Neville slams the Glazers’ running of Man United and admits ‘frustration’ at Ratcliffe talks

Gary Neville has admitted his frustration at the Glazer family telling Sir Jim Ratcliffe they don’t want to sell Manchester United as he warned the much-maligned American owners that the way they are running the club is ‘not sustainable’. 

Neville did, however, offer United fans encouragement as he said the talks between Ratcliffe and the Glazers suggested the owners ‘must be up to something’.  

The billionaire and Britain’s richest man, who owns the Ineos chemicals company and is a United fan, revealed on Tuesday that he had met with co-chairmen Joel and Avram Glazer in the summer but was told the club was not for sale.

Ratcliffe admitted they would have ‘had a go’ at buying the Old Trafford outfit if it was put up for purchase.

‘But we can’t sit around hoping one day Manchester United will become available,’ he said during a discussion with the Financial Times. 

Gary Neville has admitted his frustration at Sir Jim Ratcliffe not being able to buy the club

Ratcliffe said this week that he would have liked to buy United if the Glazers wanted to sell

Ratcliffe confirmed in August that he was interested in buying United and there were also reports the Glazers, who bought the club in a controversial leveraged buyout in 2005, were open to selling a minority stake amid talks with US private equity firm Apollo. He has also previously expressed an interest in purchasing Chelsea.

The news was met with fervour among the United fanbase, who have stepped up their anti-Glazer protests in recent months.

But there has been little progress since and Ratcliffe’s admission on Tuesday appears to have slowed the momentum.

Speaking ahead of The Overlap Live at Wembley on November 10, Neville, a frequent critic of the Glazers who has consistently urged them to sell up, told Sportsmail: ‘I think they [United fans] will be frustrated – but I think they will also recognise that Jim Ratcliffe was very respectful towards the family.

The Glazer family met with Ratcliffe but told him they did not wish to sell the club

Footage shows the roof leaking at Old Trafford. Neville said the owners had neglected the stadium

‘I think if you’re going to be disrespectful to the family, they’re not going to do business with you in the future.

‘What he did felt like to me “look, the owners don’t want to sell but they were very decent with me” and if that changes in the future, then maybe he’ll be there.

‘I can’t see how this is sustainable, how they can’t bring in investment, or a partner or sell. I just can’t see it. They haven’t got the money to be able to do what Manchester United need.’

Neville said the Glazers had been guilty of ‘negligence’ regarding Old Trafford, which has long been in need of major renovation, and claimed the American family ‘must be perilously low on cash’.

United spent around £230million on players in the summer, and the Glazers have splurged £1.3bn in the transfer market in the last 10 years.

‘United cannot continue to have a stadium like they have, when the rest of the stadiums in Europe and in the Premier League are improving on the scale that they are. It would just be absolute negligence to not get that stadium up to the level it needs,’ Neville added.

United fans have staged several protests aimed at the owner’s of the club in recent months

Matchgoing supporters have made their feelings known both in and outside of Old Trafford

‘That is half a billion on a refurb, a billion plus on a new stadium. Then you’ve got the training ground investment.

‘You see what Chelsea are spending, what Arsenal have spent this year, what City have got. United need to spend big money every single year and what they spent in this summer was well above the budget that they wanted to spend – they said that on the investor call last week.

‘And it leaves them perilously low on cash, with a loan that they have to continue to keep paying. The debt market isn’t strong, the investment market is weak… so they are going to have to do something and they will be working on something.

‘So I was a little bit frustrated that the conversation with Jim Ratcliffe wasn’t extended but on the other hand they must be up to something.’

The Overlap Live – with Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane – hits OVO Arena Wembley for its biggest ever live show on Thursday November 10.

For tickets and more information go to www.cuffeandtaylor.com