Neville Blasts Manchester United's Recruitment Plan

 

Former Manchester United’s defender, Gary Neville, has condemned the recruitment structure currently in place at Old Trafford, calling it "unforgivable." 

The former England international who now works as a football pundit believes gross mismanagement at board level has left the Reds Devils in a “mess” despite boasting the “second-highest wage bill in the world”.

Manchester United have continued to spend big across recent transfer windows, with a combined sum of £169.3 million being splashed on just Paul Pogba and Harry Maguire. However, little value has been found in said deals, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer looking to tweak the mindset slightly as more emphasis is placed on promising talent.

Neville has been outspoken in his criticism and reiterated that those behind the scenes need to be bringing much more to the table in a sporting sense.

Speaking in his podcast for Sky Sports on the back of a 2-0 defeat for Solskjaer’s side against arch-rivals Liverpool, he said, “I can’t believe the investment that’s been put into the squad in the last five, six, seven years and you end up with that out on the pitch.

“I saw a statistic two weeks ago that United have the second-highest wage bill in the world. And that’s the squad they’ve got. It’s unforgivable. It really is.

“I can’t change the ownership of Manchester United, no one can.

“But I’m struggling to understand why the ownership have persisted in trusting that management team to oversee the building of a Premier League title-winning team since Sir Alex Ferguson left.

“Because if you don’t lose your job for essentially overseeing that investment, that wage bill, and putting that team out on the pitch then I have to say something is really wrong.

“There’s real talent in that executive team, they can create revenue, they can do things within the football club that can help to be fair.

“But in terms of what the club needed to do for a number of years now is put the best in class football operators into that club and they’re not doing it.

“They’re not doing it and it’s a mess. They need to sort it out and quickly.”