I have a good friend who is a huge Manchester United fan and has an inveterate capacity to always see the positives. I pointed out to him that even if United beat Bournemouth on the final day of the season, they will fail to go above the 70-point mark for the third consecutive year or, maybe not coincidentally, since you-know-who retired and Ed Woodward replaced David Gill.
The last time the club went through such an extended stretch of futility was between 1988 and 1991. "Yeah, but look what happened next," he told me. "We embarked on the longest, most dominant stretch in the history [of] English football.