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United's Como mauling fuels Rushden's revolt column
Manchester United have lost football matches before and survived the headlines. A 4-1 Champions League defeat to Como on 22 October 2026 feels different, because Max Rushden's column in The Guardian claims the anger inside the dressing room is no longer pointed at the opposition.
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A heavy European night is one thing. A column suggesting the captain is at odds with the club's hierarchy is another, and United are now dealing with both at once.
The scoreline that said it out loud
Four goals conceded to Como is the kind of result that used to be unthinkable at Old Trafford, regardless of the opponent's pedigree. United sit 13th in the Premier League after seven games, with one win, four draws and two defeats, a goal difference of plus zero. That is a club treading water in its own league, let alone Europe.
Fernandes and Martínez, according to a column, not happy
Max Rushden's weekly column for The Guardian, written in his usual sardonic register rather than as straight news reporting, suggests Bruno Fernandes, United's captain, and defender Lisandro Martínez are among those privately unhappy with the direction the club is being steered in, with the piece naming Michael Carrick and sporting director Jason Wilcox as the figures now facing scrutiny. This is Rushden's read on the mood, not a confirmed Guardian news story with named sources or quotes, and nothing from United, Fernandes or Martínez has backed it up. Still, the fact that Carrick is now being mentioned alongside Wilcox in that kind of column, after this result, tells you where the temperature sits at Carrington this week.
Fernandes is not some peripheral figure grumbling from the bench. He has racked up 37 appearances, 9 goals and 22 assists this season, numbers that put him among the most heavily used players at the club. A captain producing like that, and the subject of this kind of column, is not a storyline United can quietly manage away.
A record that should not be here
United's record this season, one win, four draws, two defeats, a goal difference of plus zero, sits oddly against a squad built to compete at the top of the Premier League and in Europe. Losing 4-1 on the continent while occupying 13th domestically is exactly the kind of gap between expectation and result that turns a bad night into a crisis.
What happens next
There is no confirmed fallout yet, no sacking, no statement, nothing beyond Rushden's column itself. But a captain mentioned as unhappy, a heavy continental defeat, and a league position that embarrasses the squad sheet rather than flatters it: that combination rarely stays contained for long at a club this size.
Will Carrick survive this week at United?
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