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Gary Neville praises ‘clever’ Man Utd transfer strategy despite Ed Woodward criticism
GARY NEVILLE believes Manchester United chiefs were clever to not sanction a mass exodus over the summer.
Man Utd: Solskjaer says he's 'relieved' after transfer window
Following a 4-0 loss at Everton in late April, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: “I’m going to be successful here and there are players there that won’t be part of that successful team. But there are players there who do have it.”
Given Solskjaer’s comments, United fans were expecting a large cull during the off-season but Romelu Lukaku’s £73million transfer to Inter Milan was the only departure from which the club received money.
Other notable first-team exits were Ander Herrera, Antonio Valencia and James Wilson, whose contracts all expired.
I think it's a clever transition out of what has been a poor transfer strategy for the last four or five years.
But former United captain Neville feels the club have been sensible in not selling every player no longer wanted at United.
"I think there are three or four players at Old Trafford who have higher levels of quality that in a perfect world, Ole would probably like them all out at once," Neville told ESPN.
"But actually, if they left it would weaken the team that badly it'd mean that they wouldn't challenge for the Champions League.
“I think what Ole has to do is to get rid of one at a time.
“I think it's a clever transition out of what has been a poor transfer strategy for the last four or five years.
"You can't get out of it in one year, it's going to take two or three years of good culture and tone, in terms of what they're doing, to get out of what they've done.
“You can't lose Lukaku, [Paul] Pogba, [Anthony] Martial all in one - you'd be absolutely decimated.
"The dressing room would be shot to pieces. You could maybe lose them over a period of two or three years if they wanted to leave."
Real Madrid bid £27m plus James Rodriguez for Pogba earlier in the window which was swiftly rejected by United.
The club feels Los Blancos cannot afford the Frenchman and the player is understood to have behaved professionally amid the reports, most of which have originated from his camp, linking him to the Spanish giants.
The Spanish transfer window closes on September 2, leaving Real Madrid more than three weeks to revise their pursuit of the £150m-rated midfielder.