Clueless suits at Manchester United choose cash over glory... they might have a noodle sponsor in every country, but how about a few more trophies?

The reaction to any setback at Manchester United in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era is usually defined by a briefing which amounts to a corporate attempt to save face. Sometimes, in the rush to exonerate themselves from any blame, the suits make things far, far worse.

It was a bit like that in the summer when they got played by Sergio Ramos, who managed to extract a lucrative new deal from Real Madrid on the back of a flirtation with United. Most people could see what was happening, except United’s executives.

They tried to turn it into a positive. The word was that they had far bigger fish to fry. The word was they were in for Neymar. There was excitement for a while among United’s fans. Then it turned out Neymar didn’t actually want to join the club, either.

Manchester United suffered an embarrassing early exit from the Champions League in Wolfsburg

Last week, in the wake of United’s humbling defeat by Wolfsburg, their premature exit from the Champions League and the sight of their players in a collective sulk afterwards, a more disturbing scenario played out.

First, there were the usual distractions to try to take the headlines away from the fact that a club who have spent a quarter of a billion pounds on new signings couldn’t make it past the group stage of Europe’s premier competition.

There was the usual blizzard of transfer targets, names thrown out like flak to try to stop the missiles hitting their target. United were working hard on deals for Gareth Bale, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo, it was said. And throw in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba for good measure. The chances of getting any of them, most experts suggest, still fall into the category marked ‘unlikely’.

But there was more. The suits reacted to the loss to Wolfsburg with a discourse on their world view. It was rather a narrow world view. For a club of United’s size and traditions, it was rather a dispiriting world view, too.

Manchester United lost 3-2 in Germany and finished third in their group behind Wolfsburg and PSV

The suits at Old Trafford reacted to the defeat by saying it wasn't a bad thing to be eliminated so early

It was briefed that it wasn’t really such a bad thing that United had gone out of the Champions League because, actually, the Premier League was what mattered these days — although you’d hardly have known that at Bournemouth on Saturday night. The Premier League is where the cash is and, for this generation of suits, cash is king. Not glory.

Sometimes, cash and glory coalesce. Which is nice. But if one has to go, then glory will be sacrificed. Insiders were quoted as saying that the balance had now shifted towards the Premier League by 80-20 over the Champions League in terms of revenue streams and the importance of excelling.

The three-year £5.1 billion Premier League TV deal that comes into effect next season will exaggerate that trend further, according to United’s suits. So, with United still only three points off the top of the domestic league, who cares about defeat by little old Wolfsburg?

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has come under fire for his style of play and recent results

Ed Woodward was also executive vice chairman when David Moyes was appointed as manager

To those with long memories and an appreciation of the proud traditions of the club, it felt like a crass, classless message. If there are no better ways of saving face than this, then things must be bad. Because one of the things that Manchester United stand for, one of the things that gives the club their romance and their cachet, is their European heritage.

This was the club, don’t forget, who were England’s first entrants into the European Cup in 1956-57. Chelsea were denied the opportunity to compete in it the year before but Matt Busby, United’s manager, was determined his team should take part and so began the emotional journey, through the terrible tragedy at Munich, that took United to one of the most famous nights in football history — the 4-1 victory over Benfica at Wembley in 1968 as United became the first English team to win the European Cup.

Sir Alex Ferguson (centre) and David Gill (left) watched the humiliating defeat in Wolfsburg

There was Barcelona, too, in 1999 and the completion of that magical Treble that has never been matched by another club, the apogee of the Sir Alex Ferguson era, the finest hour of the Class of ’92 and the great players who surrounded them.

And now United are briefing that they are not really sure the Champions League is that important any more. Really? Just to try to cover themselves after a mismanaged, misfiring European campaign? It is not the kind of behaviour that bodes well for the future.

The truth is that for all the concerns about Louis van Gaal, all the criticism he has taken and all the disillusionment with the performances of some players, there are still serious question marks hanging over the regime led by men like executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

If Van Gaal is a busted flush, as many are now claiming, that means Woodward is ‘0 and 2’ when it comes to trying to make sense of the post-Ferguson era. Between the struggles of David Moyes and Van Gaal, there is one common denominator — Woodward.

Since their defeat, United have been linked with a number of big targets like Neymar and Gareth Bale

Manchester United suffered another defeat on Saturday night when they lost at Bournemouth

United have spent money, sure. Lots of it. But it has always felt like they are throwing paint at the wall. There does not appear to be any particular method to their recruitment or any particular plan.

There is still a feeling that other clubs, particularly the bigger clubs, are taking United for mugs in the transfer market.

It still feels that since the exit of David Gill as chief executive, the United hierarchy is out of its depth. It feels callow and unsure of itself. If you promise to bring the top names in European football to Old Trafford, sooner or later you have to deliver. Use it as a distraction once when something has gone wrong, by all means, but when you do it again and again, it becomes tiresome.

United may have a noodle sponsor for every country in the Far East; they may be raking in money hand over fist, but sooner or later someone needs to tell the suits that it is not enough just to throw money at the situation.

They seem to have forgotten that football is still about something more than money.

They seem to have forgotten that this is still the glory game.

It would be nice to think that Arsenal’s win over Olympiacos could be the catalyst for a second half of the season that pushes them towards the League title. 

It still feels as if the club’s lack of investment in outfield players last summer will be an obstacle to that. With the title race wide open, maybe Arsene Wenger will be persuaded to put that right in January.

Olivier Giroud's hat-trick secured a vital victory for Arsenal over Olympiacos that took them through

Norman living in the past

Port Vale owner Norman Smurthwaite says he didn’t appoint Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as manager a couple of years ago because he was afraid Hasselbaink would be racially abused by the team’s fans. 

Port Vale may have had issues in the past but what Smurthwaite said was grossly unfair to the majority of the club’s support. 

More importantly, it proves yet again that it is the attitude in the boardroom that is the biggest obstacle to black managers getting the chances they deserve in our leagues.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was appointed manager of QPR and took charge against Burnley on Saturday