Neville ‘worried’ by Man Utd’s plans for two stars as legend urges Ratcliffe to ‘send message’

Gary Neville has reacted to reports claiming Manchester United are looking to keep two players beyond the end of their current contracts.

The Red Devils ended 2023 on a sour note as they lost 2-1 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday and significant changes are expected to be made at Old Trafford in the coming months.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe‘s takeover of Man Utd was announced on Christmas Eve, with him purchasing a 25% stake for around £1.25bn.

He will not become United’s majority stakeholder as he initially intended but he will take control of footballing matters at Old Trafford straight away.

The INEOS chief is in the process of appointing a new director of football and chief executive and he will also have big decisions to make regarding United’s underperforming players and Erik ten Hag, who is the second favourite to be the next Premier League manager sacked. 

Ten Hag has faced serious issues at centre-back this season as he has been without Lisandro Martinez for much of this season through injury.

Raphael Varane was a key player for United last season but he has not featured as prominently this campaign. The Frenchman and Victor Lindelof are due to be out of contract in the summer but the club have the option to extend their deals on the same terms until 2025.

Amid reports from The Daily Mail suggesting Man Utd are planning to offer Varane a new deal on reduced terms instead of triggering their option to keep him until 2025, Neville is “worried” as they need to “start afresh as much as possible”.

“If United are looking to renew Lindelof and Varane (on reduced terms) I’m worried,” Neville tweeted.

“We have to start afresh as much as possible. Whilst these 2 aren’t bad players by any stretch, a message must be sent to everyone inside and outside of the club that it’s not going to tolerate the levels over the last few years.”

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Ten Hag recently insisted that he has not had issues with Varane, who has not been playing because of the “internal competition” at United.

“Absolutely not,” Ten Hag told reporters when asked whether there had been issues between him and Varane. “As I said, it is about tactical reasons why I chose these partnerships. I think Harry and Jonny did well.

“What I said last year, Harry didn’t play a lot, so I was very happy with Rapha’s performances. I have always been happy with his performance. But in this moment, Harry is playing very well and there is internal competition.

He continued: “There are moments in certain games where they (Maguire and Varane) can play together and they have already proven they can do it.

“But the build-up is not that fluid when one of them is playing from the left centre-back position.

“Because I think Licha, obviously, Luke Shaw, obviously, Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelof are right-footed, but they can play really comfortably with their left and make the right angles. Then you can construct a better formation where you can start to play.”