With Manchester United not in the Champions League next season comes fears that the club won’t be able to attract the best players in the summer transfer window.
While we don’t necessarily agree with that — the last time United were Europa League-bound they signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba the same summer — as we always pay a premium price and the size of the club should never be underestimated.
Manchester United might be run by a bunch of clubs, but the club still has a rich tradition of highs and lows. We have bounced back from worse situations and now need players with top ability and determination to bring us back where we belong.
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Gary Neville knows all about that and is still the best right-back I’ve seen at United. He won it all and now speaks passionately about the club he loves as a pundit since retiring from as a footballer.
He doesn’t believe United’s current situation will have any impact on the player they approach to sign this summer.
“I think United can still attract top-end players because we’ve seen good players come to the club over the last six or seven years,” Neville said, as quoted by Manchester Evening News.
“This club will never move away from being a sensational football club. It will have difficult moments, and it’s having a difficult time. The money in the game now means you’re always in competition. The club has lost players when it’s successful to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
“Lost (Arjen) Robben to Chelsea in the mid-2000s, we lost (Samir) Nasri to City. Don’t always think that when Sir Alex Ferguson was here it didn’t happen. This club lost players when it was successful to some of the biggest clubs in Europe that are competing with United.
“Don’t think that if United lose players now to Barcelona that this is the first time it’s ever happened, it’s happened before. It’s not because of the current plight, or the coach, or the manager, or the current players, it just happens sometimes. It happened during successful times too.”
The Europa League could do our transition under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer good for his first season. To start building a side for upcoming years in Europe, with the obvious aim for United to be champions of Europe again one day.
Footballers pick different clubs for different situations and United should be back in the Champions League the season after next.
