Former Arsenal and England star, Paul Merson thinks Manchester United can no longer be referred to as a top four team and only rank among the likes of Newcastle United and other mid-table clubs.
United have not been the same since the exit of Alex Ferguson and have in that time employed and parted ways with seven managers. The newest on their ‘list of hires’ is Erik ten Hag.
Ten Hag arrived with an impressive résumé and was expected to deliver the goods from the get-go, but all that is beginning to look like a very tall order after he lost his second consecutive Premier League game to Brentford – an embarrassing 4-o loss.
With United sitting at the very bottom of the league table, it has become the butt of jokes and now Merson cannot imagine the Old Trafford side in the same class with the likes of city rivals, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
The Sky Sports pundit was responding to a question of if Chelsea are the perfect fit for Cristiano Ronaldo when he added that United should be more scared of losing the Portugese to Newcastle and not Chelsea.
“They’re not top four, Man United. They’re a million miles off. They’re not going to get in the top four. I mean they’ve got to be making sure they don’t sell [Ronaldo] to Newcastle,” Merson said when asked if Manchester United should be scared of selling Ronaldo to a rival like Chelsea.
Chelsea owner, Todd Boehly have reportedly renewed his chase of Ronaldo, despite club coach Thomas Tuchel thinking the player will be an unwanted distraction who will not even fit into his style of play.
