Gary Lineker questioned the inheritance Sir Alex Ferguson left for successors at Manchester United as he claimed Jürgen Klopp left Liverpool in a better state.
As Wayne Rooney was questioned on the BBC’s FA Cup coverage whether United will still be able to sign top talents, Lineker suggested the club’s problems stem back to Ferguson’s exit in 2013.
The legacy left by United’s greatest manager was brought up as Rooney expressed scepticism at Ruben Amorim claiming his focus is on winning a Premier League title.
Speaking after the Cup holders were knocked out at the fifth-round stage on penalties against Fulham – the earliest United have been eliminated as holders since 1997 – BBC anchor Lineker suggested Ferguson had left Old Trafford at a time when decline was inevitable.
“If you look at Liverpool now, they’ve got a new manager in Arne Slot, and it’s testament to how Jürgen Klopp left the club in a really good state,” he explained. “So the structure is really good.
“That probably wasn’t the case at the end of Sir Alex Ferguson’s [time at Old Trafford]. I know they won the league that season, but it wasn’t their best side, and a lot of their great players were coming to the end of their careers. I think from there they had problems. The academy wasn’t delivering the players that they were before.”
Rooney and Danny Murphy then immediately encouraged Amorim to consider some of the immediate challenges he faces rather than setting his sights on winning a league title.
“You need to be in a stable position to bring the best players in,” Rooney said. “If I’m a player playing in a different country or a different club, Man United come to me, and I’m looking thinking, ‘you know, I’m not sure’. The top players want Champions League football. And unfortunately, that’s not where the club is.”
The former United striker added: “I do think he’ll [Amorim] get it [time]. It’s not a free hit because I think you’d expect a bit more from Manchester United than what we’re seeing since he’s been in.
“It’s very difficult to come in during the season and not have the pre-season to implement his plans with the team. He has to look to the future moving forward and how can they firstly – he says win the Premier League but how can they compete to get a bit further up the table, I think that’s the next step for them.
“I think it’s a little bit naive to say ‘we’re looking to win the Premier League’ because, from where they are now, they’re a long way off that.”
Rooney also criticised United’s structure since the departures of Ferguson and former chief executive David Gill, and pointed to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent cost-cutting measures in discussing how the club needs to find a way out of its seeming endless upheaval.
“I think everyone’s a little bit on edge,” he said. “Over the last 10 years there’s been a slow decline at the football club and they just need to try and get some consistency in what they’re doing, whether that’s with the manager, with the process, recruitment and how they want to try and move forward. If they get that right then they will start to get better.
“Manchester United have spent a lot of money over the last 10 years but the structure hasn’t been there. They’re buying players as individuals and it looks like there hasn’t been a long-term plan to have this way of playing, the style, the identity.
“Then we see a new manager come in who wants his own way of playing, like we’re seeing now. Every time they’re starting to move forward a little bit, it gets ripped up again.”
Fulham will host London rivals Crystal Palace after winning their shoot-out 4-3 at Old Trafford. Championship side Preston North End, the lowest ranked team left in the competition, will be at home to Aston Villa while Premier League champions Manchester City head to Bournemouth. Brighton & Hove Albion, having beaten Newcastle United 2-1 after extra time at St James’ Park on Sunday, will take on either Nottingham Forest or Ipswich Town, who play on Monday night. The quarter-final ties will take place across the final weekend of March.
