Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has admitted he regrets not speaking out against the club’s Glazer ownership sooner.
This week the Glazer family put United up for sale and Mirror Football understands the family is looking for as much as £8billion to sell arguably the biggest team in world football. It would bring an end to their 17-year ownership of the club.
The proposed sale has led to widespread reports of potential buyers for the club and consortium takeovers, including Neville’s close friend and former United teammate David Beckham said to be open to talks with potential buyers of the club.
One of the most outspoken critics of the Glazer ownership in recent years has been the club’s former full-back Neville. That is despite the fact he did not speak out against United’s direction during his playing career or through the formative part of his punditry career.
Speaking to Sky Sports this weekend, Neville has said: "I don't want to come up with excuses. It was probably because we were successful and we were managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, who stuck to football.
"No player or member of staff ever spoke out against the leveraged takeover. When it happened we got on with winning trophies, winning the Champions League and winning Premier Leagues. And the club, to be fair, carried on being successful.
"I worked on the theory at the time that we could have worse owners. They were quite passive. I never saw any interference while I was at the club as a player.
"But when Sir Alex Ferguson left, it's then I started to realise they were only successful because of Sir Alex Ferguson. They haven't been able to develop a successful sporting project without him."
Have Your Say! What do you make of Neville’s comments on the Glazers? Tell us what you think here.
Neville continued, as he became critical of the owners: "So the fact of the matter is, they've taken dividends out, they've not developed the stadium, they've let the training ground go to ruin. They really are second-class when it comes to the status of infrastructure at the club and the facilities.
"That can't happen when you're not successful on the pitch. So you put all that together and you get to a point whereby enough is enough.
"I started to speak out about two or three years ago. Many fans will say I should have done it earlier and I can't disagree with them.
"I can have regrets about it all my life, but the reality is I have spoken out in the last two or three years quite a lot. I haven't enjoyed what I've seen. The signs were obviously there 15 years ago and most fans were right.
"But let's make sure we don't jump out of the frying pan into the fire."
Neville added: "I've expressed my concern about state ownership. I've expressed my concern about US investment. But whoever comes in, we need to know what the manifesto is.
"We need to understand what they're going to do in that first five to seven years."
