Manchester United scrap end of season awards ceremony after worst ever Premier League campaign

Manchester United have scrapped their annual end of season awards ceremony after resolving that there was nothing to celebrate in the wake of their worst ever Premier League campaign.

The event has been held for more than a decade and is usually an opportunity to honour the club’s player of the year at first-team and academy level.

Ordinarily, the gala dinner is scheduled for the final fortnight of the season at Old Trafford but the decision was taken not to go ahead with the ceremony this year after a miserable campaign.

Ultimately, the club felt too embarrassed to hold the black tie event - which is usually broadcast by MUTV - and instead have sought to draw a line under the past 10 months.

The event was not held for the previous two years but that was solely due to the Covid pandemic.

Fans will still be given the chance to vote for their player of the year in a poll, with goalkeeper David De Gea and striker Cristiano Ronaldo the favourites for the award. It is understood that United are reviewing alternative formats for the event moving forward. There remains the possibility of some form of low key occasion this season to mark the player of the year awards and honour the club’s Under-18 team, who won the FA Youth Cup this month

This is the fifth successive season in which the club have failed to win a trophy.

United - currently on 58 points after winning just 16 of 37 matches - will finish the campaign with their lowest points total in the Premier League era, regardless of whether they beat Crystal Palace in their final game at Selhurst Park on Sunday.

But they will also match their lowest placed finish since the inception of the Premier League 30 years ago if they fail to beat Palace and West Ham win at Brighton.

United are currently sixth, two points above West Ham, but will forgo a place in the Europa League and instead drop into the Europa Conference League, Europe’s third tier competitive, should they come seventh. The club finished seventh with 64 points under David Moyes in 2013/14.

Premier League standings (top eight only)

United are hoping to at least finish the season strongly with their incoming manager Erik ten Hag - who will officially start work on Monday - due to be in the stands at Selhurst Park to watch the game.

Ten Hag will have no involvement in the team selection for the game, which will mark the final match of Ralf Rangnick’s interim reign. Rangnick replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in November.

The one bright spot of the season was United’s Under-18 team winning the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 11 years with a 3-1 victory over Nottingham Forest at Old Trafford this month. Alejandro Garnacho, who scored twice in the final, won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award. The United women’s team also finished fourth in the Women’s Super League.