NO GAME, NO TRAIN

Signings overrated, pre-season excitement deflated, and a long, miserable, delayed journey back to Manchester for many red devil supporters this afternoon, and even this evening depending on last-minute transport arrangements. Its fair to say, and even perhaps an understatement to say, that today has been a true horror show for Manchester United, potentially like we've never seen before.

Perhaps it is good to put some context in before we disect what has been nothing short of an abysmal performance. Manchester United came into this game in the title conversation, they ended today in the discussion about the other end of the table. The abrupt and quickfire dismissal of Ruben Amorim in January after a turbulent 14 months in charge after a breakdown of relations with the board, left united looking for yet another coach to try and return the red devils to their former days of glory. They were 6th at the time, and having failed to qualify for europe after an abysmal 15th place finish in the season prior, the 2-1 defeat to Brighton in the fa cup that followed Amorims departure meant that united's only trophy to play for was the Premier League, also because of a shock carabao cup exit to League 2 side Grimsby Town earlier in the season.

Despite it looking highly possible that a temporary return was on for United legendary player and former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the red devils eventually opted out of bringing back the Norwegian, and eventually decided to turn to their former skipper Michael Carrick, who had previously been a coach at the club before moving to championship club Middelsborough. He had also had a sucsessful spell as interim manager inbetween the period of Ole's departure as manager in late 2021 and the arrival of Ralf Ragnick, overseeing an away point to the then title contenders Chelsea, and a 3-2 home win against long-time rivals Arsenal.

Carrick's impact was huge upon his arrival in early 2026, begining his tenure with a 2-0 home win against local rivals Manchester city, followed by a 3-2 away win against league leaders and eventual champions Arsenal. What followed was two further consecutive wins against Fullham and Tottenham, with the rest of the season only seeing Carrick's United loose 2 games.

This remarkable revival saw United climb to third in the league, securing a return to europe after a years absence, and a shock qualification for the Champions League.

Following this remarkable turn of fortunes for the red devils, United decided not to look in the busy manager market, and instead decided to give their high-flying interim the peramanent job, on a 2 year contract.

But now, just one game into his permanent reign, Carrick's so-called 'honeymoon period' is well and truly over, and now the scrunity is starting to kick in, following their disastorous opening day result, a day that couldnt really have got any worse than it did.

The day started with the news that new arrivals Tielamans and Andre Santos would be making the starting eleven, alongside Bruno Fernandes and an unusual squad choice that saw Patrick Dorgu on the left wing and Cunha starting up front ahead of the slightly unfit Sesko. There were also question marks looming around about the involvement of United outcast Marcus Rashford, who, after a highly sucsessful loan spell at Spanish giants Barcelona, which saw his team lift La Liga, he was making a SHOCK return to the reds after it was largely anticipated that he would be making a permanent move elsewhere, following tense dissagreements with the club prior to his loan spell.

Prematch, the game was written off as a United win, as the newly promoted tigers were the favourites by a long stretch to return to the second tier. It became clear, however, within the first few minites of the game, that this certainly wasnt going to be the walk in the park that United had expected it to be. And two goals in the space of 10 minutes, from full backs Mendy and Elgar, saw United two behind at the half. And after a lacksture and sloppy second 45, the scoreline would remain the same at the full time whistle, and predicted strugglers Hull would claim all three points on their return to the top flight.

The performance was abysmal, a true howler, a stinker probably compareable to that of Ole Gunnar Solksjaers disastorus last match in charge, in which United fell to a 4-1 away defeat to Claudio Ranieri's relegation fighting Watford. But whilst United's performance was dreadful, it didnt seem as though public transport in the area was not having its best day either. At around the 70 minute mark, the stadium announcer broke the news to United supporters that all trains back to Manchester had been cancelled, causing a standing ovation to erupt from Hull supporters, and to put the icing on the cake for what had been a day to forget for United.

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours.

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