Time for Manchester United to forget about Champions League qualification – opinion

Manchester United are 11 points shy of both fourth and fifth place with just seven games left to play in the Premier League. A miracle is needed at this point for Erik ten Hag’s side to secure Champions League qualification, so is it time for the Reds to forget about playing in Europe’s most prestigious competition next season?

Our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League are hanging by a thread. There is no guarantee that fifth spot would be enough to book us a place in the competition, but at this point it looks like Tottenham and Aston Villa are too far clear to be caught, especially with the form we are showing on the pitch this season. There is no consistency and we couldn’t hold a lead in stoppage time against either Brentford or Chelsea in recent weeks.

It’s an increasingly tall order to achieve and the players only have themselves to blame for being in this predicament. United would certainly need to win all of their remaining matches and hope either Villa or Spurs completely collapse.

The league table doesn’t lie and we are paying a heavy price for our consistency throughout the campaign. It will hurt the club knowing there will be more money in the Champions League next season… money we could do with to get the Financial Fair Play constraints off our back.

United’s longest winning run in the Premier League this season amounts to just four matches, while our longest unbeaten run is slightly longer at five matches.