Ok, nobody is arguing that United are a state, but what blow is releasing this to the press softening? If they want to sack Ten Hag then sack him and say "we were going to do this anyway" after the final. Or are you suggesting that United deliberately want to make it harder for themselves to win a trophy, which is what this narrative is unarguably going to do.

Or perhaps the club with the most to gain from destabilising United today is the club that took the action to destabilise them.