Bastian Schweinsteiger has gone from idol to exile at Manchester United, and it is such a shame

The last time Bastian Schweinsteiger played at Wembley, it was the culmination of a club career. May 2013, Borussia Dortmund 1 Bayern Munich 2: he was a Champions League winner at last. There is a picture of the German, conducting the crowd in song, wearing a T-shirt reading “Football is coming hoam”. The spelling mistake is deliberate, the “AM” daubed on, a Bavarian version of the Euro ’96 anthem.

The last time Bastian Schweinsteiger went to Old Trafford, there was another picture of him grinning. He posted it himself on Twitter after Wayne Rooney’s testimonial. His garb is different, however: he is suited, the smile seeming a valiant attempt to disguise the hurt. Jose Mourinho used 22 players in Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with Everton. Schweinsteiger was not among them. He was not on the bench. He has been training with the reserves.

He should have been returning to Wembley on Sunday. The significance of the Community Shield can be debated but the showpiece occasions, with their pomp and ceremony, can be a stage worthy of men like Schweinsteiger. Instead, he will be a spectator again: perhaps in an executive box, as he was on Wednesday, perhaps nowhere to be seen.

A year ago, Schweinsteiger seemed Manchester United’s flagship signing, a player whose every touch was cheered by adoring fans on their pre-season tour of America. Now their adulation is directed towards Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, perhaps, Paul Pogba. Now idol has become exile, exciting addition looking a cast-off, a Louis van Gaal ally seeming persona non grata for Jose Mourinho.

It is part of a chastening fall. In little over a year, Schweinsteiger has been deemed surplus to requirements by two of the world’s great clubs. He has slipped below Marouane Fellaini in the pecking order, ballooned a penalty in Euro 2016 over the bar and voluntarily ended his international career.

He comes from the country that coined the word Schadenfreude. It is an apt description of some reactions to his struggles. They can be compelling, in the way car-crash viewing sometimes is. The decline of the greats tends to be dramatic.

And, make no mistake, Schweinsteiger is a genuine modern-day great. It is not merely the eight Bundesliga titles, the 2013 Champions League crown or the 120 German caps, putting him fourth on the leaderboard for Europe’s most successful national team. It is not purely because he was the best player on the pitch in a World Cup final, though only 21 men in history can say that. It is a combination of CV, character and quality. At his best, he allied energy with a Germanic sense of purpose and an acute football brain. There was something formidable about Schweinsteiger, as there are about Bayern and Germany. Now there is something superfluous about him.

There is a case for treating everyone equally. There is the meritocratic argument that players are handled according to their footballing value. And yet it need not be romantic or nostalgic to argue the greats merit a little more sympathy and leeway.

Certainly that is the view from Bavaria. United were deemed classless. “I could hardly believe it,” said Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “One or two players are going to think long and hard in future about whether they want to go to such a club. Nothing like that has ever happened at Bayern Munich."

Perhaps it reflects on Bayern’s aristocratic breeding: they look after their own whereas United can behave like the nouveau riche, forgetting the past as quickly as possible. Perhaps Rummenigge’s target was Jose Mourinho, whose ruthlessness can be brutal.

There are footballing grounds to say his actions are justified. Mourinho clearly wants one of his central midfielders to be a forceful, physical box-to-box presence: Schweinsteiger would once have ticked the boxes but now Pogba is the preferred candidate, Ander Herrera his likely deputy. Perhaps he envisages a more natural defensive midfielder than Schweinsteiger; perhaps he felt there was not room in the squad for two ageing, slow players in the same position and preferred to give vice-captain Michael Carrick a new contract.

Yet it has the feel of a symbolic sacrifice to indicate the Van Gaal era, and its attendant peculiarities, is over. At Old Trafford, Schweinsteiger may be indelibly associated with the Dutchman. That does him few favours. Schweinsteiger might have been a victim of Van Gaal’s sterile football, not a cause of it. Seeing him score against Ukraine in June, following a 70-yard surge deep into enemy territory, prompted the thought that he would not have been allowed that far forward on club duty. He did not get there as quickly as he once would have done, but his mind remained sharp enough to compensate for the loss of power in his legs. His bigger, but more fragile, frame, has only been tested once in a starting 11 since January: the Euro 2016 semi-final against France which ended his international days.

His United career seems over, the sort of signing who might have defined an era looking likely to be binned after beginning just 13 league games. His time in Manchester seems an expensive anti-climax that could bring greater embarrassment if they cannot find a taker for a footballer who, two years ago, was the driving force of Germany’s World Cup final win over Argentina.

It was his most glorious contribution when silverware was secured, but not the last. Indirectly, United owe their presence in the Community Shield to Schweinsteiger. They were eight minutes from exiting the FA Cup to West Ham in March. Then the German used his bulk to block goalkeeper Darren Randolph, Anthony Martial equalised, United won the replay and went on to lift the trophy. It was Schweinsteiger’s second, and almost certainly last, FA Cup appearance. It may prove his telling touch in a United shirt. A technician succeeded with a barge, a passer with an unpunished case of obstruction.

Mourinho might have applauded the pragmatism, but has rejected the player. He has his reasons but, as ignominy is piled on indignity for Schweinsteiger, it still feels a shame. A statement signing last year is a defining discard this.