MANCHESTER UNITED IN CRISIS
Legend Neville puts exec Ed in the firing line
(right)
ED WOODWARD is facing be sacked amid a growing Manchester United. calls to crisis at
Old Trafford legend Gary Neville has launched a blistering attack on the executive vice-chairman and believes he should be axed for presiding over the club’s demise.
The former United and England defender said: “I’m struggling to understand why the ownership have persisted in trusting that management team to oversee the building of a Premier League titlewinning side since Sir Alex Ferguson left.
“If you don’t lose your job for essentially overseeing that investment, that wage bill, and putting that team out on the pitch, then I have to say something is really wrong.”
United fell a staggering 30 points behind runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool following Sunday’s dismal 2-0 defeat at Anfield.
To make matters worse, United have lost
Marcus Rashford for up to three months with a fractured back, leaving boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scrambling to make a loan signing.
Woodward has lavished over £950m on players since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, as well as appointing then sacking three managers.
Neville insists the position United are in is ‘unforgivable’ and believes the buck must stop with Woodward.
He added: “I can’t believe the investment that’s been put into the squad in the last five, six, seven years and you end up with that out on the pitch.
“I saw a statistic two weeks ago that United have the secondhighest wage bill in the world. And that’s the squad they’ve got. It’s unforgivable.
“There’s real talent in that executive team, they can create revenue, they can do things within the football club that can help to be fair.
“But in terms of what the club needed to do for a number of years now, is put the ‘best in class’ football operators into that club and they’re not doing it. It’s a mess.”
United also came under fire yesterday for failing to protect Rashford.
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara missed six months in 2010 with a similar injury.
And he said he could not believe Rashford was cleared to face Wolves last week.
“It’s a bad injury to get and I can’t believe that the medical team at United have allowed him to carry on playing,” said O’Hara.
United boss Solskjaer suggested that Rashford may be out for six weeks, but O’Hara said it was “ridiculous”.
“He ain’t going to be back in six weeks, to my mind. A double stress fracture to the spine is a three-month minimum.
“I had two screws and a rod put in my spine.”