There are reports earlier on Sunday that Manchester United is interested in former Stoke City striker Marko Arnautovic.
Manchester United played with a false nine in their 2-1 loss against Brighton at Old Trafford with Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen switching between number 10 and number 9 positions. Manchester United usual two preferred for the position Cristiano Ronaldo was on the bench while the other Anthony Martial was injured.
The rumors linking Cristiano Ronaldo with a move from Old Trafford are still on and Manchester United sees £10 million rated Marko Arnautovic as an emergency.
However, Gary Neville claims Manchester United in interest in Marko Arnautovic is a desperate and panicked move after their loss to Brighton at Old Trafford.
What was said?
Gary Neville told Sky Sports when asked if he is shocked with Manchester United’s pursuit of Marko Arnautovic: “The first thing you do when the phone rings from Manchester United rejects 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.”
The former Manchester United skipper 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.”
Gary Neville believes Manchester United failure to make more signings and replace departure players in the summer is coming back to hurt them.
The former Manchester United right-back continued: “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.”
Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane is also shocked by Manchester United’s move for Marko Arnautovic, he 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.”
Manchester United has seen their initial £7 million for Marko Arnautovic rejected by Bologna. He scored 22 goals in 125 appearances for Stoke City in the Premier League.
