The former United captain was speaking after the club’s chaotic 4-4 draw with Aston Villa at Old Trafford, a result that left them in the Premier League relegation zone.

Under Michael Carrick this season, United have taken eight points from 10 league matches. Rather than train his criticism on the head coach, Neville directed it upwards.

“Michael could leave, Michael might stay, we don’t know, the ownership haven’t got a clue what to do. They haven’t got a clue what to do. It’s rinse and repeat, isn’t it?” Neville said on Sky Sports, in comments carried by Football365.

His core argument was that firing another head coach is a reflex that has long since stopped working at Old Trafford. Eight managers across 12 years have been tried, he said, and each change has produced a short bounce before the same problems return. Recruitment, the performance department and leadership along the spine of the football club were all, in his telling, broken before any head coach walked through the door.

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‘People doing jobs who have never done them’

Neville extended the criticism to the executive layer assembled under Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS, which took sporting control of the club in early 2024. Without naming individuals, he argued that senior roles were being filled by people without the experience to carry them.

“It’s a massive issue, there are real issues within that football club, you’ve got people doing jobs who have never done those jobs before in senior positions,” he said.

The point is awkward for INEOS. Ratcliffe’s group has restructured the sporting side, cut costs and overseen multiple transfer windows, but the on-pitch results have not followed.

Carrick carries on

Carrick himself gave no sign of stepping aside. Asked whether he had been given any guarantees over his position through the international break, he said he had not sought any.

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“No, I’ve just carried on as absolute normal,” he told reporters.

Carrick, who took over after an interim spell last season, said he expected to continue in the role and insisted the squad still had the capacity to climb the table.

Not every pundit agreed the clock has run out on him. Michael Owen argued the next few days would be decisive and that the dressing room is not against the manager.

“They’re fighting for him, they’re absolutely fighting for him. The fans are behind him, the players certainly played until the last second,” Owen said, according to Football365.

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Liverpool up next

United do not play again until Sunday 22 November, when they travel to face Liverpool after the international break. That fixture, rather than any boardroom announcement, is the next scheduled test of whether Carrick remains in charge, and of the structure Neville says needs to change above him.

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