Gary Neville has been a harsh critic of both Manchester United stars Casemiro and Marcus Rashford for their international break trips to the USA and had a chance to clear the air with Ruben Amorim
Gary Neville has apologised to Ruben Amorim in the face of his Marcus Rashford criticism.
The Manchester United icon has been a harsh critic of Rashford and his Red Devils teammate Casemiro. The pair travelled to the US over the international break, a decision that Neville thought was “unprofessional”.
In an interview with incoming United boss Ruben Amorim, the former defender decided to apologise for his comments. But he did not backtrack on his opinion, merely apologising for picking the wrong city that the pair visited.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville said: “I made a comment this week about Casemiro and Marcus Rashford travelling to America in their few days off. It was just me thinking as a Manchester United player when I played here.
“You’ve got a few days off, the club are 13th in the league, the manager has just been sacked, it’s a challenging part of the season and the new manager is about to come in.
“And that focus and preparation and every single little detail is really important, and I said I don’t think I’d have chosen that trip to go to America with the time difference.
“I did get it wrong – they went to New York rather than Portland so I apologise for that. But there’s still a 5-6 hour time difference, they’re on planes, Casemiro’s 30 years of age.”
Amorim has already responded to Neville’s comments. And while he recognised that players have to take responsibility for their own actions, club chiefs also have to take some share of the blame for their players.
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Asked if he would have approached the situation differently, the new United boss said: “Yes, for sure. But you cannot put this on the players. They told them they have five days off so they can fly anywhere.
“Nobody in the club said they cannot fly. They have to live their lives because they are grown men and they have to decide these things. Us as a club have to change in these standards.
“In your time you had a great leadership at the club, very strong and the culture was already here when you start. So it was a long time with the same identity, the same way of seeing things and you felt that even if you do that, your team-mates will talk to you.
“Now it’s a different point, you have to acknowledge that. This must be started in the club, with us. We are responsible in that area. We cannot in this time put that of Rash or Casa. They receive the information five days off, do what you like. We as a club have to set better standards and we will try to do that.”
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