Gary Neville has laid bare Manchester United's struggles since Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement by taking aim at the club's transfer policy.
Over the last nine years, United have spent £1.25bn on new recruits, including more than £50m this summer on fees for Tyrell Malacia and Lisandro Martinez. Results remain poor, though, with United posting their lowest ever Premier League points total last season and beginning the new campaign with two defeats from two.
Manager Erik ten Hag was promised five summer signings but so far only has three, and is after more new faces sooner rather than later. However, based on the record of the last 33 men to join the club, the Dutchman will need his recruits to buck the trend.
During an analysis of United's struggles on Monday Night Football, former United captain Neville was asked to grade the 33 signings from before this season as green (value for money), amber (okay value) and red (poor value or not performed). Some 24 members of that 33-man group were graded red, with just two - Bruno Fernandes and Zlatan Ibrahimovic - in green.
"It’s been one of the problems Manchester United have had for 10 years is that they’ve flip flopped from managers, strategies and they’ve allowed managers to control recruitment and that’s a massive issue," Neville said. "We think there’s only two signings at this moment in time that you can say have been good and performed at a decent level but you can argue that Fernandes has gone off the boil a little but the number that he hit in the last few seasons has worked. Ibrahimovic worked.
"Amber; Herrera, Shaw - we debated over Shaw - Matic, we debated over Juan Mata who is in red but could’ve been in amber, Cristiano Ronaldo - would’ve been green on last season but what’s happened in the last month in terms of he wants to leave, it’s a nightmare scenario it’s not working. Seventy-five percent of those signings are in red, they’ve not worked, 20 per cent are an amber and only four (or) five percent of signings, we think, have worked."
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Neville described the run as "a horror story from a recruitment point of view". Still, he acknowledged he was enthusiastic about a number of signings when they arrived, only for on-field performances not to match the excitement.
"Even last year with Varane, Sancho, Ronaldo. Di Maria came and we all went ooh he’ll be a good signing, we did it on Monday Night Football at Leicester when he went through midfield," the pundit continued. "But it’s become a graveyard for football players this football club where football players are now considering to even come to the club, they can’t get players in.
"I have to say where I got away from the players is that when a school is underperforming for years they get put under special measures by government and the kids don’t get blamed - that’s where Man United are. They’re in special measures and you can’t blame the kids anymore."
Things won't get any easier on paper for United, with their next Premier League game coming at home to Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp's team beat them 5-0 at Old Trafford last season, before also recording a 4-0 win in the reverse fixture.
By then, United might have more signings to call upon, with Adrien Rabiot among those being targeted. Ten Hag's challenge now is proving Neville wrong on those 'graveyard' comments.
