That is the view of the club’s minority investor Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is in charge of footballign decisions at Old Trafford.
Ratcliffe’s INEOS is making decisions at United since the spring, and chose to keep coach Erik ten Hag in charge in the summer before sacking him recently.
Interviewed this weekend at the Americas Cup sailing event, Ratcliffe stated: “No... I think there’s one little crossover, which is that you cannot win the Americas Cup if you arrive at the Americas Cup with a boat that ‘could’ win the Americas Cup.
“Same in Formula One. Max Verstappen in a Williams, he’s not going to win the Formula One (World Drivers') Championship. With football it’s the same with the squad in a way.
“That’s the parallel for me - you can’t win anything in football if your squad isn’t good enough to win something.
“The quality of the squad is a bit like the speed of the boat. That’s the only parallel (between football and sailing).”