NEVILLE HAWKING RICE TO UNITED MAKES NO SENSE
GarY NEViLLE opposed the Super League and made sure everyone knew it. What he doesn’t oppose is all of the supposed lesser clubs selling their best players to Manchester United, which ultimately amounts to the same thing. He was at it again this week with Declan rice. if Neville mentions rice, he says he needs to go to a bigger club; and often it’s Neville’s old club Manchester United. Of course, since the end of the maximum wage, players have moved up and on. One can see why Harry kane wanted to join Manchester city and why Jack Grealish did. rice (below) would earn more money, play in bigger competitions and have a better chance of winning major trophies if he joined one of the biggest clubs. We can see the appeal. But not just any big club. the logic is that rice needs to prove himself somewhere like Manchester United, but he’s already played in a European championship final and more than held his own. Maybe it is United and Neville’s mate, the manager, who need to prove themselves first. Why would Ole Gunnar Solskjaer be good for rice? is he a better coach than David Moyes? if Moyes had Solskjaer’s players during his time at Manchester United, might they have looked a more coherent, consistent team? Where did Jesse Lingard play his best football in recent years? it wasn’t Old trafford. Has Solskjaer greatly improved Harry Maguire or aaron Wan-Bissaka? What exactly did tottenham do for Matt Doherty, or arsenal for calum chambers? there are six clubs that fancy themselves as elite in the Premier League but only three that are any good. Manchester United are glorified Europa League with a big budget, which is where they have ended up the last two seasons; tottenham and arsenal aren’t even that right now. Yet every week we listen to influencers on behalf of an elite cabal conducting a recruitment campaign. they don’t pretend to be unallied. a Super League by stealth is still a Super League. if anything, the venture capitalists went about it more honestly.