It has been announced today that Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva is set to leave the club for £5m, 10 years after he first joined from Brazilian side Gremio.

United had just won the league two months before Leiva signed but Steven Gerrard had high hopes for the midfielder.

“From what I’ve seen of him so far he’s got everything you need in a Liverpool player; good touch, good passing and he’s also a good lad off the field,” he said. “I expect him to be knocking on the door of the first team before too long and hopefully, in time, he can help us win many trophies.”

After a decade at the club, the only trophy Leiva has to look back on is the EFL Cup win in 2012. Liverpool faced Championship side Cardiff and the game finished 2-2 after extra-time. In the end, Liverpool won 3-2 on penalties.

While plenty has been written about Manchester United’s struggles since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, Liverpool have managed to escape much criticism, despite essentially achieving next to nothing over the past 10 years.

Compare Leiva with Marcus Rashford, a local lad who made his debut in February 2016, and Liverpool’s failings are highlighted even more clearly. In his first three months as a United player, Rashford equalled Leiva’s trophy haul, winning the FA Cup in May 2016. In his first year, he had doubled Leiva’s winners’ medals, lifting the EFL Cup in February 2017. In his first eighteen months, he trebled Leiva’s medal collection, after United claimed the Europa League trophy in May 2017, just a year after Liverpool were beaten in this competition’s final by Sevilla.

The past few seasons have been a long way short of what we would expect at Manchester United, but at least it’s not been as grim as what Liverpool fans have endured.