Gary Neville slams Man Utd’s ‘panic-buy’ transfer approach amid £216.3m spending bill

Manchester United’s summer spending has been criticised by club legend Gary Neville.

Up until the final week of the market, the Red Devils looked to be heading for a very quiet transfer window and failed to pull off signings such as Frenkie de Jong.

Tyrell Malacia was snapped up early on and was followed by Lisandro Martinez and Christian Eriksen, as the De Jong saga prevented other deals from taking place.

A flurry of business did eventually come, with United splashing out a huge amount of money to sign Casemiro and Antony late in the window.

The business came after complaints from fans, with supporters furious at the level of investment from the club’s owners, the Glazers.

The signings of Casemiro and Antony will have appeased some fans, at least for now, but former defender Neville isn’t particularly impressed with the approach.

“Manchester United wanted to spend about £130m-£140m, they ended up spending £230m,” Neville said on The Overlap.

“Obviously we’ve seen it before with the Glazer family – loads of trouble, protests building, invest the money to try and appease the fans and basically panic-buy.

“The Casemiro and Antony bids came in two days before the Liverpool game, which was obviously a moment where they just needed to get players in.

“It wasn't the strategy at the start of the summer to spend the money they've spent.”

Only Chelsea spent more than United during the summer transfer window, though, the Red Devils were left with the need to replace the likes of Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and Edinson Cavani, who all departed.

The pressure will now be on new boss Erik ten Hag to get the best out of his new additions as United look to continue their recent good form, which has seen them win four consecutive Premier League games.