Gary Neville is convinced the time has come for Manchester United to replace David de Gea while warning members of the current squad are not equipped to take Erik ten Hag’s side to the next level. De Gea scooped the Premier League’s Golden Glove award this season but a number of concerning performances have raised questions over his future – with ten Hag recently unable to guarantee the Spaniard will be his no1 choice next season. The goalkeeper’s contract at Old Trafford expires on 30 June but he is expected to sign a new deal on reduced terms before then. Roy Keane has led the recent criticism of de Gea which grew following United’s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City, criticised for his role in Ilkay Gundogan’s second-half strike.
Neville believes bringing in a new goalkeeper is now an urgent priority alongside a new striker with a technical midfielder also required to bring balance to the side. He said: ‘You have got to start with a centre forward and a goalkeeper. If you don’t have those two positions fixed in a football team you are massively struggling. Manchester United are massively struggling particularly up front but it has come to the time where they have to get a top goalkeeper. That Cup final [against City] said it to us all. I don’t like mentioning it too much but the second goal shouldn’t have gone in the back of the net. The reality of it is, David de Gea has had a great career at Manchester United, he has been a fantastic goalkeeper. But now is the time for him to be challenged and get someone in to be that no1. But you can look at midfield as well. There is a problem where they have got two players who have got legs who aren’t good enough on the ball and two good enough on the ball who haven’t got the legs. I still think the composition of that midfield is not right so they need to sort that out. You can have one player who maybe can’t get about but he [ten Hag] wants to play through the midfield with technical players and he can’t do that with the players that he’s got there.’
Ten Hag has enjoyed a successful first season in English football, winning the Carabao Cup, reaching the final of the FA Cup with a third-place finish in the league securing a return to the Champions League next season. However, Neville believes the current squad has reached the limits of what it can achieve, suggesting it would be a ‘mistake’ to rely on the same group of players to close the gap on Manchester City and Arsenal next season. He said: ‘There are players who have hung around for quite a bit who have never really hit the standard but you keep thinking it might come and it doesn’t. What Erik ten Hag has done, I do think he has achieved the maximum from that squad, to get them to two cup finals and finish third in the league. There were a few injuries at the end as well and maybe being all competitions including the Europa League made it tough. But it would be a mistake for them, because these players have been there before, some of them were there under Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] where you asked can they make that next step. These players can’t make that next step without significant additions.’
This week, Neville will feature alongside Roy Keane and Jamie Redknapp for The Overlap on Tour, travelling across the UK and Ireland to revisit the places that shaped the lives and careers of the three former Premier League stars. In addition to taking the popular live show on the road and revisiting their boyhood clubs, the trio will also be throwing themselves into challenges including abseiling in Liverpool and refereeing a game down at Hackney Marshes. Neville said: ‘This show came out of the live shows, what we do on television and the idea was that would want some activities around it and that is how we came up with the idea of the tour. Putting some challenges in there, going back to where people lived and grew up and the live show, they were three components that made it interesting and it has been excellent.’ The Overlap on Tour airs on Sky Max and Sky Showcase on Wednesday 14th June at 9:00pm with new episodes weekly.