Graeme Souness has slammed Manchester United’s owners for spending £130m on three players who are ‘not good enough’ for the Premier League giants.
Manchester United, the most successful team in Premier League history, are enduring one of their worst periods ever, currently sitting 14th in the table before this weekend’s fixtures, which include a tough matchup against Chelsea.
United made the decision to dismiss underperforming manager Erik ten Hag at the beginning of the week, with Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim scheduled to take over at Old Trafford on November 11.
This means interim manager and club legend Ruud van Nistelrooy will lead Manchester United for the next three matches before Amorim assumes the role.
Although Ten Hag faced significant criticism during his time as manager,Graeme Souness believes Manchester United’s new owners must also be held accountable for the club’s difficulties.
Graeme Souness was not just underwhelmed by Manchester United’s transfer activity last summer but says the club brought in three players who are ‘not good enough’ in Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs De Ligt, and Joshua Zirkzee.
United invested £50m to acquire Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain near the end of the transfer window, following earlier signings of centre-back De Ligt for £45m and fellow Dutch international Zirkzee for £36.5m.
However, all three new signings have had a slow start to their Premier League careers, and Graeme Souness doubts whether they will eventually succeed at the Theatre of Dreams.
‘I look at Manchester United since INEOS came in and it’s screaming out to me that they don’t really get football,’Graeme Souness said on the Three Up Front podcast.
‘They’ve now got their so-called footballing people in charge, in Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox, and I can’t believe for a minute that they didn’t have an input on the players they signed in the summer.
‘They brought in Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs De Ligt, and Joshua Zirkzee. If they think those players are good enough for United, they’re wrong.
‘They’ve still allowed £200 million to be spent on players like that. They’ve had one summer at the club and look what they’ve done with it! That has to fall at Dan Ashworth’s door.
‘Ruben Amorim’s job now is to get the best out of this group of players, in whatever system that may be. He is walking into what is a very difficult job.’
Souness added: ‘I think it’s a monster job to take on Manchester United at the moment.
‘Even if Pep Guardiola or Alex Ferguson were to walk in there, it’d be a very difficult job.
‘I think the club are at their lowest point in the history of the Premier League, with the lowest quality group of players they’ve had in that time.’
The Liverpool legend also criticised the Old Trafford hierarchy for approaching other managers over the summer before publicly backing Ten Hag and giving him a new contract.