Man Utd owners grilled for Casemiro incompetence

Carlo Garganese

• 10 Jan 2024 17:10 GMT
• 3 min read

Gary Neville has slammed Manchester United’s owners and management for their signing of Casemiro.

Casemiro was arguably Man Utd’s signature move of the summer of 2022, as they splashed out over €70 million for the legendary midfielder from Real Madrid.

Some critics questioned paying such a large sum of money for a player who was already 30.

The 31-year-old performed well for much of last season and he played a key role in them winning the Carabao Cup.

However, his form has fallen off badly this campaign for a Man Utd team that have had their worst start to a season for over 30 years.

What did Neville say?

“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," Neville told the Stick to Football podcast, in association with Sky Bet.

"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 the 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.”

Casemiro has also struggled with injury this season.

He has been heavily linked with a transfer away from the club in January, with Saudi Arabian teams interested in him.

Casemiro is regarded as an all-time great at Real Madrid. He won everything in 10 years there after joining from Sao Paulo.

He claimed three La Liga titles, five Champions Leagues and made over 300 appearances.