According to former England star Paul Ince, Manchester United are “kidding themselves” if they think they can throw money during a few transfer windows and chase down the high-flying Liverpool in “a couple of years”.
The Red side of Manchester found themselves back on the right path prior to the suspension of football amid the coronavirus crisis, with positive progress made under the guidance of Norwegian manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
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However, there has been plenty of talk regarding the long-term rebuilding projects at Old Trafford as 20-time English champions Manchester United remain a work in progress.
Bearing that in mind, and given how far Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have pulled clear of the chasing pack, ex-United and Liverpool star Ince believes it will take a considerable amount of time for the Red Devils to come back into contention for domestic supremacy in England. Manchester United are currently fifth on the Premier League Table and three points behind 4th placed Chelsea.
While speaking to Planet Football, the 52-year-old former England midfielder explained that Manchester United will need plenty of time to catch up with Liverpool as they have already tried and tested a number of top managers, “It will take a long time to catch up and if anyone at Old Trafford thinks it can be done in a couple of years with some big money signings, they are kidding themselves. I would look at the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson as a starting point for where we have got to now, with Liverpool so far ahead of United. David Moyes came into United at that time, didn’t get the time or money he needed to do the job and then they moved on to Louis van Gaal, who never seemed to be the right for fit United, despite winning the FA Cup in 2016. After that, you had Jose Mourinho and he didn’t look happy from day one, even though he won a couple of trophies in his first seasons.”
Ince then compared how Liverpool have worked out their plans with Manchester United revealing the latter have been embarrassing in terms of recruitment over the past few years for a club the stature of Manchester United, “The end result is there has been a lot of damage caused by the instability at the club over the last six years and at the same time, Liverpool have had stability, especially since Klopp came in. Liverpool have had a plan, they stuck to it even when things didn’t go great for Klopp in his first year and now they are getting the rewards. At United, managers have come and gone, they’ve had their own ideas on players, spent fortunes on terrible signings and they found themselves 30 points behind Liverpool at the halfway point of the season, which is embarrassing for a club of United’s stature.”
