Gary Neville has suggested that Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim may be trying to copy the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson by attempting to move on Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho.
Rashford has not featured in United’s last seven games after falling out of favour under Amorim. The last time Rashford lined up for the club was during the Europa League meeting with Viktoria Plzen on December 12, when he was on the pitch for 56 minutes.
Shortly after, Rashford admitted he was ready for a new challenge away from Old Trafford and since then, he has been linked to several teams including AC Milan, Napoli, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham.
It looks like his time at United is increasingly coming to an end, with a transfer expected to get over the line before the window closes on February 3.
There is also speculation over Garnacho’s future at United, with Napoli believed to be pursuing him as a potential replacement for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Reports from Italy have even claimed that Garnacho has struck an agreement in principle with Napoli over a five-year contract.
Speaking on The Overlap US’ It’s Called Soccer podcast, Neville questioned whether Amorim’s apparent willingness to part ways with Rashford and Garnacho is part of his bid to take control at United.
Neville explained that the situation reminds him of how Sir Alex Ferguson used to deal with some of the club’s biggest players.
“It’s been in the news in the last 24 hours that bids are coming in for Garnacho, there’s been new stories about Rashford going on loan or to another club, it genuinely wouldn’t surprise me if Ruben Amorim made these big types of calls.”
“I don’t think he’s got anything to lose. We’ve seen it all over, ten years, whereby these talented players who haven’t delivered on a consistent basis that will not get Manchester United to the top, that he might just have to target [certain players].”
“If you think about what Sir Alex Ferguson did over many, many years. Sometimes some of the major fallouts were with the big players but that was for him to wrestle control.”
“You thought, “These players can’t leave the club, it’s not right!”, but he did it to wrestle control, whether you liked it or didn’t like it, agreed or didn’t agree with it.”
Neville added, “Maybe Ruben Amorim has to go basically for the most high-profile players and say, ‘I’m in charge here, I don’t care who you are, I’m the one who is going to be implementing the standards at the football club and if you don’t quite hit them, I don’t care how talented or valuable you are, what the fans think of you, what your pay packets are, you’re done.”
“This will be a big transfer window. It might not be as big as we think but if Garnacho and Rashford were to go, they would be big moves. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a mini clear-out and he brought in one or two players.”
United are back in action on Thursday when they host Southampton. Kick-off is at 20:00 GMT.
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Derick Kinoti
Derick Kinoti is a football writer at The Peoples Person who has covered Manchester United and the game extensively for many years. He is a keen analyst with expertise in SEO and journalism standards. Derick is convinced Wayne Rooney is the true GOAT and won’t hear otherwise!
