While they may have enjoyed quite a strong finish to last season, Gary Neville believes Man Utd still need multiple signings to be competitive next season onwards.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer appeared to get his side on the right track last year, as they secured a top-four finish in the Premier League to secure a return to the Champions League.
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That said, they also fell short in the FA Cup and Europa League, and so there is still evidently work to do at Old Trafford in order for them to get back to the top.
Neville has suggested that they are still five players short of being real contenders for the league title, and the Man Utd legend has even pinpointed the exact positions that he believes his former club can still improve in.
“The Manchester United squad, as it stands today, cannot challenge for the Premier League title this season,” Neville told Sky Sports. “The squad needed four or five improvements and it still needs four or five improvements. I’ve been saying that for a year and I’ve even nominated the positions I feel they need to improve.
“They have to sign a world-class centre-back. For me, another midfield player. I also think a right-winger, a centre-forward and you have to look at left-back because of Luke Shaw’s injuries and the fact he has obviously been in and out of the team in the last two or three years.
“So, I think there are definitely four or five players required and to not get three I think it would be a problem because of what the other clubs are doing.”
Neville went on to emphasise how Chelsea and Man City have improved this summer already, while the likes of Liverpool could yet be active in the market to improve what is already a world-class squad.
In turn, in order to avoid falling off the pace set by others again, the Sky Sports pundit is hopeful that his old club can make moves in the transfer window with Donny van de Beek seemingly on the way imminently, but clearly he doesn’t feel as though that will be enough alone to ensure they’re in the mix in the upcoming campaign.