After Manchester United's stunning 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final, pundit Clive Tyldesley uttered something that will be remembered forever.

Indeed, he was correct – Manchester United had finally arrived after winning their third major championship of the 1998-1999 season, and it is a landscape that no other English team has experienced since then.

Tell a United fan on the terraces of the Nou Camp in May of 1999 that his team would not have won a major trophy for five years in 2022 if you go back to that eventful night. Who would have thought it possible?

How can a team that has been so dominating for such a long period of time fall so far and so quickly?

Manchester United, long the glory of English football, is now just one of the country's top four teams after two decades of decline.

With the club stumbling season after season under a succession of managers on high alert, club legends from years gone by such as Roy Keane and Sir Alex Ferguson must be wondering whether or not this current United side is truly a continuation of the club that reached the pinnacle of football less than 25 years ago.

A "never say die" mentality characterized the Manchester United of old.

A nickname for injury time was "Fergie Time" because of how regularly Manchester United scored an injury-time equalizer or winner. But these days, it's not as common.

As a result, the club has been reduced to a shell of a team that, while replete with potential, does not adhere to the same principles as the club's inception.

Weak and incoherent, the present team lacks both physical and mental strength. This applies to both the players on the field and the support workers behind the scenes.

Everyone at the club doesn't seem to want to take responsibility for the club's problems, so decisions are made on an ad-hoc basis with very little planning. This applies to everything from the marketing department to the senior recruitment team.

This has been best exemplified by what has been a genuinely awful managerial debacle. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the former Manchester United manager who just so happened to score the game-winning goal on that historic night in May 1999, was released of his managing duties — a position he should never have been given in the first place – last year.

Manchester United fired Ole Gunnar Solskjaer last year.

In his place, former RB Leipzig manager Ralf Rangnick was appointed, a man who, if we're being really honest, hardly one on this side of the English Channel had ever heard of prior to his involvement with the Old Trafford hot seat.

According to Rangnick's managerial counterpart, Jurgen Klopp, he has been dubbed the "Godfather of German football." However, during his first four months in command, he has appeared more like an estranged uncle that no one wants to bring over for Christmas dinner.

Rangnick, who is best known in the industry for his tactical prowess, agreed to head the squad on an interim basis until the end of the season, after which he would transition into a consulting role. He has stepped in and done an ok (at best) job. As of now, fans don't really think of the German as someone who is going to progress.

Fans of Manchester United are feeling much the same way after watching their team lose to Atletico Madrid 2-1 on aggregate in the Champions League first knockout round. After failing to score in the first game, which was contested under the floodlights at Old Trafford, the Red Devils failed to score in the second leg.

These underdogs are not only out of the Champions League this year, but they are also unlikely candidates for the competition next year.

Red Devils' season is gone after being knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship club Middlesborough in January, even before the season has officially ended. Disastrous.

Given that the season is coming to a close and United fans are faced with the prospect of selecting a preferred Premier League winner from among noisy neighbors Manchester City and bitter rivals Liverpool, some United supporters could be forgiven for turning their attention away from football to rugby.

In any case, the next season will begin regardless of who finishes first or second in the current one, and Manchester United will be back in the spotlight once more.

The identification and hiring of a new, long-term manager will be the first item on the club's decision-makers' list, and several names have already been associated with the position.

According to the Guardian, Erik ten Hag of Ajax, Mauricio Pochettino of Paris-Saint-Germain, and Julen Lopetegui of Sevilla are the three frontrunners to take on the most difficult job in European football as coach.

However, since reports of links to Manchester United began to circulate, the trio has amassed an unwelcome track record: they have all been knocked out of Europe's top two championships when they should not have been.

Ajax were defeated by a mediocre Benfica team at home in Amsterdam, while Paris-Saint-Germain squandered a one-goal lead against Real Madrid and Sevilla were soundly defeated by David Moyes' West Ham United in the Europa League. Disastrous.

If or not it's a coincidence that all three Manchester United-affiliated managers have had a particularly terrible week, the question remains whether the trio should use this as a cue to stay away from a club that, on the surface, appears to be cursed.