Mohamed Salah and Jamie Carragher troll Manchester United after defeat against Tottenham

There is something tragically comical about how United have sunk so low that even winning a game seems out of reach. The season has been an unmitigated disaster: out of Europe next year, humiliated in a continental final and sinking to 16th in the Premier League with only one game to play. It is hard to remember a time in recent memory when the club has been worse. The taunts of Salah and Carragher hurt not just for what they say, but for the truth they hide. United have lost the respect of their rivals, their former idols, and even themselves.

Salah was calculating. He didn’t insult, he didn’t cross the line, but he made it clear he was amused by the fall-out. Carragher was more direct, more acidic, appealing to a Ferguson phrase that now seems ridiculous. The phrase ‘Lads, it’s Tottenham’ used to mean the game was won before it started. Today, after this final, what seems earned is disrepute. But beyond the mockery, there is an even more worrying reading: even the rivals don’t see United as a threat. That is what hurts the most.

This club has ceased to generate fear; it has lost its aura. Today it generates pity, memes and contempt. The Salah and Carragher jokes are not just cruel jokes, they are thermometers of lost respect. From another angle, this also shows how English football has turned. Tottenham, always the butt of laughter, now celebrates, while United, who used to have the last laugh, have been left alone, silent, on the floor.