Former Manchester United star Paul Ince has claimed that his former side should sign Aston Villa and England striker Ollie Watkins.
The Red Devils finished an embarrassing 15th place in the Premier League and lost the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur.
United are in serious need of revitalisation this summer and Ince believes one of the biggest issues is the club’s lack of characters.
Speaking to The Telegraph he claimed, “it really saddens me to see where Manchester United are now. In the teams I played in, we not only had so many top players, but tough competitors and great characters, too.”
Ince asserted that when he was in the United dressing room in the first half of the 1990s, players would question whether any potential new signing had the mental fortitude to play for a club like theirs.
Speaking of the current crop at Old Trafford he asserted, “the fans demand that you produce week in and week out, but some of the current players can’t cope with that mentally. They haven’t got the character to do it.”
Ince also claimed that the players have shown no improvement under current head coach Ruben Amorim and they that they do not look comfortable in the 3-4-3 formation that he has introduced.
He stated, “we’re not talking about bad players here – we’re talking about players who can’t play in a system that Amorim wants to play. He’s said he’s not going to change his system of three at the back and that he believes in it, but the balance doesn’t look right.”
The former Inter Milan player also stated that he does not feel sorry for the United boss and questioned why he started Luke Shaw and Mason Mount in the Europa League final when they barely featured all season due to injury.
Ince asserted that the summer would be “vital” for United and they needed to drastically improve the recruitment.
He elaborated, “these next two to three months are a very important period for Amorim and the board at United.”
The former midfield general questioned why United had not attempted to sign players like Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, claiming the club has been looking in the wrong places.
Ince finally recommended that the club pursue Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins to fill the striker position.
He stated, “they badly need more firepower and I’m looking at someone like Ollie Watkins – a striker who can actually score goals – as a player United need to be going for.”
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
