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Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs rate Manchester United’s summer transfer window


Gary Neville and Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Picture: Getty)

Gary Neville has praised Manchester United’s ‘clever’ strategy during the summer transfer window but Ryan Giggs feels the club start the season short in midfield.

The Red Devils were expected to sign one or two central midfielders this summer after Marouane Fellaini left in January and Ander Herrera joined PSG on a free transfer.

That did not materialise, however, and United begin the new campaign with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad bolstered only by £80m defender Harry Maguire, star full back Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Welsh winger Daniel James.

Manchester United record appearance holder Giggs told ESPN FC: ‘I think we need a couple more midfielders.

‘If Paul Pogba goes – we talk about culture change – but obviously you need quality.

‘You might not like it but come Sunday if Paul Pogba isn’t in that midfield or the week after, and we’ve got the midfielders that we’ve got at our club, then we’re short. That’s the problem.’

Romelu Lukaku was the stand-out departure from Manchester United this summer, with the Belgian striker completing a move to Inter Milan last week.

Neville believes Solskjaer would ideally like ‘three or four’ other senior players to also leave but praised the club’s strategy as any more sales would have left the team ‘decimated’.

Ryan Giggs feels Man United are short in midfield (Picture: Getty)

‘I think there are three or four players at Old Trafford who have higher levels of quality that in a perfect world, Ole would probably like them all out at once,’ Neville said.

‘But actually, if they left it would weaken the team that badly it’d mean that they wouldn’t challenge for the Champions League. I think what Ole has to do is to get rid of one at a time.

‘I think it’s a clever transition out of what has been a poor transfer strategy for the last four or five years.

‘You can’t get out of it in one year, it’s going to take two or three years of good culture and tone, in terms of what they’re doing, to get out of what they’ve done.

‘You can’t lose Lukaku, Pogba, [Anthony] Martial all in one – you’d be absolutely decimated.

‘The dressing room would be shot to pieces. You could maybe lose them over a period of two or three years if they wanted to leave.’

Manchester United, who finished sixth in the Premier League last season, face Frank Lampard’s Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday.

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