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21st December 2015
12:33pm GMT

It shouldn't really be a contentious statement to suggest Premier League teams need to be more pragmatic, especially since the latest TV deal helped smaller sides bolster squads with the sort of players who wouldn't be out of place in title-challenging teams overseas.
Admittedly, plenty of the complaints over Van Gaal surround his apparent lack of resources despite a not-insubstantial transfer outlay - just one of the seven defenders to start the defeats against Bournemouth and Norwich was signed by the current incumbent.
But it is patently unrealistic to expect the next man in charge, with the possible exception of Pep Guardiola, to sacrifice pragmatism for handbrake-off football, especially when even a one-off defeat in that manner - like the 5-3 reverse at Leicester last season - can bring calls for the boss' head.
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No manager has time to build an empire these days, and more realistic Man United fans will acknowledge this.
But what's important is finding a balance between the potential of long-term success and the avoidance of catastrophic failure in the short term. Is an injury-depleted team on the fringes of the Champions League places something that calls for immediate and massive upheaval.
If you see United as a team that needs to be running away with the title, perhaps. But if you look at them as what they are - one of the bigger teams, nothing more and nothing less - then the decision can be made to look hasty.
When Ferguson stepped down, United supporters were told that their job was to stand by the new manager. With that in mind, it's hard to say Van Gaal and Moyes are the only ones who failed to live up to what was expected of them.
Comparisons with Ferguson are not the right approach - he arrived at the club before Sky Sports, before the Champions League and before one or two poor seasons could set a club back several years.
Indeed the appointment of Van Gaal (a man never likely to stay for more than a few years) and the links with Mourinho (who has never spent more than three full seasons at any club) ought to add to this recognition, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
An acceptance that they were just one of many was what helped Liverpool regain their mojo and come close to breaking their title-less run in 2014 and - as 'small-time' as it might sound to those accustomed to unmatched success - the sooner United do the same, the better.
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