Manchester United legend Gary Neville has said he regrets not speaking sooner against the Glazer family.
Recently, the United owners issued a statement highlighting their need for strategic investment and alternatives, which includes a full or partial sale of the club.
Since then, numerous reports have emerged of interested parties looking to purchase England’s biggest football club.
The news of the Glazers’ intention to sell came as good news to most United fans, who have blamed the American owners for the team’s misfortunes.
Many supporters have over the years taken issue with the family’s propensity to take out dividends, failure to improve training facilities and the stadium and their mistakes in the transfer market.
Neville has lamented at his own error of not speaking out, despite there being early signs of the Glazers’ greedy intentions even when he was a player.
The ex-United defender spoke to Sky Sports about regretting not opposing them, saying “I don’t want to come up with excuses. It was probably because we were successful and we were managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, who stuck to football.”
“I started to speak out about two or three years ago. Many fans will say I should have done it earlier and I can’t disagree with them.”
“I can have regrets about it all my life, but the reality is I have spoken out in the last two or three years quite a lot. I haven’t enjoyed what I’ve seen. The signs were obviously there 15 years ago and most fans were right.”
Neville urged that going forward, the United community must be careful not to go from the frying pan into the fire – a reference to the likelihood of the club being saddled with even poorer owners than the Glazers.
The 47-year-old warned against two types of owners that must be avoided by supporters – state ownership and US investment.
It will be fascinating to see how the ownership situation develops.
