GARY NEVILLE has accused Manchester United of “panic buying” towards the end of the summer transfer window.
The Red Devils were beaten by Brighton and Brentford in their opening two games of the Premier League season.
That sparked United chiefs into life during the final weeks of the window as they signed Casemiro for £70million, Antony for £85.5m and Martin Dubravka on loan.
They were added to the new arrivals who had already been brought in – Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez and Tyrell Malacia.
It saw the Red Devils’ net spend exceed £200m.
It is something Neville believes was an unplanned reaction to results and protests against the Glazer ownership.
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Speaking on The Overlap, he said: “Manchester United wanted to spend about £130m-£140m, they ended up spending £230m.
“Obviously we’ve seen it before with the Glazer family – loads of trouble, protests building, invest the money to try and appease the fans and basically panic-buy.
“The Casemiro and Antony bids came in two days before the Liverpool game, which was obviously a moment where they just needed to get players in.
“It wasn’t the strategy at the start of the summer to spend the money they’ve spent.”
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Since their slow start to the campaign, Ten Hag’s men have won four Premier League matches in a row – their best run since April 2021.
Victories over Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal have seen United leap up to fifth in the table.
And Antony hit the ground running with a goal against Arsenal, while fellow new arrival Eriksen produced a player of the match performance in the win over the Gunners.
However, United did suffer a blow on Thursday night when they were beaten 1-0 at home by Real Sociedad in their opening Europa League game.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
