Gary Neville believes Manchester United’s manager search is having a detrimental effect on their chase for a top-four finish this season.
United remain in the hunt for a new manager, with Erik ten Hag emerging as the club’s preferred candidate in recent weeks. While the Ajax boss is seemingly now the favourite to become the Reds’ next permanent boss, Mauricio Pochettino remains in the running as a final decision is yet to be made.
On the pitch, United are still in a battle for a top-four finish, but their hopes are in danger of fizzling out before the end of the season. They find themselves three points behind Arsenal following their disappointing 1-1 draw with Leicester on Saturday, with the Gunners holding two games in hand.
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There’s plenty of uncertainty surrounding the club at the moment, not only with their managerial situation, but with a number of players looking set to exit during the summer. And Neville feels United’s players need the end of the season to arrive before they can get back on track.
“I don’t have this theory that Manchester United’s players don’t care, I think they do because we’ve seen them over the last two years. They’re just drained,” Neville told his Sky Sports podcast.
“I think what’s happened is the interview process has started for Ten Hag, they’ve got a manager who knows he’s not going to be here next season and doesn’t know whether he’s going to be here in the other role they’ve offered him, you’ve got a number of players who don’t know whether they’re going to be here next season, or know they’re not going to be here, and you’ve got a lot of indecision and uncertainty, and a lot of people looking left and right.
“You need everybody in the dressing room to have blinkers on, everybody running the club to have blinkers on. That’s our goal, that’s the way we’re facing, but they’re all looking left and right thinking ‘where’s my next move? Is he going to be here next year? The manager’s not going to be here, so I better look at what’s happening.’
“We’ve got the Maguire situation coming out with England, you’ve got the Rashford situation, the Cristiano (Ronaldo) situation, the Cavani situation, the Pogba situation, the Rangnick situation. You’ve got so many live things happening, and they just need to get to a point where the football stops, and they can reset and get a new manager into the club, but that isn’t just going to be the answer. This has been going on for a long time.”
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