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Manchester United legend Gary Neville has suggested that former sporting director Dan Ashworth may have been right about his decision not to appoint Ruben Amorim in favour of other options like Thomas Frank, Gareth Southgate and Graham Potter.
Ashworth was ruthlessly axed by United in December last year after just five months in his role at Old Trafford.
It later came out that Ashworth did not see eye to eye with some of the other members of the hierarchy, including Sir Jim Ratcliffe himself. It’s understood Ratcliffe was not pleased with Ashworth’s indecision when it came to sacking Erik ten Hag.
The INEOS billionaire was also not too keen on Ashworth’s succession plan, which almost exclusively featured the names of English managers such as Frank, Southgate and Potter.
After parting ways with Ten Hag, United brought in Ruben Amorim but it hasn’t been a smooth transition. Amorim has won just six of the 25 Premier League games he has taken charge of, and United currently sit in 16th place in the table.
The Red Devils have yet to reach 40 points and they’ve recorded a humiliating 17 top-flight losses, nine of which have come at home.
Speaking on The Overlap Fan Debate, Neville insisted Amorim’s struggles may prove Ashworth’s approach was the correct one.
“Knowing him as I do and how reliable Dan Ashworth is and trustworthy, he went with a plan that looked pretty unspectacular at the time. He gave them two or three managers that didn’t get their juices flowing and said ‘I think these are the people that need to be the first step on the rebuild of this football club.’”
“Them type of people (Southgate and Howe), Graham Potter. These people will correct the culture in the club, you will get the dressing room solid, good characters and a good work ethic. It is the bridge that is needed to get to where we need to get to.”
“You are not going to get from where we are to basically there. Looking back now, maybe he was right and the club needed a period of two or three years of finishing fourth, getting a good culture and getting the staff happy. Maybe he was right that there needs to be a stepping stone before we get back to.”
“I didn’t support (Southgate) at the time because I didn’t think it was the right mix, but now I see what is going on it is really worrying.”
Despite United’s troubles, they still have a chance to win silverware, in the form of the Europa League final.
Amorim and his squad are set to face Tottenham Hotspur in a week’s time at San Mames for a chance to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Looking ahead to the contest, Neville stressed that Tottenham have far better players than United. In fact, he explained that only Bruno Fernandes would get into a hypothetical combined XI.
“I’ve genuinely got a sickly feeling about this game next Wednesday. The biggest reason is when I look at every single player in the Tottenham team, when you look at (Dejan) Kulusevski, Son (Heung-min), Brennan Johnson, (Dominic) Solanke, if (James) Maddison was there, (Yves) Bissouma and (Pape Matar) Sarr, (Cristian) Romero and (Micky) Van de Ven, (Pedro) Porro and (Destiny) Udogie, when you look at those players, like-for-like with United’s, only Bruno (Fernandes) would get into the first 11 of Spurs.”
“I would select every single Tottenham player. The goalkeeper is a 50-50 split because I don’t like (Guglielmo) Vicario and I’m not a fan of (Andre) Onana.”
The former United defender added, “Honestly, Udogie, Porro, Van de Ven, Romero, Bissouma, Sarr, Johnson, Maddison, Solanke, Kulusevski, Son, I would choose every single player of Tottenham’s over Manchester United’s next Wednesday. That’s my worry.”
“The one thing that keeps me alive – the likes of a Casemiro, a Bruno, they’ve got something in them that will step up for a one-off game that means I think that we’ll win. But if the players play as they should do, pound-for-pound, Tottenham should win that game.”
United are preparing for a busy summer transfer window and according to Neville, the club should be looking to offload as many as 10 players.
“You’re talking about eight to 10 players have to go.”
“There’s three or four players that will leave through being out of contract, and he needs to get (another) five or six out, and they’re going to have to pay to get them out.”
“Rashford’s wages will now be paid half by Manchester United. That’s £180,000-a-week, £8million-a-year being paid by United.”
Meanwhile, United are back in action on Friday when they face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
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