Team GB were the Manchester United of rowing, until they lost their Sir Alex Ferguson - The Mirror

Jurgen Grobler stepped down from his role as British Rowing coach in 2020 and, just like Manchester United post Sir Alex, the squad's Tokyo performance can be put down to a transitionary period

For 29 years the Team GB rowing team have been the athletes to beat on the world stage.

The British Rowing programme turned out juggernaut rowers for decades, capable of handling whatever challenge was thrown at them.

In Tokyo, however, that world rowing supremacy came to a bleak end.

Team GB picked up just one silver and one bronze medal at the long-awaited Olympics in what was their worst return since 1976.

Instead, it was New Zealand and Australia who proved the teams to beat with a haul of nine rowing medals between them.

A lot has been made of the British rowing performance in the aftermath of the Tokyo 2020 events.

The overwhelming feeling, shared by both former Olympians, the athletes themselves and fans is one of disappointment.

Most congratulated the Team GB rowers on their exploits whilst some, such as James Cracknell, launched seething criticisms of the athletes.

All the reactions have come from an understandable place of shock, the public had no idea that the ever-reliable well of Olympic gold medals would dry up so quickly.

However, behind the scenes at British Rowing HQ, there has been a sea change in coaching staff which meant that a period of turbulence had to be expected.

Was James Cracknell too harsh about the Team GB rowers? Let us know in the comments below.

Likening the Team GB rowing squad to Manchester United seems a far-fetched analogy, but it's one that certainly makes sense.

Once Sir Alex Ferguson got going at Old Trafford the club won 13 Premier League titles in 20 years and never finished below third place - if they weren't winning gold, they were always on the podium.

Then, when Sir Alex stepped down in 2013, the club lost its footing and would finish outside the Top 3 for four consecutive seasons.

Now, almost 10 years later, United have rewritten their identity under new leadership and are once again a force to be reckoned with.

Where United had Sir Alex, British Rowing had Jurgen Grobler.

Grobler is not the household name that Ferguson is, but his importance in Team GB's rowing successes is just like Sir Alex's in United's fortunes.

Grobler took the reigns of British Rowing in 1992 and soon his first crew won Olympic gold as Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent triumphed in the pair at the Barcelona Olympics of that year. It was the beginning of something beautiful.

Redgrave and Pinsent were at it again in Atalanta 1996 and then Cracknell and Tim Foster joined the duo to make four for Sydney 2000 and it was gold again.

The four became a Team GB speciality from that point and gold followed in that event every Olympics under Grobler to make it five games on the trot.

By 2004, Grobler's winning mentality had become infectious and the whole squad was picking up medals left, right and centre.

The British Rowing medal tally reached four in Atalanta, six in Beijing, nine in London and five in Rio.

Tokyo 2020 was gearing up to be another medal plunder before it was delayed and then disaster struck as Grobler stepped down from his role in August of that year.

Fast forward 12 months and, just as happened at United post-Ferguson's retirement, the wheels have come off.

At the games the four faced steering issues, the eight didn't have the gas to press on in the final 250m and even superwoman Helen Glover couldn't write her fairytale return.

Where some, like Cracknell who branded Team GB's 2020 rowers as 'schoolkids', are wrong is in blaming the athletes.

The long water sessions, gruelling tests on the rowing machines and heavy weights sessions are all still there under new coach Steve Trapmore, who certainly knows what he is doing - he is an Olympic winner and former coach at the revered Cambridge University Boat Club.

Writing off Tokyo as nothing more than a turbulent transition period for Team GB is something many will find hard to accept. It is, after all, much easier to find somewhere to target the blame... just ask poor David Moyes.

When Grobler stepped down in 2020 he said: "This has been a hard and difficult decision but British Rowing has big plans for Paris 2024 and we want to organise it now to give the GB Rowing Team the best chance of success.

"I can’t commit for the next four years so I have resigned in order to let everything start now.”

Reading between the lines, Grobler himself knew the British Rowing programme would require a period to reset.

If he had left after Tokyo 2020, that would only have given the squad three years to bounce back from his retirement. After 28 years under Grobler's influence, it was always going to be a longer-term mission.

By leaving last year Grobler may have sent the Team GB rowers to Tokyo like lambs to the slaughter, but you'd be a fool to not expect them to bounce back with a vengeance in Paris.