Manchester United legend and football pundit Gary Neville has given his brutal assessment of the club signing Casemiro.
In Erik ten Hag’s first summer in command, Manchester United bought Casemiro from Real Madrid after failing to sign Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona who was ten Hag’s first choice target.
As a backup plan, it is believed that football director John Murtough had prepared a deal for Casemiro, who was signed by the club at the end of August for a reported £70 million from Real Madrid.
During his debut season at Old Trafford, Casemiro continuously delivered performances of the highest caliber. He was instrumental in leading the team back to the top four and in winning the Carabao Cup.
The 31-year old has suffered injuries this season and lost his form that made him one of the best midfielders in world football. He is currently attracting interest from the Saudi Pro League clubs
Neville believe signing Casemiro was only a short term solution from the club.
He told the Stick to Football podcast, in association with Sky Bet:
“Coming in from an owner’s perspective, you employ a head of recruitment who you think is the best guy out there at spotting talent, that will bring value to your club.
“You’ve got a sporting director equally, who will be thinking the same way – their loyalty is to the club and to make sure we win games. A manager’s job is purely to think about the immediate short term and getting results for himself.
“Casemiro is perfect example of a short-term signing that is going to cost in the long term. That signing never should have gone through a good sporting director, a good owner, and a good head of recruitment. That signing should have never gone through, it should have been a veto.”
Neville added: “What happens is you go into a window [with] all good intentions, all on the same page thinking, ‘we need four players’, and you pick the profile of the player that you want. He’s got to be six foot, he’s got to hold the ball up, he’s got to score 10 to 15 goals.
“You’re looking for that profile and then basically what you want is your head of recruitment, your sporting director and your team of scouts to go out there and bring back three or four really good options, and they bring back those three or four options to the table.
“The problem is, if you don’t get those three or four because they’re not available of some kind, or the manager doesn’t like them, that’s when you end up in a spin.
“Honestly, when I look back now on reflection – obviously I’m not in it at Salford on the day to day – but from my point of view, towards the end, I was moving away from head coach, recruiting players, and being involved in the process because I knew that we’d recruited badly a couple of times in terms of just bringing players in.
“A bad recruitment window costs you for two or three years, you can’t get them out.”
