If you follow football — and especially the Premier League — you know there’s no shortage of former pros giving their opinions on TV. But of all the ex-players out there, none are louder than former Manchester United players. And not for good reasons.
These guys constantly criticise the current generation of players, over anything and everything. Paul Scholes once slammed the club for spending too much money on certain signings — then turned around and criticised goalkeeper Lammens for being too cheap, as if the price tag alone disqualifies him from doing his job.
Then there’s Roy Keane, who criticises absolutely everything and everyone — players, owners, probably the groundskeeper too. Most recently, he went on a rant about why Michael Carrick shouldn’t be manager next season.
You don’t need to be a football genius to see that United are missing a few things to genuinely challenge for the title. But here’s what’s weird: at other clubs, when legends speak up, the criticism is either constructive or it doesn’t exist at all. They try to motivate the current players, not tear them apart.
It makes you genuinely question whether these guys actually want the club to move forward. Because someone who truly does doesn’t spend every week dragging it down.
And if they really want to help — as they claim — why not take a role at the club and try to fix things, like Carrick is doing? Everyone’s an expert after the fact. Actually doing the job is a different story.
Not to mention: when at least two of them tried their hand at management, it was an absolute joke. “Bad” doesn’t even cover it. Yet somehow they still think they know everything about how football should be run.
So what’s actually going on? I think there are two reasons.
Reason 1: They’re scared of being forgotten.
I genuinely think some of these ex-players feel threatened by the idea of the club moving forward. They’re insecure about their legacy and afraid that new players will come along and “erase” what they achieved — which is completely ridiculous and frankly childish.
Everyone knows they’ll be part of United’s history forever. That’s not going anywhere. But that doesn’t mean the club can’t evolve. Every great club runs in cycles, not on a single generation.
If everyone thought like them, Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta would be constantly taking shots at Yamal, Pedri, and Gavi. They don’t. Nobody does — not at Real Madrid with Bale, Kroos, or Casemiro either. So it’s either insecurity, or it’s the other reason.
Reason 2: Money. Plain and simple.
Back in Keane, Scholes, and Neville’s era, players earned a fraction of what they earn today. And that breeds jealousy — especially in men with egos the size of a stadium. We see the same thing in the NBA all the time.
These guys are probably sitting there thinking: “This player, who’s nowhere near my level, earns more in a week than I did in a year. Are you serious?” That’s what’s driving a lot of this. And jealousy over money has been making people say stupid, baseless things since the beginning of time.
Look, no one’s denying that United’s current players need to be better. There are clear gaps in this squad. But nobody is born a finished product. Every great player had to start somewhere. United are in a rebuild — and rebuilds take time.
The first step was getting the right manager. Again.
But even if the players aren’t up to scratch yet, that doesn’t make what these ex-players are doing okay — especially when they’re criticising people before they’ve even had a proper chance to prove themselves.
And to be fair, United as a club haven’t exactly helped themselves either. Some of the criticism, as over the top as it gets, exists because the club walked into it.
Who knows what comes next. Right now they’re back to square one — though arguably in a slightly better place than before. We’ll see if this time it actually means something.