Gary Neville claims to know who the Manchester United players are behind the ‘disgusting’ dressing room leaks that have smeared Ralf Rangnick and his coaching staff.
According to reports last week, several United players refer to Rangnick’s No. 2 Chris Armas as Ted Lasso, the bumbling coach from an Apple+ TV series.
Who is Ted Lasso and why the comparison?
Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, and Joe Kelly created Ted Lasso, an American sports comedy-drama streaming television series.
It’s based on a character of the same name played by Sudeikis in a series of ads for NBC Sports’ Premier League broadcast.
The series follows Ted Lasso, an American college football coach who is hired to coach an English soccer team in order to resent her ex-husband by the team’s owner.
While dealing with his lack of experience in the sport, Lasso seeks to win over the cautious English market with his folksy, upbeat manner.
For whatever reason, this analogy by certain alleged Manchester United players is disrespectful to Interim Coach Rangnick’s leadership.
Ralf is a competent and certified coach, so comparing him to Ted Lasso is absurd, and the players implicated should be punished.
Gary Neville
‘I remember when I first joined Sky and we had the Champions League in the early years, and I went over to Napoli to broadcast a game with Chelsea,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast on Monday. Andre Villas-Boas was their manager at the time, and he left out Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, and Ashley Cole – four or five key players.
‘I recall sitting with our team at lunchtime and hearing about team news being leaked and the manager being slammed, and I remember wondering to myself, “Does this genuinely happen?”
‘On a matchday, players’ agents and public relations teams were briefing the media about what was going on within a club, and it was the first time I had seen or heard of it — it truly frightened me.
‘That’s what’s going on at Manchester United right now — the PR departments, agents, and marketing teams are all doing it as a form of self-preservation for their own player.
‘However, what they don’t realize is that when they go to the media, those media people go to us, and we know who is briefing.’ We may not like it, but we recognize who is behind it.
‘I thought that was downright disrespectful – I didn’t think it was funny that they were referring to Ralf Rangnick’s No 2 as Ted Lasso, and it was not only disrespectful, but also nasty.’
‘It encapsulates my opinion of them: they are disrespectful.’ I believe that if I were Ralf Rangnick and his No. 2, I would get strength from it because I would not want to be on the same page as some of the players who are leaking such stuff.
‘We’re not going to throw individuals under the bus here because we have that journalistic respect – but they’re doing it in the same manner Chelsea did all those years ago,’ he says.
Neville also slammed rumours that United players prefer Mauricio Pochettino to Ajax manager Erik ten Hag.
‘I’m not a fan of publications that claim “players prefer this manager” – stay away from that. ‘Do your own job properly,’ Neville advised.
‘Appoint Pochettino if he is the board’s choice. However, they should not appoint him based on the opinions of the players. I don’t want to imagine for a second that they’re talking to the players in the locker room.
‘They have large public relations operations – agents, public relations machines, and social media teams are all engaged, and have been for several months.
‘At the moment, they’re all watching out for each other.’ All of this foolishness is taking place behind the scenes at United.’
Southampton held United to a 1-1 draw on Saturday, putting United’s chances of breaking into the top four and qualifying for the Champions League next season in jeopardy.
That outcome came after a report claimed that behind-the-scenes issues are still escalating, with certain stars irritated with Rangnick’s ‘old-fashioned’ training sessions.
According to ESPN, some members of the team are baffled by the interim coach’s preference for working alongside his assistant Armas on the training ground.
According to reports, the 49-year-old American coach has been compared to Lasso, the protagonist in the Apple TV+ series in which an American college football coach is appointed to lead a Premier League team despite having only played American football.
According to the article, several players are underwhelmed by the emphasis on daily organizational and shape work rather than drills to develop skills.
The Red Devils are in fifth position in the Premier League, a point behind fourth-placed West Ham with a game in hand, but Arsenal, who are in sixth, have two games in hand and may move into fourth place if they win.
United return to action on Tuesday night against Brighton at Old Trafford before facing Leeds at Elland Road on Sunday.
