The story of Manchester United's fall is as compelling as any in English football.
The club has transformed from European giant competing with the Champions League's very best to a club routinely struggling against the Premier League's very worst.
While United are fifth place in the Premier League, happenings on the pitch this year have the feeling of a new but unsurprising low.
Defeats against Crystal Palace, West Ham, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Watford and, most recently, Burnley means United have lost to three of the Premier League's current bottom four.
The fact they remain in fifth – with the lowest points total ever for a fifth-place team at this stage – is due to a peculiar habit of falling to the sword of minnows while beating those above them in the table.
That paradox along with a club legend out of his depth in the managerial job, two pantomime villains – Chief Executive Ed Woodward and wantaway midfielder Paul Pogba – and a whole league laughing at your struggles, it's a very sorry time for Manchester United fans.
Changing Plans at Old Trafford
So how did the plan go so wrong? Or did a set plan ever exist?
It would be hard to argue there was a formidable one for the club's transfer policy anyways.
Angel di Maria, Radamel Falcao (loan), Alexis Sanchez, and Paul Pogba all seemed of the same ilk, the established superstars to build a team around. They all failed massively at Old Trafford.
The recruits brought in to build around those superstars didn't do much better. Romelu Lukaku, Mateo Darmian, Daley Blind, Henrikh Mkhitaryan all departed the club after short stints.
Managerially, David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal and José Mourinho have all come and gone following Alex Ferguson.
Manchester United manager David Moyes (left) and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on the touchline. August 2013.Moyes, the chosen successor, a steady pair of hands who had overseen 10 progressive years at Everton, failed. Van Gaal, the born winner who collected titles everywhere he went, failed.
Mourinho, the nasty one who could drag the club back to the top of European football. That also failed.
Since Mourinho's departure 13 months ago the club has sought to change its stripes in an effort to fix the mistakes of the past.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was brought in as the club legend fan-favourite who could repair the connection between the fans and the club.
Transfers too have become a far cry from the superstars recruited between 2014-2018. British internationals Harry Maguire, Daniel James, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have joined a team looking to shape itself as a progressive young force.
The problem is eight defeats in their 24 Premier League games – many against the Premier League's most lowly teams – indicates that plan isn't working either.
Declining Prestige and Growing Trouble
On Thursday's OTB AM United We Stand Editor Andy Mitten discussed United's current plan and explained that the growing fan uprising will only be against the Glazers and their executive.
"The club do think they have a plan in place, that plan is bringing young predominantly British players through and that will take time but there has to be minimum requirements there and losing at home to Burnley isn't one of them.
"It wasn't isolated either, this is the fifth defeat in a month. This is now becoming a trend."
"The fans would say the owners and the executives are more culpable than the manager. I think the fans would love to see the owners change I think they'd love to see them disappear off into the distance and say we've made your money."
Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward (left) and former manager Sir Alex Ferguson during the UEFA Champions League match at the Parc des Princes, Paris, France.The most recent change though, and perhaps most worrying for the United hierarchy, was the club's fall from its perch as the world's richest football club.
Nevermind matters on the pitch, that was certainly not in Ed Woodward's plans.
Revenues of €666 million may still have been a club record but the fall behind Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively may be the first sign that matters on the pitch are beginning to hurt the growth of commerce.
Couple that with the brewing discontent of empty seats and a growing "fan mutiny" at Old Trafford, United and Woodward may soon be searching for yet another new plan to enact.
What lengths United fans will go to to move against the club's hierarchy is yet to be seen, but unless the club's plan comes good soon it can only be bad news for Ed Woodward and the Glazers.
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