Is this in any way Ferguson’s fault? Does it tarnish his legacy?

In a way, yes. Ferguson had emulated Busby in that he built up a youth structure that provided the stars of his team, or at least some of them. No one personified this more than Ryan Giggs, who finally left the field of play last season and now is an assistant coach at the club.

However, Ferguson left his post rather abruptly after winning the Premier League with a team that, he surely knew, was in dire need of rebuilding. The defense was old, apart from the young Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea. The leaders of Ferguson’s last line — Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand and Patrice Evra — have moved on to new clubs.

Ferguson’s own chosen replacement, David Moyes, lasted less than a year into his six-year contract, during which he made only two notable signings. Neither were defenders. He brought in Marouane Fellaini, a tall, ungainly Belgian midfielder, and the Spanish playmaker Juan Mata.

Moyes had the misfortune of arriving not only with Ferguson newly retired, but with the club undergoing a change at chief executive. And the C.E.O. is the man, rather than the manager, who negotiates for new players.

United’s new chief executive, Ed Woodward, hired the Dutchman Louis van Gaal as manager and spent the kind of money this year that the club failed to spend last. It has became a middle-of-the-standings Premier League team, an outsider in Europe and a rather desperate buyer.

Among the new players, the winger Ángel Di María has excelled. Radamel Falcao, still being used sparingly after major knee surgery last February, plays only bit parts. Robin van Persie, who captained his Dutch national team (coached by van Gaal) to the World Cup semifinals in July, is not yet fresh or enthusiastic enough to score the goals that he did so often under Ferguson.

“Judge me and my team after three months,” van Gaal said three months ago.

The judgment has to be harsh. After eight games, van Gaal’s United is one point better in the Premier League than it was under Moyes last year. The team’s struggles for style, for cohesion and for results mirror what happened last year, when Woodward and the board began to lose faith in Moyes.