Neville and Carragher reveal 'realistic' expectations for new season

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher revealed where they expect Man Utd to finish this season

Gary Neville revealed where he expects Manchester United to finish this season and Jamie Carragher concurred with his assessment, though he couldn’t resist a cheeky jibe at United’s expense.

Man Utd produced their worst finish in over half a century last term when finishing 15th in the Premier League table. After suffering defeat in the Europa League final, the Red Devils will not participate in Europe for the first time since the 2014/15 campaign and just the second time since the 1980s.

Despite promising little ahead of the summer, Man Utd have pulled off a series of remarkable coups in the transfer window.

Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko will form an entirely new forward line. While it won’t be Carlos Baleba, a new midfielder is expected to arrive and an addition at goalkeeper hasn’t been ruled out either.

The lack of European football, combined with Amorim now having experience in English football and with an influx of high-powered signings – two of which are Premier League-proven (Cunha, Mbeumo) – there is renewed optimism ahead of the new campaign.

Sky Sports pundits, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, were asked to run the rule over how they see United’s season unfolding.

When asked what constitutes a good season for Man Utd, Neville responded: “I think top six would be a good season.

“I think the four at the top – Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City will be difficult to challenge.

“But they could slip into that space where Newcastle, Tottenham, Aston Villa are. So I think that fifth place would be absolutely amazing.”

As was the case last season, fifth spot could be good enough for Champions League qualification next year pending the English clubs’ performances across the European competitions this term.

Neville added: “Realistically I think it’s probably going to be between sixth and eighth, but fifth is what they have to really target.”

Carragher’s cheeky Man Utd jibe

When quizzed on whether Neville’s assessment was “realistic” for Man Utd, fellow pundit and Liverpool legend, Jamie Carragher, said: “Yeah, I think so.

“People will look at where they finished last season and say that’s a huge jump. But you think of some of the teams who were up in those positions all of last season – Nottingham Forest were fighting relegation the season before, Brentford and Bournemouth were up there for a lot of the season.

“When you look at those teams and their squads, they haven’t got better players than Manchester United.

“But I think [Amorim] has a lot to prove, I really do. He’s had about 40 games now which is a decent run in terms of getting his message across and it didn’t quite happen.

“I can’t get that Europa League final out of my head, how poor they were in that game. He’s got a lot to prove as well because Man Utd no matter what set of players they’ve got on the pitch should not finish 15th.”

Carragher concluded with a wry smile: “I don’t think sixth or seventh is completely out of the question because they’ve spent what they always do, £250million in the summer!”

For context, the triple addition of Cunha (£62.5m), Mbeumo (£71m) and Sesko (£74m) cost a combined £207.5m and that factors in all potential future add-ons.

Furthermore, the money for Cunha and Mbeumo will make its way to Wolves and Brentford respectively in instalments and is not being paid in full this summer.

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