There will come a time, of course, when failure affects the brand. Not the club, necessarily. Manchester United will always be big, and probably the biggest. But the commercial entity, the money machine that powers it all: that must be fed by regular success and United know it.
A senior executive said as much, privately, a year ago. He reckoned United could afford one more year without a title or out of the Champions League, before it had an impact. And that is now this year.
So the stakes are high for Jose Mourinho. Not so high that he is in danger of losing his job, because Manchester United cannot continue working through managers on close to a yearly basis; but high in terms of targets, expectation and, long term, available funds and budgets.