It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and criticise Manchester United, so let’s do that. It’s easy to do it because things are so transparently wrong. Yet the problems are rarely explicitly stated. It appears as if the problems are too often reduced to just the manager and the players, and the suggestions made are just a new manager, or new players. Sometimes, Ed Woodward is praised for spending lots of money, sometimes he is damned for not appointing the right manager at the right time. Within the narrow parameters of that aspect of his job, that’s fair enough, possibly. But if you widen the scope to look at everything that is going on, then his involvement with United is far more damaging to the club. And he’s not the only party acting against the interests of actually winning things and entertaining fans - the approach to football that we still, naively, expect from football clubs. It’s far worse than just that. With the Glazers, Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs all acting with their own agendas, it gets utterly depressing. Or very funny, if you really hate United.

First, though, two quick history lessons so we know who is father of this particular mess, and then who is grandfather. The father lesson first: Alex Ferguson decided it would be a constructive use of his time to sue the part-owners of Manchester United over the rights of horse semen. That in turn led them, Cubic, to ask Manchester United why they appeared to favour certain agents who were rumoured to be linked to Ferguson. That meant that with Ferguson’s position of power threatened, he was more than happy to accommodate the Glazer takeover, seeing as it afforded him control over the club, and much less likely to answer questions over dodgy agents. Entirely unrelated, the Glazers and Ferguson were in charge when Bebe was signed.

Without the horse semen, Ferguson and the 99 Questions, there would be no Glazers, no Glazers who cost United a billion quid in interest and fees. There would have been no ultimate control for Ferguson to ensure that David Moyes was picked as manager, after Ferguson definitely did not steer Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola into believing retirement was not on his mind during the season he retired. The father of this mess, then, is Ferguson and his desire for control.

A much shorter second lesson concerns who created this mess. In 1948 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels released the Communist Manifesto, and while it has proved itself a far more successful method for the world on the few occasions it has been implemented, capitalism is not yet in its death throes. Horse semen, the Glazers’ leveraged buyout, Alex Ferguson and the Bebe transfer - all these things can ultimately be laid at the feet of capitalism, if you really want to know who deserves the ultimate blame.

But let’s focus in on the people who are currently alive. That removes Malcolm Glazer from our aim, but his children remain. They have recently called for a 15% cut across most departments except the first team. That means scouting, for example, is now less effective, unless you buy into the idea of ‘more with less’ that has been so successful in so many other walks of life. There is one group that ultimately wants to takeover Manchester United, who are currently linked to ownership of clubs in England, America and Spain, who see the biggest money not in the next television deal, but in cutting an agreement with Google or Apple, for example, to stream their games over mobile devices. In time, they believe that they could even sell United for many billions to allow such a company to remove the middleman. It is hard to imagine that the Glazers are unaware of such a possibility, and as long as United remain a popular brand despite not actually entertaining or winning anything, they will not focus on those shortcomings. Liverpool, despite being horrendous for much of the last three decades but claiming worldwide support, highlight this as a viable strategy. The ultimate focus for letting United drift into this dross is with them.

But you don’t have to stop there. Alex Ferguson also deserves recognition for all his effort. Not content with just appointing Moyes, he now wants to interfere with the next appointment. It is hard to imagine that the stories coming out that he would be happy to assist Ryan Giggs as manager do not have his blessing in some way. Giggs, too, as part of the Class of 92, cannot be unaware of the advantage the brand has if they have the public support of Ferguson, should they ever attempt their own coup or takeover (they have a base just over the road in Hotel Football). According to Red Issue, a reliable source when it comes to Ferguson’s dealings, he is now throwing his weight behind Louis van Gaal in order to make sure that Jose Mourinho does not step in before Giggs gets his chance.

You will have noticed that the criticism before Christmas from Paul Scholes, and the leaked story about Giggs being unhappy with the treatment of James Wilson, have largely died down. It would not be cynical to think that Ferguson, Giggs and their pals realise that it is vital to keep Van Gaal in position until the threat of Mourinho has been dealt with. Giggs, by the way, has been assistant manager for the worst three years of United performances in the last two decades. Mourinho, by the way, has won the Champions League twice, defeated Pep Guardiola, and won the Premier League in two different eras. Yet Ferguson wants to make sure that Giggs is next, presumably so he can still exercise his dead hand of control. The Glazers carry the can in the end, but Ferguson is a close second for welcoming them to the club, and then continuing to meddle for his own interests.

Giggs obviously shares some of the blame, but along with Van Gaal, as coaching staff, his malign influence should have be excised long ago. It is not his or Van Gaal’s fault he is still being paid lots of money to do poorly. That blame is most immediately with Woodward. Woodward is terrified of getting rid of Van Gaal because it highlights that, as a Moyes supporter from the time he was appointed, he has been the man in charge at board level who has two managers who were out of their depth. Add to that, any failure of Van Gaal will bring attention to the utter waste of a quarter of a billion pounds. As well as the commercial side has done under Woodward, it would be doing a lot better if Wayne Rooney wasn’t its most famous performer. Someone good at football, you would imagine, would be an easier sell for sponsors. Woodward will probably have to bring in Mourinho eventually, but the six months of wasted time since Christmas will be because of his current cowardice and previous incompetence.

So, the blame isn’t really for Van Gaal or Rooney. It isn’t even for Michael Carrick’s existence or Bastian Schweinsteiger’s mass. It is not said often enough, clearly enough - the fault lies with the Glazers, capitalism and most damningly, Alex Ferguson. Who would have thought the twin saviours would be the triumphant resurgence of Jose Mourinho and Karl Marx?