The escalating clamours of dissent and discontent at Manchester United take on a new gravity and urgency
When you have deservedly earned your plaudits as the first-choice, most-capped right-back for England for more than ten years with 85 caps, and also enjoy the accolade of having been one of the most outstanding Premier League full-backs of your generation, the right to speak out without fear or favour on any issue, controversial or otherwise, pertaining particularly to English Premier League football, is undoubtedly yours.
Having also earned acclaim as one of the all-time, most-decorated English and European footballers with 20 trophies including eight Premier League, and two Champions League, titles within the span of an entire playing career dedicated solely and wholly to Manchester United, Gary Neville would most indubitably be one of the appropriate individuals to articulate his views and opinions on matters relating to Old Trafford. Notwithstanding the fact that he was also one of its club captain for five years.
And speak out he certainly has, immediately after the most recent debacle of United’s 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday. Not one to mince his words or shy away from controversy, the influential and immensely popular SkySports pundit/commentator has vociferously clamoured for Ed Woodward to be immediately given the boot for Manchester United’s recruitment that Neville has called ‘unforgivable’.
Neville is visibly most vocally critical of Woodward’s tenure as United’s executive vice-chairman, espousing that it has been one of failure, and that the time is now imminent for the Glazers to dismiss the ex investment banker for the latter’s ineptitude and hands-on involvement with the club’s transfer dealings. It’s Woodward’s approach that is being questioned and scrutinized by the former United captain.
It’s already widely known that Neville has not been at all enamoured of Woodward’s management style at Old Trafford, saying that there is something “really wrong” if the vice-chairman still refuses to relinquish his power in the light of the multitude of problems that are surfacing rapidly at the club under his executive vigilance, or lack thereof.
With around 850 million quid already doled out on players in the six and a half years since Alex Ferguson’s retirement, and with the Premier League’s highest wage bill sticking out conspicuously as a sore thumb, it’s little wonder that Neville and many others are up in arms baying for blood. Understandably so, too, especially with United’s current dismal standing a vast 30 points, and fifth, behind leaders Liverpool.
Neville was quick to point out:
“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.”
The gravity of the situation is further exacerbated by the glaring fact that this once-illustrious club has managed to finish in the top four only twice since 2013, with the distinct possibility of crashing out for the fifth time in seven seasons. On top of that, failing to qualify a second successive season for the Champions League would directly impact United’s coffers as a negative hit to profitability from the club’s kit sponsorship deal with Adidas.
This is obviously not a case of paying peanuts and getting monkeys. United has unquestionably got some of the top football talents in its folds scoured from the European continent and other parts of the world. It’s clearly a case of management or, in this case, mismanagement at the highest executive levels at Old Trafford.