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Gary Neville slams Manchester United board for transfer failings

Gary Neville has slammed the Manchester United for failing to deliver a number of Jose Mourinho’s transfer targets over the last few years.

While Jose Mourinho has cut a miserable figure this summer, constantly whinging about the lack of players at his disposal, as well as a lack of new signings, it isn’t the first time that he has been left disappointed during his time at Manchester United.

The Portuguese boss was keen to bring in a winger last summer, with Croatia’s Ivan Perisic known to be the main target, although vice-chairman Ed Woodward failed to finalise a deal. Fast forward 12 months and it was a similar story, with United once again failing to land a winger, while they also missed out on a whole host of central defensive targets.

United were linked with no fewer than five centre-backs on deadline day alone, with Harry Maguire, Toby Alderweireld, Jerome Boateng, Yerry Mina and Diego Godin all being linked with a move to Old Trafford.

However, the United heirarchy failed to deliver their manager with any of his targets, much to the dismay of club legend Gary Neville:

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“There seems to be a disconnect between the board and who Jose thinks should come to the club,” he said on Friday Night Football.

“It’s intriguing because Jose’s talking about the lack of influence managers have over signings and sporting directors, heads of recruitment having a bigger say. I actually think that’s the way football should go and that coaches should concentrate on football.

“But who are the people in the boardroom telling him that his signings aren’t right? United haven’t got a sporting director. Sir Alex Ferguson and Bobby Charlton aren’t being consulted.

“About three or four weeks ago when Jose handed his list to Ed Woodward, it was at that point he was calling on the board and I questioned privately what he was doing. But in the last few days, I can see exactly what he was doing.

“I think he thinks the board have let him down. They maybe thought the likes of Ivan Perisic and Toby Alderweireld – who I thought was a certainty – are a bit old. But get the players in. Jose was bought here to win. You can’t three-quarters build a house, you have to finish it, you can’t hold back.

“The club since they sacked David Moyes have been on a roundabout, reacting to things without a long-term strategy. Jose Mourino is a great manager – one of the best in the world over the last 15 years – but you have to back him all the way through and it looks to me at the moment like the board have just retreated a little bit.

“They’ve gone into reverse and said this doesn’t quite fit our philosophy. That philosophy went out of the window five years ago. You’ve now got to deal with the fact the philosophy you’ve got is to win and stop a long period of not winning.”

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