Man Utd squad is worse than Tottenham despite £420million MORE in transfer spending in last decade, says Gary Neville

Man Utd squad is worse than Tottenham despite £420million MORE in transfer spending in last decade, says Gary Neville
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Man Utd squad is worse than Tottenham despite £420million MORE in transfer spending in last decade, says Gary Neville
Author: Joshua Jones
Published: Feb, 16 2025 22:03

Sponsored by. GARY NEVILLE reckons Manchester United's squad is WORSE than Tottenham's... despite spending nearly half a £1billion MORE over the last decade. And he claims just ONE Red Devils player would get into the Spurs XI. Ruben Amorim's struggling side were beaten 1-0 away in North London on Sunday. James Maddison grabbed the only goal of the game with a rebound. The playmaker then seemingly responded to criticism from Roy Keane with his modified darts celebration.

 [Matthijs de Ligt of Manchester United looking dejected during a Premier League match.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Matthijs de Ligt of Manchester United looking dejected during a Premier League match.]

United were forced to name eight teenagers on the bench alongside Victor Lindelof as injuries ravaged the team. But regardless of the current injury woes, Neville reckons the Red Devils' squad is inferior to that of Spurs - despite the massive gulf in spending. Speaking during the debrief on Sky Sports Super Sunday, the former right-back said: "If you take Tottenham's best players - Porro, Udogie, Van de Ven, Romero, Bissouma, Sarr, Maddison, Kulusevski, Solanke, Son, Johnson, Tel - how many Manchester United players would get into that Tottenham team if everyone was fit?.

 [Manchester United manager and players looking dejected after a game.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Manchester United manager and players looking dejected after a game.]

"I think Bruno Fernandes you would want to have in there. "Maybe Amad Diallo but if you've got Kulusevski or Amad, to be honest, I'll probably go Kulusevski. CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS. "My point is, every single Tottenham player bar one if they were all available is better than every single Manchester United player. "That's not being emotional, it's not ranting, we've gone past that now.

 [Tottenham Hotspur players celebrating a goal.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Tottenham Hotspur players celebrating a goal.]

"It's just really sad that that's where Manchester United are currently at.". Since 2016, Manchester United's net spend on transfers is a whopping £1billion. That includes the £89m club-record purchase of Paul Pogba in 2016 plus Antony (£85.5m), Harry Maguire (£85m), Romelu Lukaku (£75m), Jadon Sancho (£73m) and Rasmus Hojlund (£72m) all arrived in massive deals. Their biggest signing this season was Leny Yoro for up to £52m.

 [Illustration of Gary Neville's combined Spurs-Man Utd starting XI.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Illustration of Gary Neville's combined Spurs-Man Utd starting XI.]

United’s record sale remains Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid for £80m in 2009 so the highest fee received in the period since 2016 is the £73m they got from Inter Milan for Romelu Lukaku in 2019. Ironically, the money banked for Mason Greenwood (£26.6m) and Scott McTominay (£25m) in the summer are among the biggest United sales of all time. United have sold £371m worth of players since 2016 - the lowest in the ‘Big Six’ - to take their overall net spend to just about exactly £1bn.

 [Illustration of Big Six Premier League teams' net transfer spend since 2016.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Illustration of Big Six Premier League teams' net transfer spend since 2016.]

In comparison, Tottenham's net spend is £580m over the same period. That takes into consideration £995m spent on new signings and £415m in sales. Their outlays this season total £145m on record arrival Dominic Solanke (£65m), £40m on Archie Gray, £25m on Wilson Odobert and £12.5m on goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky who came in during January. Other significant signings include Richarlison (£50m), Dejan Kulusevski (£25m), Maddison (£40m), Pedro Porro (£37.3m), Micky van de Ven (£35m) and Brennan Johnson (£47.5m).

 [Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United giving a thumbs up.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United giving a thumbs up.]

Harry Kane left for Bayern Munich at the beginning of last season for an initial £86m. Kyle Walker’s move to Manchester City in 2017 was worth around £50m but the biggest sales this season were Oliver Skipp to Leicester (£20m), Emerson Royal to Milan (£12.8m) and Joe Rodon to Leeds (£10m). Add in the 2015-16 figures to take it all the way back a decade and the numbers are even more stark as Tottenham made a small £13m profit in that season while United were down around £45m.

 [Gary Neville speaking into a Sky Sports microphone.]
Image Credit: The Sun [Gary Neville speaking into a Sky Sports microphone.]

And that means the overall difference in spending is a total of approximately £478m in the last ten years. United have won five trophies - two FA Cups, two League Cups and a Europa League - compared to zero for Spurs in that time. But now according to Neville, Tottenham seemingly have a better team and are in a stronger position on the field than his old side. MANCHESTER UNITED slipped to a 12th defeat in the Premier League with Rasmus Hojlund coming under fire again.

Here's how SunSport's Katherine Walsh rated the Manchester United players against an underachieving Spurs side - who are now three places above them in 12th - in North London. Andre Onana - 3. United can't do anything with him between the sticks. Can't be trusted to collect anything. His opposite number Vicario showed him a thing or two after returning for the first time since Spurs thrashed Man City in November.

At fault for the first goal when he palmed out a relatively weak bouncing shot into Maddison's path in the 13th minute. Noussair Mazraoui - 5. An OK performance. Clever link-up play with Zirkzee but couldn't get hold of Spence down the left-hand side. Pulled out an excellent cross for the Dutchman's headed chance late-on. Matthijs de Ligt - 6. His clearance stopped an obvious 2-0 before the half-an-hour mark.

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