Gary Neville feels Man Utd draw with Leicester could impact club’s appointment of a new manager

Gary Neville has said Manchester United may choose to appoint their next manager sooner than expected, following the 1-1 draw with Leicester City on Saturday.

The Red Devils lost ground in the race for the top four at Old Trafford, leaving the door open for Arsenal to extend their points gap over United when they face Crystal Palace on Monday.

It was a hapless display from Ralf Rangnick’s men against the Foxes, with United lacking direction, passion and leadership.

It’s for that reason Neville feels the club will look for a ‘PR spike’ and could appoint a new manager sooner than they initially planned.

According to reports, contact has been made with the two frontrunners of Erik ten Hag and Mauricio Pochettino, and Neville expects a confirmed new coach will be announced in the near future.

"Look, because the interview process started, publicly, sort of seven to 10 days ago, I said you’ve got to conclude it quite quickly or else it becomes a bit of a mess,” the former England defender told Sky Sports on Saturday.

"There were already reports earlier in the week that Ten Hag was awaiting details as to whether he was going to be offered a contract or not.

"I suspect after that performance today what we’ll see is a PR spike in approach, whereby the manager might be named. I don’t know but, for me, it wouldn’t surprise me. I’ve spoken in the last couple of weeks about a new manager coming in and everything thinking, ‘It’s all okay, we’ll go again’.

"But we’ve been here for 10 years and it’s tough,” he added. “That was a really tough watch today. I’m not angry, I don’t think any Manchester United fans left this ground angry tonight because we’ve gone probably past anger, we’re just flat. We’re bored and there was nothing there today.

"I don’t feel sorry for the players but those players out on the pitch, I do genuinely believe players care, but they lack direction and that comes from the very top. I said a few weeks ago, the owners have had 10 years post-Sir Alex Ferguson to try and work this out.

“They’re trying to run a football club by Zoom, and they’ve been trying to run a football club by Zoom before it even existed, because they’ve not been here. Ultimately, there needs to be something that culturally shifts at this football club to make it a football project.

“They need to get to a point where everyone is facing the right direction and they’re all aligned on the same goal. There are two many people at the club looking left and right, thinking ‘where’s my next move? What’s he doing? Is he going to be here next year?’. That’s never good.”