Former Manchester United captain, Gary Neville, has said the club must address its internal structural problems rather than continue changing managers in a bid to restore its fortunes.

Neville made the remarks following the dismissal of head coach Michael Carrick, with former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino reportedly lined up as his replacement.

Carrick’s departure came less than six months after he signed a two-year contract, following a difficult spell in which United recorded their worst-ever start to a Premier League season, winning just one of their first 10 matches and dropping into the relegation zone.

Speaking to NBC on Thursday, Neville warned that the club risked repeating a familiar pattern of appointing new managers, enjoying a brief improvement in performances and eventually returning to poor results.

He said the temporary boost often associated with a new manager could only conceal the deeper problems affecting the club.

“Michael Carrick did that last season, so you can paper over the cracks and get a new manager bounce.

“When the new manager comes in, everybody’s happy for a couple of months and all of a sudden, six months later, it happens again. You can keep changing the manager and thinking that’s going to be the answer. But this has been proven now over 12 years; that’s not the answer,” he said.

Neville cited the tenures of former United managers, including Ruben Amorim, Erik ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Jose Mourinho, Louis van Gaal, David Moyes and Ralf Rangnick, arguing that the club’s inability to achieve sustained success under different managers pointed to wider institutional challenges.

He identified weaknesses in the club’s performance and recruitment departments, alongside inadequate leadership, as some of the factors contributing to its continued struggles.

“If you’ve got a poor performance department, poor recruitment department, you’ve not got leadership that is strong right through the spine of the football club, you will fail,” he said. READ ALSO:Gov AbdulRazaq Constitutes Governing Councils For 17 Tertiary Institutions, Agencies

The former England defender stressed that Manchester United needed a clear and coordinated leadership structure, extending from the boardroom and ownership to the playing staff.

“There are real issues within that football club. You’ve got people doing those jobs who have never done those jobs before in senior positions,” Neville added.