Man United players ‘hate’ one thing that splits opinions within fanbase, it is ‘constant and brutal’

Manchester United players often receive brutal criticism from those who came before them in Sky Sports and TNT Sports studios.

Many Manchester United fans had the pleasure of watching the team during the glory years, where Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were winning many trophies year-on-year.

Since the Scottish legend retired in 2013, there has been little to celebrate at Old Trafford while many of those successful players have retired from the game and moved on to the next stages of their career.

For most, that involves punditry for the big channels such as Sky Sports and TNT Sports. It feels like you’ll have at least two former Reds for every game involving the club on live TV.

Gary Neville and Roy Keane are the two we see most on our screens, while the likes of Patrice Evra, Peter Schmeichel, Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves are among the ex-players who have also regularly commented on United fixtures.

United players ‘hate’ ex-player brutal commentary

Almost all of the ex-United players to be on punditry duty have, at one point or another, provided strong criticism of the club, players or managers. It would be difficult not too.

During a QNA session on The Athletic with journalist Andy Mitten, an interesting point was brought up by one subscriber.

They asked Mitten: “Hi Andy, do you think the constant and often brutal commentary from ex players is helpful? It feels to me like they have unrealistic expectations of where United can realistically be right now and constantly judge the team against their achievements.

“We all want United to be competing for major trophies but judging every performance and season by that standard is really unhelpful imo [in my opinion] and must weigh very heavy on the players.”

It is certainly an interesting point, and one that splits opinions within the fanbase. There are many supporters who agree with the sentiment and have grown bothered by the constant negative punditry from former Reds, while others believe they are simply saying it as it is.

Well it seems like the current players are understandably not fans of the ‘constant and often brutal’ comments from ex-players, with Mitten claiming that they ‘hate this’.

Keane admitted Maguire criticism went too far

Perhaps you know that some of this criticism goes too far when hard-man Roy Keane has apologised for some of the comments he made.

The ex-United captain admitted that he ‘crossed the line’ with criticism of Harry Maguire, and that he has apologised to the central defender since then.

“I was harsh on Harry Maguire. You hope to keep it to footballing reasons and obviously, we cover a lot of Manchester United matches and he was struggling at the time,” Keane said on Stick to Football last year.

“But you also think about the mental health of players and I definitely crossed the line with Maguire.

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“I remember one time I kind of mocked him a little bit and that is definitely out of order. I crossed the line and listen, I played the game, I know it’s not easy.

“But I’m also big enough that I apologised to him. Sometimes we pundits get it wrong too.”

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