nine Premier League clubs in Europe next season, but somehow United won't be one of them. They will be watching along with the other also-rans, the Wolves and West Ham's of this world. Both are recent winners at Old Trafford.

That is where United are in the food chain now, and Amorim knows it. He has delivered a very different message ahead of this final to Ange Postecoglou. Amorim knows his team aren't ready for the Champions League and he admitted as much last week.

"That is my feeling," said Amorim. "We need more time with the team. We need to arrange a lot of things in Carrington that we need more time to do so we’re not thinking game by game by game. Then we have the squad.

"We proved this year that we need to be a better squad if we want to win European games and then be really competitive in the Premier League. That is going to be tough. My feeling is that."

You wouldn't say Amorim has got his way, but he has no excuses now. He was desperate for the silverware and knows this is a club that belongs in the Champions League. But now he has those free midweeks, and he has to make the most of them.

In 2015/16, Chelsea leapt from 10th to title-winners without European football. Moving United from 16th to sixth would be considered an achievement. Maybe just keeping his job would be a start.

Amorim didn't want to join mid-season and this is why. He told everyone there were tough times ahead, and boy, have they been tough. Now he doesn't even have a trophy to show for a disastrous seven months. If results don't pick up quickly next season, then the spotlight will turn on Amorim fairly quickly.

But they don't deserve to be at Europe's top table. They are closer to the Championship than the Champions League, and this summer has to be a turning point. Amorim will get the backing he craves, but plenty of managers have been sacked for less.

As the United end emptied rapidly inside San Mames, it was worth remembering the origin story of this journey. The run here had encompassed 14 Europa League games, but this wasn't a route that began at Old Trafford against FC Twente back in September.

They didn't qualify for this competition through the league but via the FA Cup. They had to beat Manchester City at Wembley 12 months ago to book a spot in the Europa League.

So it's actually a journey that began in the freezing cold surrounds of Wigan in January 2024, on a bitterly cold Monday night in the FA Cup third round. To most observers, being 6-4 down to Lyon on aggregate with six minutes of extra-time to play was the closest this run came to ending for United. Maybe it was actually at Wembley last April, when the scoreboard read Coventry City 4 Manchester United 3 with the clock running dead.

Victor Torp had already celebrated the goal that would have completed a comeback for the ages - and signalled the immediate end of Erik ten Hag's tenure. Some United fans had already left Wembley when the VAR spotted Haji Wright was a toenail offside in the build-up.

Twenty games later, they had somehow slogged it all the way to Bilbao. But luck can only take you far. At some point, quality has to take over, and that is something United desperately lack.

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