Talk Sport journalist Alex Crook has slammed Manchester United and questioned their standing in the Premier League amid their battle with lower league side Brentford for the signing of star man Christian Eriksen.
So far this summer the Red Devils have struggled to bring in transfers for their new manager Erik ten Hag, finding themselves in a battle with the Bees for Eriksen after Tottenham Hotspur pulled out, and failed to sign Barcelona’s Frenkie De Jong so far.
Talk Sport’s Crook did not hold back with his criticism of the club when talking about their expectations to sign Eriksen this summer, beating out his former club in the process. He questioned their profile as a club for this battle but is confident they will sign the Danish international.
He said on Talk Sport, “I was told yesterday that confidence is growing that Christian Eriksen will choose Manchester United. But I think that in itself is quite a damming statement because Tottenham has pulled back from their early interest.
“There was talk of Newcastle middle of last week, that doesn’t seem to have kicked on, so effectively it looks like a straight shootout between Manchester United and Brentford… but if it really does come down to a choice between Manchester United and Brentford, what does it say about Manchester United and how far they’ve fallen that there’s even a decision to be made.” (1:11)
TIF Thoughts on Crook’s comments…
It is no secret that the Red Devils have fallen in the standing of world football since their domination of the game back when Sir Alex Ferguson was at the helm since then they have failed to compete for the Premier League and in the illustrious Champions League.
As a result of this, they have become somewhat of a laughing stock among football fans and the battle with Brentford to sign a player of Eriksen’s stature, despite having the Europa League to pull players in.
Eriksen would considerably improve their attacking output as once he joined Brentford in January, he played 11 games and bagged one goal and four assists while averaging an impressive 1.8 shots, 2.2 key passes, 2.1 crosses, and 4.3 long balls per game while ranking in the 99th percentile for shot-creating actions and assists and the 93rd for progressive passes per game with 6.23 per game. (Fbref)
According to Crook, it looks likely Eriksen will sign for free to Manchester United, but what does it say about a club who have to now compete with lower league teams for players, while Manchester City and Liverpool are signing the likes of Erling Haaland and Darwin Nunez.