It has been a long season and some have questioned how motivated Manchester United will be to win the Europa League with Champions League qualification for next season already assured.
Listen to the noises coming out of United and you’ll see a very different story.
Bruno Fernandes and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have made it very clear how much they want to finish the campaign off with a trophy.
On top of that, Red legend Brian McClair, who was part of United’s last great rebuilding job under Sir Alex Ferguson, has underlined how important winning the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1991 was.
All eyes on the prize
As per ESPN, Bruno underlined that scooping the Europa League could provide a springboard for a Premier League push next team.
He said: “The Premier League is one of the trophies we want to win and to win the Europa League would be good for the mentality of winning trophies. For next season, if we can win this, it will be important.
“Every player needs to understand how it is to win a trophy for Manchester United. If we finish with a trophy, it will not be perfect, but it will be a good year for us.”
According to ITV, Solskjaer echoed Fernandes’ demands, wanting United to go better than their two semi-final defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea this season.
“Let’s see if we’ve developed throughout the season because we’ve had two semi-finals before. We want to go to the next step. Semi-finals, good effort, decent but it’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for Man United.”
Getting back up the mountain
Football was different in 1991, but McClair was in no doubt how important that victory over Barcelona was in Sir Alex Ferguson’s attempts to get United back to the top of English football.
In the Set Pieces, he wrote: “During commentary against Copenhagen, Ian Darke asked Robbie Savage if United’s players would be ‘up for this tournament’ as they’d already qualified for the Champions League.
“I wish he’d asked me and some of the others who savoured glory in Rotterdam almost 30 years ago the same question, as I know what the answer would have been.
“Players want to win. Winning is a mentality. When you win something you want to win more.
“I always remember Alex Ferguson getting the players together after we’d won a trophy and saying, “we need to climb back to the top of the mountain, who wants to come with me?”
This isn’t just empty talk. Trophies are the currency at United and a potless season would make it three seasons without silverware.
Clinching the Europa League at the end of a grueling season could be pivotal for this United side.
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