Gary Neville has hinted that he knows which Manchester United players are behind the “disgusting” leaks from the club’s dressing room.
There is growing evidence that dissent is spreading through Ralf Rangnick 's squad amid media reports that the players have given assistant coach Chris Armas a mocking nickname.
Rangnick is over two months into a turbulent reign as interim manager which has been characterised by mixed results on the pitch and numerous dressing room issues away from it.
Mirror Football learned in January that many players view Rangnick's methods as outdated and not befitting a Premier League side.
Meanwhile, among the leaks from the United dressing room is that the players prefer current Paris Saint-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino to be the permanent appointment at Old Trafford this summer.
Have Your Say! Which Man Utd would you include in a summer clearout? Tell us what you think here.
Former United defender Neville has now blasted those players and their representatives behind the leaks.
The former right-back said on his Gary Neville podcast on Sunday: “I thought that was downright disrespectful on Friday – I did not find it funny at all.
“That they were describing Ralf Rangnick’s number two as Ted Lasso was not funny at all and not only was it disrespectful, but I found it disgusting.
“It sums up what I think of them: that they are disrespectful.
“I think if I was Ralf Rangnick and his number two, I would gain strength from that because I would not want to be on the same page of some of those players who are leaking those types of stories.
“That never happened in my time but we had the greatest level of stability.
“I remember when I joined Sky and we had the Champions League in the early years, and I went over to Napoli to do a game involving Chelsea.
“It was when Andre Villas-Boas was their manager and he left out Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole – four or five prominent players.
“That is what managers tend to do in their final days at a club, as they see it as a free hit.
“I remember sitting there at lunchtime with our team and they were getting messages of team news being leaked and the manager being slagged off, and I sat there thinking ‘does this actually happen’?
“Players agents and PR teams were briefing the media on a matchday about what was going on inside a club, and it was the first time I had seen it and known for it to happen – it really unnerved me.
“That is happening at Manchester United now – they are at it, the PR teams, the agents and the marketing teams, as a self-preservation for their own player.
“But what they do not realise is that unfortunately, when they go to the media then those media people go to us – so we know who is briefing.
“The reality is that we do not like it, but we know who it is.
“We are not going to throw people under a bus here because we have that journalistic respect – but they are it in the same way that Chelsea were all those years ago.
“They need to stop it and work as hard as they can.”
Disharmony is pervasive and United clearly have deep-rooted problems in their playing squad.
The club are already looking for a new manager this summer, but it seems their summer rebuild might need to be bigger than first envisaged.
United need to get through the rest of the current campaign with a top four place still in play and their Champions League Round of 16 clash against Atletico Madrid on the horizon.
