Where once a low rating in a newspaper could anger players, they now have to deal with days of debate after a bad result or below-par performance.

Former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag recently alluded to the difficulty his squad had dealing with the opinions of people like Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand, and said former players could be "more helpful" to the club.

"I did nice interviews with them both [Neville and Ferdinand], so it didn't hurt me. Of course, they have podcasts, they have their models," Ten Hag told The Athletic.

"Sometimes it's difficult for players. Some of them get affected by it, get annoyed by it.

"They achieved massive successes. But also, they can help the club more, help the players more. There should be two ways that they support it. But I think always the thing you most love, you most criticise."

It is a point with which Neville agrees.

Speaking on Ferdinand's podcast, last summer, it was put to Neville he had been overly critical when covering his boyhood club.

"It's a balance though Rio, isn't it?" he told his former United team-mate.

"It's like, do I want [Manchester] City to win the league? I absolutely don't want City anywhere near the league title."

And he insisted: "United are the hardest games I do.

"People might think that I'm more critical of United when they don't play well. Sometimes, over the last maybe 10 years, the balance, maybe I've not got it right," admitted Neville.

But, having won 18 major honours in 19 years at Old Trafford, few are better placed to judge the club than Neville.

"There was a banner in the first half [against Bournemouth] that was held up in the Stretford End - 'standards'. They went a long time ago," he said last Sunday.

Like Neville, Nicky Butt also came through United's academy and said former players have the club's best interests at heart.

"When it goes bad, you can't cry and go, 'Oh, they're [ex-players] having a go at us'," explained Butt back in January.

"We love the football club. I've been a Manchester United fan since the age of six or seven, as long as I can remember. I'm not saying it to go, 'Let's stab everybody in the back'. I'm saying it because it is genuinely c**p."