Carragher: Keane and Neville 'making excuses' for ex-teammate Solskjaer

James Shearman

• 13 Oct 2021 18:27 BST
• 3 min read

Jamie Carragher believes both Roy Keane and Gary Neville have been 'making excuses' for Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The Liverpool legend thinks the pressure is on the Norwegian boss to deliver a first trophy to Old Trafford since 2017.

Whereas Keane and Neville, two former teammates of Solskjaer, have gone on record to say that he is not expected to win the big titles just yet.

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United finished second in the Premier League last season, and have added world-class individuals Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo to an already impressive squad in this summer's transfer window.

Now, Carragher is adamant that the Red Devils have no excuse not to win the league or Champions League this season.

Excuses made for Solskjaer

United have failed to get off to the start they would have liked after an exciting summer transfer window.

And while Solskjaer's men are only two points off first-place Chelsea, their difficult run of fixtures could see them fall way behind.

As such, calls for the former Red Devils forward to be sacked have grown louder in recent weeks, but Keane and Neville are firmly against that notion, to Carragher's annoyance.

''Recently what’s got me angry? It’s probably something to do with football and probably something to do with Neville, let me just think,'' he said on the Tony Bellew is Angry podcast. ''He’s permanently making excuses for his mate Ole, isn’t he?

''I do a newspaper column and I was with Gary Neville a few days before, we were doing this YouTube chat about the season with Roy Keane, and the two of them were making excuses for Ole because he’s played with them and he’s their mate.

''They’re sort of saying 'they can’t win the league, they still lack this, they still need that, the Glazers aren’t putting enough in, they should be going for Harry Kane…'

''I’m sitting there thinking, ‘you’ve just signed a fella that’s won the Champions League four times [Ronaldo]! You’ve spent £75million on a winger [Sancho], you’ve finished second in the Premier League last season, you didn’t lose a game away from home [in the league]… there’s only one place to go!’

''Honestly… it just wound me up and I thought, 'that is it, I’m doing my newspaper column on it.' Ole wasn’t too happy with the column, but I just said it’s time the excuses stop at Manchester United, I’m sick of it.

''It’s always, ‘they still lack this, they lack that’– every player’s on £50 million! You go through the whole team, it’s unbelievable!''