Gary Neville claims to have grown “tired of my own club”, the Manchester United legend now “bored” of watching the Red Devils in action.
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Old Trafford icon has grown disillusionedIssues to address on and off the fieldTesting run of fixtures approachingWHAT HAPPENED?
Erik ten Hag’s side gave a loyal legion of followers that extends into several million little to get excited about when slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle last time out. That Premier League reversal came on the back of an error-strewn draw with Galatasaray in the Champions League that has left the club’s European ambitions in 2023-24 hanging by a thread.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesWHAT NEVILLE SAID ABOUT MAN UTD
All of this is playing out against a backdrop of uncertainty off the field – with the unpopular Glazer family still hanging around – and Neville has told his podcast for of United losing their appeal: “It's well below par, it's really disappointing, and I feel like the noise against the manager is starting to occur. There are then those same noises that say, ‘Surely we can't get rid of another manager, we've got to get rid of the players because they are the ones who have got rid of the other managers’. We then turn to the owners, and I'm bored. I have become tired of my own club. I don't want to do their games anymore, I don't want to watch their games anymore and that is the saddest indictment that you can have of your football club when you become bored of watching them, when you become tired of watching them.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Neville went on to say, with United having lacked consistency for some time despite continuing to spend heavily in the transfer market and bringing their six-year wait for major silverware to a close when winning the Carabao Cup in 2022-23: “It is not just me, a couple of people in the last couple of weeks have said, ‘Enough's enough’. The daft thing is, on Wednesday night [vs Chelsea] I will build my whole Wednesday night around watching Manchester United. That's life, we go and watch them again, don't we? But that is how I feel: I feel tired of watching them. That is a sad position to be in. I love that club and I love the excitement of football, but I am already fearing what is going to happen at Anfield in two weeks, just purely because I think it could be a mess. I am already fearing what is going to happen on Wednesday night against Chelsea because it could be a mess.”
GettyWHAT NEXT FOR MAN UTD?
United will play host to Chelsea sat seventh in the Premier League table, five points adrift of the top four and nine behind leaders Arsenal. The Red Devils are due at Anfield on December 17, by which time they will already have faced Bayern Munich in a must-win Champions League game at Old Trafford.