Neville was unhappy with the attitude of Man United this year.
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville and ex-Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp have clashed after United’s 4-0 loss at Brentford.
Brentford humiliated Man United in West London 4-0 last night. New manager Erik ten Hag has had the worst possible start to life with two defeats in their opening two Premier League fixtures.
In the Sky Sports studio, Neville started: “I think those players, to be fair, Eriksen and (MartÃnez are new. A five foot nine centre-half away at Brentford is very difficult and I think he’s seen that. But those players, we’ve told the story of them now for 12 months and I feel like we’re continuously saying the same things about the same people.
“However, I cant believe eight months out, nine months ago, Ralf Rangnick said that Manchester United needed open heart surgery. He was the guy that was going to come in and direct this club moving forward beyond his coaching role, so they’ve obviously not listened to him – or they’ve got complete inability to be able to bring the players into the club.
“That’s the problem now, Manchester United in the past 10 years have always answered the fans’ anger through money and spending in the transfer market. The problem is now, nobody wants to take their money and that’s a massive issue.”
Redknapp then replied: “Maybe no one wants to come here at the moment.”
To which Neville responded: “That’s what I’m saying, nobody wants to take their money. I mean at the end of the day, they can’t spend the money and that’s a big problem. I said at half-time, if you’re a player watching that performance in the first-half, what are you thinking about coming to this club. It’s a great football club, it’s a magic football club, it’s been the biggest thing in my life and I couldn’t be more proud to support the club.
“But at this moment in time, it is really desperate. There’s no leadership, there is no voice, you can’t blame the individual player or the manager. You’ve got to look above, you have to the very top now. This week, honestly, they’re going to get peppered those players. The coach, the sporting department, the new CEO, they’re all going to get peppered. But there’s a family over there in America who are literally just letting their employees take all the hits for them and that is unforgivable.
“Joel Glazer has got to get on a plane tomorrow, come to Manchester and he’s got to start to divert the issues away from the club and tell everybody what the hell his plan is with the football club. What is he doing?”
Things then got a little more heated as Redknapp attempted to respond, before Neville cut him off and said: “No, no no. You’ve had a go at the players before the break Jamie.”
“But you can’t keep blaming the owners when the players are performing like that,” Redknapp said. “If you’re a player, do you actually think to yourself-”
Neville continued to attempt to cut him off, but Redknapp went on: “When you’re a player, and I’ve been there, we didn’t win the league for 30 years at Liverpool,” he began, before calling his fellow pundit out. “Just look at me when I’m talking to you. We didn’t win the league for 30 years.”
Neville attempted to cut in again: “You had a go at the players before the break.”
“No,” Redknapp responded. “I’m not having a go at the players. But they have to take responsibility. When you’re a player do think ‘oh, wonder what Joel Glazer is doing tomorrow’. I couldn’t care less! You have to do better for the team when you play.”
The former Manchester United defender then said: “How many times are we going to sit here and say those players lack leadership, personality-”
This time, it was Redknapp to cut in, saying: “How many times are you going to keep saying we’ve got to give it to the owners? They’ve spent a billion pounds on the team!”
“They’ve proven it,” Neville responded. “They’ve proven they can’t handle it these players so they need to have a good transfer window and they’ve not had a good transfer window.”
“It was Ed Woodward’s fault. He’s now gone. So whose fault is it now?”
Neville then made the point: “When the business is failing and not performing, it’s the owners of that business. It’s really simple! It’s failing miserably.”
“They keep spending money on the players Gary,” Redknapp added. “So they think they go and everything is going to be great?”
“Jamie, they took 24 million quid out of the club about two months ago,” Neville responded. “We’ve got now a decrepit, rotting stadium that is, to be fair, second rate when it was the best stadium in the world 15 to 20 years ago. You’ve got a football project where they haven’t got a clue. You’ve got bankers in charge of a football club not making football decisions. They’ve not appointed a sporting director.
“You can look at the players all you like, but there are that many big things that need to be put right first. They’ve got to show up and face the music, now is the time. You can’t keep hiding over in Tampa and think that nothing is going to come back to you.”
