Every Friday, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer emphasises Manchester United have had a ‘good week’ in training. On the Saturday or the Sunday, one wonders what they were doing all week in training.

This is a consequence of a football club not prioritizing the football. Solskjaer has been a dead duck of a manager since the Liverpool drubbing and he has been allowed to continue regardless. United have taken four points from their last 21 in the Premier League. This was another unedifying humiliation.

Bruno Fernandes lay prone on his back when Joao Pedro rammed the clincher in. Solskjaer stood motionless, his hands stuffed into his pockets. The away end was already pockmarked by empty seats. Vicarage Road rocked to “Ole’s at the wheel”.

Those United supporters who remained wistfully sang, ‘Forever and ever’. Then a fourth went in. More turned towards the exit. The intrepid Solskjaer approached them at full-time and many booed him. Fernandes began remonstrating with some, urging them to direct their ire onto the players, and had to be pulled away by Juan Mata. Solskjaer apologetically held up his hands. That is all he could do.

The away end, raucous prior to kick-off, was swiftly silenced by another disasterclass. After Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester City, the Watford followers started a rendition of ‘Ole’s at the wheel’ and hardly abated. That was countered by United supporters loudly chanting Donny van de Beek’s name to the same tune of KC and the Sunshine Band’s ‘Baby Give It Up’ as he warmed up in the 35th minute. When it was only at 1-0.

When Van de Beek emerged for the second-half he was cheered as though he had scored. Then he gave them a goal to cheer, ghosting into the area from midfield to nod in Cristiano Ronaldo’s selfless lay-off. Van de Beek whipped up the away-dayers as he charged back into his own half.

Van de Beek grabbed the game by the lapels, springing an attack and returning the favour for Ronaldo, denied in his duel with Ben Foster. Van de Beek crunched into Ismaila Sarr, just about getting the ball first, and the United fans roared his name louder than ever. The Dutchman was United’s sole performer.

The better Van de Beek played, the worse it reflected on his manager. The support for Van de Beek was part gallows humour from the United supporters and part method of protest without outright turning on a manager and former player who gave them in utopia in the Camp Nou. Until full-time.

Crisis management is handled best at the club by United’s away-dayers. They were loud long before kick-off, serenading Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani, and commencing the Five Cantonas season. Some unfurled a green and gold banner with the message ‘Glazers out’. It may finally be ‘Ole out’.

They have stopped biting their lip. United’s away-dayers – always the most significant gauge of fan opinion – are staying supportive but not of the manager. A rendition of ‘You are my Solskjaer’ was drowned out by the majority with the game goalless.

That United have started the process of succeeding Solskjaer is of no consolation. They are operating at a glacial pace, incurring more chastening drubbings in the process. He cannot continue beyond this week.

Yet nobody should be surprised should Solskjaer and his failing coaching coterie be on the club plane to Spain on Monday. Neither the Liverpool nor the Manchester City humiliations constituted his sacking and there are 26 league fixtures left to play.

United’s status in the Champions League for next season is already in jeopardy and that is always the trigger for change with the Glazers. Only the house is on fire but the absentee landlords are still in Florida.

That United were undone by Joshua King and Ismaila Sarr – players Solskjaer attempted to buy last year – and the midfield was controlled by United alumni Tom Cleverley was a mere sub-plot.

Watford’s dominance so emboldened their benign manager, Claudio Ranieri, he stood in front of Solskjaer and demanded his players press higher. Solskjaer diplomatically decided against asking Ranieri to move back to his dugout when a brusquer manager ushered him back.

By RC