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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
George Smith

Manchester United great Gary Neville sends message to the Glazers after seeing Real Madrid plan

Gary Neville issued his latest plea to Joel and Avram Glazer for them to sell Manchester United, this time in relation to the ongoing redevelopment of Real Madrid's iconic Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

On Monday morning, the Spanish club posted a short video on Twitter offering an insight into the ongoing construction work that is being undertaken at the stadium. Madrid unveiled plans to modernise the Bernabeu in 2019 and the redevelopment will include a retractable roof, a 360-degree video scoreboard and a surrounding skin of steel bands which will allow images to be illuminated and projected on the exterior surface of the stadium.

Madrid, who sourced a €225million loan last December to help fund the development, hope it will be completed in time for the start of next season. It was originally hoped that the work would be finalised by December this year in time for the stadium's 75th anniversary.

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The Bernabeu facelift will also see the stadium's capacity slightly increased, with the redevelopment meaning that it should house close to 85,000 fans. Once completed, it promises to be one of the most modern and polished arenas in Europe.

The release of the video prompted former United captain Neville to sound another warning to the Glazer family, who have refused to invest sufficient funding in Old Trafford over recent years. The stadium is in desperate need of modernisation, as is the club's Carrington training ground.

Taking to Twitter, Neville, quote tweeting the video published by Madrid, said: "To Joel and Avram. Stop delaying the inevitable and sell now."

Neville has hit out at the Glazers a lot in recent weeks and produced an attention-grabbing rant following United's 4-0 defeat to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium earlier this month. He went into detail about their recent failings as owners of the club and blasted the current state of Old Trafford in comparison to other big clubs' stadia.

"When a business is failing and it's not performing, it is the owners of that business [who are to blame]," Neville told Sky Sports. "It is really simple. It is failing miserably.

"They took about £24million out of the club two months ago and they have now got a decrepit, rotting stadium, which is, to be fair, second-rate, when it used to be the best in the world 15-20 years ago. You have got a football club where they haven't got a clue."

Neville's scathing rant earlier this summer featured a clash with fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp. That prompted Neville to compare United's facilities with those of one of Redknapp's former clubs - Tottenham Hotspur.

Neville continued: "The club is rotten. He [Daniel Levy] has built an unbelievable stadium that people want to come and play in; he has got the best training ground in the country; he's appointed a fantastic sporting director [Fabio Paratici]; he has built an unbelievable stadium that is the best in the world.

"Manchester United are the opposite of that."

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