Gary Neville has criticised Manchester United's handling of Michael Carrick's sacking as "disgusting", saying it "reflects badly" on the club's leadership. United parted ways with the 45-year-old on Thursday morning after a poor start to the season.
At the time of writing, United sit 18th in the Premier League with just one win from their opening 10 matches, their worst start to a campaign in four decades. The board's patience with Carrick wore thin, leading to changes in the coaching structure.
Pochettino Approach
The club are said to have reached an agreement in principle to bring in US national team manager Mauricio Pochettino on Wednesday, despite Carrick still being at the club. This behind-the-scenes approach has not sat well with Neville.
Speaking with Sky Sports, Neville said: "I think after the Bournemouth game I said at the time that Manchester United effectively watched Michael Carrick resign on the pitch at the end of the game with that lap around, that wave goodbye. I think he was expecting it to come at that point and they were indecisive."
He added: "They obviously felt that they might be able to get to the international break and there could be some sort of pick-up in results, but it's been a difficult two weeks. Indecision, lack of authority, just basically really poor leadership."
Leadership Criticism
Neville highlighted the optics of executives being in Monaco while Carrick took training at Carrington. He said: "In the last 24-48 hours it's been spectacularly bad to be in Monaco as an executive and an owner whilst your manager, who's a club legend, is taking training on the pitch and simultaneously approaching the US Soccer Federation to approach Mauricio Pochettino."
He continued: "It's just quite simply disgusting. That falls well below the standard of what you would expect in any other business, in any other industry. It would be constructive dismissal and you'd be getting sued. The optics of being in Monaco whilst the team, the staff, the people who are running the club on a day-to-day basis are in Manchester, it's just not good and it reflects badly on the leadership. I don't think anybody comes out of this well at all."
Pochettino is not expected to take up tenure at Old Trafford until next week, as he is preparing for a CONCACAF Nations League double header with Haiti in the quarter finals. The first meeting takes place in Miami on Saturday, November 14, with the second leg in Cincinnati on Wednesday, November 18.
