Gary Neville has named three players that he would sign at Man United – Real Madrid centre-back Raphaël Varane, Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante and PSG striker Kylian Mbappe.
Neville was conducting a Q&A on Twitter on Tuesday morning when one fan asked, “3 players you’d sign for Utd?”
Neville responded with his own fantasy booking and included just one player from the Premier League – Chelsea’s midfield maestro Kante.
Varane , Kante and Mbappe https://t.co/cvI1uYJERh
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) September 17, 2019
Following on from this, Neville said that, with “perfect recruitment”, the earliest United could win the Premier League is in the 21/22 season.
Earliest with perfect recruitment 2021/22 https://t.co/XUkGuc6lxr
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) September 17, 2019
Summer spending
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spent £85m on centre-back Harry Maguire this summer and £50m on Aaron Wan-Bissaka and they’ve already settled in at Old Trafford. Maguire has an average rating of 7.25 on WhoScored in the Premier League, while Wan-Bissaka is just behind him with 7.24.
Possibly even more impressive, given that he only cost £15m, is Daniel James. The winger signed from Swansea over the summer and he’s already scored three goals in the Premier League.
That’s £150m spent and United still don’t look like they’re capable of competing with Man City and Liverpool at the top of the table. They’re currently seven points off Liverpool at the top.
Just one of Neville’s fantasy buys would cost more than that for United, according to Transfermarkt.
Mbappe is valued at £180m by the site, with Kante coming in at £90m and Varane at £63m. That’s £333m for the world-class trio, and Neville thinks that they would help propel United to a Premier League title in 21/22. That’s presuming all three clubs were willing to sell them.
It shows how far Neville still thinks Man United are off reclaiming their place back at the head of the top table in England.