Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has said the idea of the club sacking boss Erik ten Hag is “absolute nonsense”.
United suffered their 11th defeat of the season in all competitions, and seventh in the Premier League, on Saturday as they crashed to a 3-0 home loss to Bournemouth.
Neville says there is “no way” Ten Hag should be sacked this term and pointed the finger at United’s owners the Glazer family.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Neville said of Ten Hag: “I fear for him generally, not really just because of this week (when United play Bayern Munich and Liverpool). Just more generally around the way in which a cycle is repeating itself again.
“I hope that somehow Erik ten Hag can turn it around this season and that ultimately he can improve what’s happening at the moment – or else he will be in trouble, it’s just inevitable. We’ve seen it with (previous United managers) Ole (Gunnar Solskjaer), Jose (Mourinho) and Louis van Gaal.
“There’s no way they should change him this season, this idea of sacking him is absolute nonsense. I wouldn’t be in favour of that.
“The lack of leadership and structure above him…I know people say you can’t blame the Glazers – yeah you can. You can because 10 years of failure, of miserable recruitment comes down to the fact they have not got a sporting director, a proper head of recruitment in place.
“That is why this happens. Ultimately managers look above them and think ‘I haven’t got anyone there to help me so I might as well just try and do it myself’.
“This is all down to the leadership. If it happened once, fair enough, if it happened twice you would ask a question, but this is five times, five times in 10 years.”
It is expected that Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s purchase of 25 per cent stake at the Old Trafford club will be announced soon, with him acquiring significant control over footballing operations.
Neville added: “He has got to come in and sort this out, and you wonder how he is going to be able to pull it out of it, that’s the concern I have.
“What we need is a change of structure at the top, that will hopefully happen in the next few weeks, hopefully that will change the way in which the sporting project is looked at because you can’t come in and leave everything as is.
“And maybe, with some leadership and structure around the club, Manchester United could have some sort of ability to cope with the other clubs who recruit a lot better and do business a lot better.”
PA Sport staff
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