When the bus carrying Manchester United fans stopped in front of Turf Moor stadium, a man wearing a Burnley shirt was waiting, muttering to himself: "The circus has arrived in the city.
It was a week of real volatility, Man United's specialty. The relationship between Ruben Amorim and the club's board of directors broke down quickly after a tense meeting. At times, Man United was more like a long-running TV series than a football team, with not many "footballs" appearing on screen.
The latest episode has a new central character - interim coach Darren Fletcher, along with a series of unpredictable details. Man United was led by Burnley, then reversed the situation thanks to two beautiful goals from striker Benjamin Sesko, before being equalized and accepting a score of 2-2.
At least, this story is rarely boring.
We showed a performance worthy of winning. We created many chances, had saves on the goal line and a goal was disallowed.
If viewed from that perspective, we should have won. The match was not perfect. We started slowly. But we scored two great goals. There are still many things to improve, but I am really satisfied with the efforts of the players" - Fletcher said.
In a way, Fletcher has become a symbol of Man United's chaotic thinking and constantly changing culture since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Ending his football career in 2019, he returned to Carrington, supporting U15 and U16 teams as part of the coaching training program.
In January 2021, Fletcher joined the first team coaching staff under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Just a few months later, he was promoted to Technical Director in a newly established position - despite his own concerns about whether he was capable enough for this role. Fletcher held that position until Wilcox was brought in by Sir Jim Ratcliffe in April 2024. In the last months of the 2024-2025 season, he continued to work in Amorim's coaching staff.
Fletcher was the head coach of the U18 team from July until he received a call on Monday, announcing that he was assigned to lead the first team after Amorim was sacked. He will continue to sit in the coaching chair in the FA Cup match against Brighton at Old Trafford, but after that, everything remained a question mark.
The "Red Devils" had a disappointing draw against Burnley in their debut match under interim coach Fletcher, but still had positive points to cling to.
Fletcher is Man United's sixth interim coach since Ferguson left the bench in 2013, after Ryan Giggs, Solskjaer, Michael Carrick, Ralf Rangnick and Ruud van Nistelrooy - all are Ferguson's "old people", except for Rangnick. Solskjaer or Carrick can completely return. After all, a good TV series always needs unexpected reappearances of familiar characters.
Usually, at times like these, Man United still has capable coaches to take over the job when needed. However, Amorim has full authority to choose the coaching staff, so when the dismissal decision was made, the entire coaching staff also left with him. Fletcher therefore had to immediately patch up a temporary framework including Travis Binnion and Alan Wright (both working with the U21 team), along with former teammate Jonny Evans.
Those are 48 challenging hours under the roof of Man United, and Fletcher deserves to be recognized for handling things well in difficult circumstances. He even took the time to add confidence to Sesko, who has doubled his number of goals in the season.
Yesterday, I sat and talked to him and showed him videos of movements, as well as how the opportunity would come. I told him to continue to trust and try his best. Hopefully there will be more comments from now on. I think he played very well tonight" - Fletcher recounted.
This is not the result Fletcher wanted, but at least he can say that he has left his mark. This captain switched to a four-defender formation as soon as possible and after the first 20 minutes of the match were unimpressive, Man United gradually played better.
Fletcher understood better than anyone what fans were waiting for. Under his direction, the team pushed many players to attack whenever there was an opportunity. They finished the match with 30 shots and 10 shots on target.
However, defensive mistakes - which Amorim has complained about over the past time - are still there. Man United fans, despite the cold at Burnley, leave the field with a familiar debate: is this a new start or another start? Let's wait for the next episode, when Brighton travels to Old Trafford, to have an answer.
