Speaking after Manchester United’s exit from the FA Cup after a 2-1 loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, Darren Fletcher disagreed with the aims of the club set by Sir Jim Ratcliffe at the start of the season.
Manchester United’s FA Cup campaign came to an end at the third-round stage on Sunday as Brighton edged a 2–1 victory at Old Trafford.
Brighton made an energetic start and opened the scoring early, with Brajan Gruda converting after Lisandro Martínez had initially cleared off the line. The visitors came close to adding a second soon after, though Danny Welbeck was unable to capitalise on a misplaced pass from Senne Lammens.
United had chances to respond through Diogo Dalot and Benjamin Šeško, but went into the interval still a goal behind. Brighton extended their lead in the second half when Welbeck struck decisively with 25 minutes remaining.
Šeško gave United hope late on by pulling a goal back, yet the hosts were unable to complete the comeback. Their task became more difficult when substitute Shea Lacey was sent off for a second booking, and Brighton held firm to progress to the next round.
Darren Fletcher believes Champions League should be the goal
Despite now being out of all of the cup competitions and no European football to contend with, just 11 days into the new year, current caretaker coach Darren Fletcher still believes that Champions League football should be the aim for the season.
Speaking in his post-match press conference after his side’s disappointing cup exit, he said: “I think these players have the ability to qualify in the Champions League place and that should be their objective and mindset.”
This comes as a contradiction to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s goal for the club this season, with it previously being reported that any European football was the goal.
After a very disappointing start to the season, it was reported that, despite publicly backing Ruben Amorim, his job ultimately hinged on securing European football for the club in the 2026/27 season.
Amorim sacking makes less sense as the days go on
After just 14 months in charge of Manchester United, the club’s 1-1 draw with Leeds proved to be Amorim’s last in charge of the club after the coach’s outburst in the post-match press conference, calling out the likes of Jason Wilcox and Christopher Vivell.
While yes, his stubborness towards not changing his 3-4-2-1 tactic was frustrating, and the results were unacceptable, picking up an average of 1.43 points per game, the lowest by any post-Sir Alex Ferguson manager, the decision to sack the Portuguese coach at this stage of the season is starting to become more and more confusing.
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After almost a week after he was sacked, Manchester United are yet to announce who will be the club’s caretaker coach until the end of the season, with the fixture against Brighton expected to be Fletcher’s last. The club seemingly had no plan in place after the abrupt sacking of Amorim, and now look like they are winging it and grasping at anything they can to produce some sort of solution to the mess at the club.
Amorim was sacked with the club sitting in sixth, just a couple of points off of fourth. With the Premier League likely to be given a fifth Champions League spot, and given how unpredictable the league is this season, the club may come to regret thrusting the club into uncertainty at this stage of the season, but there was only ever going to be one outcome after Amorim publically criticised the board.
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