Paul Merson is surprised Manchester United didn’t sign Micky van de Ven prior to his summer transfer from Wolfsburg to Tottenham.
When things aren’t going to plan at Old Trafford, every man and his dog appears to have the answers on how to turn things around. It doesn’t help that the team seems incapable of going on a winning run after such a slow start to the season.
United were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night after losing 3-0 at home against Newcastle. Jonny Evans sat on the bench as Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof started at centre-back, but Merson doesn’t think that is good enough for a club like United.
Merson told Soccer Special (via Sky Sports) that Erik ten Hag should have brought in Micky van de Ven during the summer. The former Arsenal man believes Van de Ven is ‘one of the best centre-halves in the league’.
“I would be asking questions,” said Merson (h/t HITC). “If I owned the club. I would be sitting there now and I would be going to you as the manager ‘Why didn’t we get the lad at Tottenham? He’s Dutch. You are Dutch. You know the league. You know the players. Why is he at Tottenham and he isn’t here? And we haven’t got a centre-half’.
“No disrespect to Evans. But you are playing a 30-odd-year-old next to Maguire. Varane can’t get fit. Lindelof, I don’t think is a real centre-half, if I am being totally honest. I wouldn’t mind him marking me.
“Then you are looking at this player (Van de ven), who is one of the best centre-halves in the league, at the moment. And he isn’t playing for Man United.
“He wasn’t £80-90 million. Serious questions.”
Tottenham are currently 11 points clear of eight-placed United. That’s a big gap to bridge and we’re only in November.
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Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing. And if united had gone for him Merson would have said , ETH going for another dutchman in his quest to turn united into Ajax.