MANCHESTER UNITED legends Gary Neville and Roy Keane have ripped into the club for their “desperate” pursuit of forward Marko Arnautovic.
New manager Erik ten Hag began life in the Premier League with a disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton on Sunday.
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And in amongst the glum mood around Old Trafford was a report that the club were looking at trying to sign 33-year-old former West Ham striker Marko Arnautovic.
It was claimed live on air that United have had an initial bid rejected by Serie A side Bologna as they eye up the possibility of replacing an unhappy Cristiano Ronaldo.
After hearing of United’s failed offer for the Austrian, Neville interrupted Sky presenter Dave Jones to say: “The first thing you do when the phone rings from Manchester United is reject the bid.
“The reality of it is you know full well, they’ve lost that game today, they’re actually negotiating from an even worse position than they were yesterday and that’s a bigger problem for them.”
When pressed on Arnautovic, Neville then added: “We’ve seen it with Falcao, Ibrahimovic, Cavani, Ighalo – these desperate, sort of experienced signings.
“We’ve seen it now for eight or 10 years, it’s a pattern, it’s happening time and time again.
“We don’t even get angry, we don’t even get animated about it anymore. It’s got to the point where I don’t even want to comment about it.”
Keane then backed up Neville’s view by piling in on his former club’s current transfer policy.
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The Irishman said: “Who’s making these decisions? Who’s deciding which players are going to come in?
“They’re talking about Darren Fletcher as technical director, they’ve got a new coach, John Murtough is obviously involved, there’s a new chief executive, there’s talk about them going back to Alex Ferguson and David Gill.
“My goodness, what is going on?
“It’s alright having the money, you’ve got to get the right players in with the right character.”
Neville then finished the segment with a damning indictment of United’s lack of forward planning.
He added: “The money that was needed to rebuild that squad this summer… they knew six months ago, eight months, 12 months ago that there was going to need to be investment this summer.
“All those players that were leaving like Mata and Matic and all the other ones that have left.
“They knew they had a problem with Martial not having been fancied in the past, Cristiano coming to the end, Cavani leaving, obviously the situation with Greenwood not in the club anymore.
“All these things have been known for a long time, it’s not as if it’s just hit them now.”
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