Why calamity is never far away for our elite clubs

THE chap who heads up the RFU’s media department used to work at Chelsea. We were reminiscing the other day about the relative pressures of the two roles.

There isn’t much in the way of crisis in rugby, it was agreed — unless you get knocked out of a home World Cup at the pool stage. Even then, Gareth mused, it wasn’t like a run of bad results at Chelsea. No aspect of the fall-out in 2015 under Stuart Lancaster compared to the maelstrom that could envelop a football club.

This is where Manchester United and, to a similar extent, Tottenham find themselves now. It might be Manchester City’s turn soon if they continue losing ground on Liverpool. This is the price that is paid for being a member of the elite.

In the days of greater mobility for clubs, there was no big issue if games were lost or even if league form collapsed. With Liverpool the single exception, in the era before the Premier League, teams shifted up and down the division without too much fuss or grand expectation.

In 1972-73 the top five were Liverpool, Arsenal, Leeds, Ipswich and Wolves. The next season Arsenal came 10th, Wolves 12th. The following year, Arsenal fell to 16th, Wolves came 12th again.

Yet throughout that time neither club changed its manager. Ipswich finished fourth twice, then third. Nobody decided Bobby Robson had taken them as far as he could. This is what has changed. There is an elite that expects to be in roughly the same position each year, and to vacate that space is calamitous.

To finish outside the top four is bad enough and few managers would survive a journey into the hinterland that does not even include a berth in the Europa League. There is talk of seasons of transition but it’s bluster. Transition isn’t allowed at an elite club, just a temporary dip in standards remedied quickly.

Manchester United are plainly amid a period of upheaval now. Yet little of the reaction to Sunday’s defeat by Newcastle told of acceptance. Losing at Newcastle, at Brighton, is now bigger than going out of a World Cup, or so it must seem when viewed from the eye of the storm.

And these eruptions are not mere media fantasies. Yes, the amount of time and space devoted to the Premier League on the air and in newspapers has made the focus more intense.

So have social media outlets giving every fan a microphone. Lose and it seems the entire world is talking about you, berating you, calling for your head. Yet the elite clubs have created this predicament for themselves.

The drive to be seen as separate, as better, than the rest of the competition — made plain in the demand for additional overseas broadcast revenue as the stars of the show — have created clubs that cannot lose without it being considered a critical condition.

The elite must be victorious, must live up to assumed status as football’s virtuosi, must be pleasing on the eye. At United, Jose Mourinho came second to Manchester City, Louis van Gaal won the FA Cup, but neither was loved because their football was staid. Haplessly, the elite have imposed standards they cannot hope to maintain. Not all of them in any one season, anyway.

And that creates the pressure United and Tottenham are feeling now. Both teams are better than their league position suggests. United have the same points as Sheffield United and Brighton but in defeat at Newcastle this weekend were represented by players who would walk into either of those teams.

What would Chris Wilder or Graham Potter give for David de Gea, Marcus Rashford, Harry Maguire, Daniel James or Juan Mata? Even the lesser lights such as Scott McTominay would get straight in.

Similarly, Tottenham’s defeat at Brighton featured Harry Kane, Son Heung- min, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. Might some of that number get a game at Bournemouth, also on 11 points after eight matches?

So chances are this is not permanent. United and Tottenham will surely improve. Not to where they want to be, perhaps, yet better than this.

What makes it ever harder to bounce back, however, is that drama so easily becomes crisis.

United and Tottenham are playing under pressure akin to a relegation battle now. They face their own form of demotion — from the elite they fought so hard to create.

For the supposed inferiors, the irony must be very rich indeed.