Gary Lineker has compared the Liverpool team left by Jurgen Klopp with the Manchester United squad left by Sir Alex Ferguson and concluded that the latter is at least partly responsible for what has come since.
Ferguson bowed out in 2013 with the Premier League title but left behind a squad that looked tired around the edges, with Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick and Robin van Persie all coming towards the end of their careers, and Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs both on their last legs.
Lineker was speaking as Manchester United were beaten in the FA Cup by Fulham, a defeat that was rather more mundane than magic.
INEOS have reportedly ‘blamed’ the club legend for the club’s decline. According to the Mirror last week: ‘Some influential movers and shakers at Old Trafford even feel that Ferguson is to blame for the club’s decline for failing to embrace developments in coaching and scouting.’
It seems like Lineker at least in part agrees, saying on the BBC: “If you look at Liverpool now, they’ve got a new manager in Arne Slot, and it’s testament to how Jürgen Klopp left the club in a really good state. So the structure is really good.
“That probably wasn’t the case at the end of Sir Alex Ferguson’s [time at Old Trafford]. I know they won the league that season, but it wasn’t their best side, and a lot of their great players were coming to the end of their careers. I think from there they had problems. The academy wasn’t delivering the players that they were before.”
Lineker was sitting alongside Wayne Rooney – who called Ruben Amorim ‘naive’ for talking about the Premier League title – and he was part of that squad left by Ferguson in 2013.
He said: “I think everyone’s a little bit on edge. Over the last 10 years there’s been a slow decline at the football club and they just need to try and get some consistency in what they’re doing, whether that’s with the manager, with the process, recruitment and how they want to try and move forward. If they get that right then they will start to get better.
“Manchester United have spent a lot of money over the last 10 years but the structure hasn’t been there. They’re buying players as individuals and it looks like there hasn’t been a long-term plan to have this way of playing, the style, the identity.
“Then we see a new manager come in who wants his own way of playing, like we’re seeing now. Every time they’re starting to move forward a little bit, it gets ripped up again.
“You need to be in a stable position to bring the best players in. If I’m a player playing in a different country or a different club, Man United come to me, and I’m looking thinking, ‘you know, I’m not sure’. The top players want Champions League football. And unfortunately, that’s not where the club is.”
