Former Republic of Ireland centre-back Damien Delaney feels there are still unresolved issues at Manchester United that need to be solved before they can ever think about challenging for titles.
Speaking on OTB Football Saturday, Delaney criticised United’s players, believing they are not playing to the standards when comparing the wages, they are on, singling out David de Gea as a declining goalkeeper.
“Looking at Man United they got a top-heavy squad with the biggest wage bill in the Premier League. There are a lot of players there on long term contracts that are not contributing on what their wage determines they should be. Nobody is going to take them.
“David de Gea is your highest paid player and he is a declining David de Gea but probably didn’t have anybody to sell him too, so they gave him a new contract hoping he’ll sort out his issues.”
Delaney criticises the transfer spending of the thirteen-time Premier League champions in recent times and admits that they are long way off to reaching the tally of points won by Liverpool and Manchester City over the last two seasons.
“Manchester United have gone behind the curve a little bit, they mix and match in the transfer window where they’ve just seen good players and gone and bought them. They have the nucleus of a half decent team but is that team capable of getting 90 plus points? I don’t think they’re anywhere near it. I think Manchester United will just bag fourth next season.”
In discussion about Paul Pogba, Delaney believes that while he has some unknown issues like de Gea, he cites Pogba as the team’s best player and a player that Manchester United should build there squad around.
“Pogba’s future is uncertain. They are still talking about him leaving in the Summer, he’s their best player but he gets such a raw deal because of his haircuts and his social media profile. I think you’d build a team around him and keep him happy because he is an unbelievable football player. He was in the PFA team of the year last year.”
With Manchester United’s on-going debt, Delaney feels that the club cannot keep buying players with money they don’t have and eventually it will result in what he referred it to as a ‘tipping point.’
“Man United are a publicly traded company. The debt was down to 400 million last month and now it’s gone back up to 600 million and that money went on Wan-Bissaka, Maguire and Fernandes, so have they got that bidding power to spend all that money with 600 million debt? It’s going to come to a tipping point sooner or later.”
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