Standards may be falling at Manchester United after all but Chris Sutton reckons Ralf Rangnick needs time and patience to put it right.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked by the Old Trafford club in November as the United board finally lost patience with the affable Norwegian.
He was the latest in a long string of managers to wilt in the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson as the club now stand nine years and counting without a Premier League title.
They splashed out on Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane in the summer but look to have regressed despite the investment, sitting seventh in the table after a miserable defeat to Wolves.
And a change in manager has had minimal effect with experienced German Rangnick so far unable to get a consistent tune out of his troops.
Since his arrival late last year, there have been reports of rifts in the Old Trafford dressing room and on Wednesday it was claimed the players are unimpressed with his methods.
And now another report has called Rangnick into question with the Manchester Evening News claiming that "falling standards" mean there is "confrontation brewing" between the boss and some of his key players.
Media reports criticising Rangnick have not been hard to come by and the attitude towards the German is widely different to the patience granted to Solskjaer, who went nearly three years without a trophy.
And Sutton has brought that into focus as he criticised the "boy's club" mentality at Old Trafford.
He tweeted: "Didn’t hear any of these stories about Man United players being ‘sick to death of falling standards’ when Ole was in charge and standards were falling.
"Rangnick is just in the door and like any manager needs time. Manchester United looking more and more like an old boys club…"
United face Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Monday as they look to get their rapidly dwindling season back on track.
