Louis van Gaal's time at Man United is up

In the end, the job fell to Wayne Rooney, fell to the captain of a sinking ship, fell to the man raging against the dying of the might.

His might and this great club’s might.

It fell to Rooney - voice and head dipping between embarrassment and shame - to deliver the conclusive, damning, no-return-from-here verdict on the Manchester United life of Louis van Gaal.

Rooney was talking about, apologising for, agonising over another performance that plumbed depths unfathomed by a whole generation of United players, staff and supporters.

But, unwittingly, Rooney’s words addressed an era, not just a moment.

They summed up a story, not just an episode.

Rooney mumbled an indictment of one Van Gaal project too many, not just of one more abject chapter.

It was exasperation at another extraordinarily gutless, guileless display.

But it might well have been exasperation at how the relentless, casual jog to mediocrity has been allowed to go unchecked for so long.

Statistics land their own blow flush on the flushed face of Van Gaal. No United team of the Premier League era has had fewer points at this stage. No United team has scored fewer goals.

That’s bad. Put in the context of a season of wonderful but average-quality uncertainty and it’s rank awful, it’s inexcusable.

But forget the figures, it was the manner of this defeat that was significant.

“We weren’t aggressive, we didn’t win enough second balls, we didn’t defend set-pieces, we didn’t create chances, we weren’t good enough.”