ALL OR NOTHING

MANCHESTER United and Tottenham will slug it out in the Europa League final on Wednesday in Bilbao, with both teams desperately seeking salvation from swak Premier League campaigns (9pm kickoff).

A potential £100 million (R2.4 billion) honey pot for winning a golden ticket into next season’s Champions League is on the line at the San Mames Stadium between two sides languishing near the bottom of the English top flight.

Ruben Amorim’s Red Devils are 16th and with 18 league defeats are enduring their worst top flight campaign in half a century, since their 1974 relegation.

One place lower lie Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs, beaten a club-record 21 times in the league, and on course for their worst season since returning to the top tier in 1978.

With both teams fixated on Europe, their plunge towards the table’s lower echelons has only accelerated in recent weeks.

United are winless in eight league games, their worst such run in Premier League history, falling at Chelsea last Friday in their last outing ahead of the final.

Tottenham also slumped to defeat at Aston Villa for their fifth loss in six league matches.

Spurs are twice winners of this competition, but their victory in 1984 was the club’s last European trophy and they have not won any silverware for 17 years.

They reached a maiden Champions League final in 2019 but came up short in another all-English battle in Spain, losing against Liverpool in a drab contest.

Despite United’s gradual decline since legendary former manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, they did win the FA Cup and League Cup in the past two seasons under Amorim’s predecessor Erik ten Hag.

The Portuguese has endured a torrid time since taking charge in November, winning just six of his 26 league games.

Of the final, Amorim says: “I’m not concerned about the final, it’s by far the smallest problem in our club

“We need to change something that is deeper than this.”