Manchester United haunted by criticism of former stars
James Cox
The shadow of Alex Ferguson and the club's former success always looms large over Manchester United, but stars from the club's glory days are doing more harm than good in punditry roles.
This was once again highlighted when Ruben Amorim used his parting press conference, following a 1-1 draw at Leeds United, to rage against the club's hierarchy and specifically mentioned Gary Neville.
It is widely reported that director of football Jason Wilcox and part owner Jim Ratcliffe pay a lot of attention to comments from ex-United players, like Neville, in the media. This is not a healthy scenario for a club struggling to return to the top table of English football and to make a mark in Europe again.
Roy Keane has always been critical of his former club, and the appointment of Michael Carrick as head coach until the end of the season saw him go on a tirade against his coaching staff, and even take a swipe at Carrick's wife, apparently over an old tweet in which she criticised the former club captain.
The fact that the first question asked of Carrick in a press conference after his appointment concerned Keane's comment about his wife sums up the issue with the influence of former United players in punditry.
In another ridiculous situation, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, great players and questionable pundits, took aim at United defender Lisandro Martinez on their podcast.
They claimed he would not be able to handle Erling Haaland in the Manchester derby, ignoring the fact Martinez has got a handle of the Norwegian striker on a number of occasions including keeping him scoreless in United's FA Cup final win in 2024.
The claim that Haaland could pick Martinez up and run with him was just disrespectful.
Not only that, but calling the Argentine a "little toddler" was further insult.
An understandably angry Martinez said Scholes was welcome to come to his house after he once again kept Haaland quiet in United's 2-0 win over City last week.
In all likelihood, Carrick will make way for a more experienced name such as Luis Enrique or Carlo Ancelotti (if United can convince them) in the summer.
However, securing a Champions League place and producing a style of football like they showed in the derby on a regular basis could sway the United bosses and convince them to take a punt on Carrick, despite the lessons learnt from how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's reign ended.
Regardless of what happens, Carrick will not have appreciated the strange rant from his former teammate Neville on the Stick to Football podcast.
"I hope he does really well," Neville said on Stick to Football. "There cannot be any consideration that Michael takes the job beyond this season, for Michael and for the club."
"If he wins every game, look, we could be sat here in the season where he’s done unbelievably well, and we’re always thinking the fans are up and they’re in the Champions League places, fifth or whatever. It could happen if there’s a good run and we could all be getting swayed with it.
"I honestly feel like (you have to look at others) at the end of the season when you’ve got (Mauricio) Pochettino, (Thomas) Tuchel and (Carlo) Ancelotti.
"I’ve said Ancelotti. I just feel purely because he’s 66 years of age, he’s got probably the best job in the world right now. He’s probably got one job left at club level.
"If there’s one person who’s got the patience, the composure, the experience of the Premier League."
This isn't as strong as the bizarre comments from Scholes and Butt, but it's unhelpful for the club and Carrick.
United will always be under the microscope more than any club, but they could do without constant attacks from club legends.
These legends all claim to be doing it for the love of the club, but in reality its only for their own bank balances.
