Gary Neville overlooks United ties when picking City’s likeliest title challengers next season

Gary Neville has overlooked his Manchester United ties when picking the most likely team to challenge Manchester City’s title next season.

City lifted their seventh Premier League trophy this afternoon after last night’s Arsenal defeat meant they would retain their champion status for another year, regardless of today’s result against Chelsea.

It’s always a dark day for United fans when this is the case but even more so this season when the prospect of a City treble is looming and is just two games away.

United need some serious investment over the summer if we want to be in the title race next term, so the ongoing delay of the sale process is only making things more frustrating heading into the forthcoming transfer window.

Former Red Devils captain Neville was quizzed on which club he felt were best-placed to knock the Blues off their perch in 2023/2024, and Erik ten Hag’s squad didn’t make the cut.

Neville on next season’s title challengers

Speaking on Sky Sports via Football Daily, he said: “The team that got the alignment of quality and mentality. Manchester City’s players here have real quality, that goes without saying. But in the most difficult moments of the season in the Premier League, they’re able to put a run together and come through difficult challenges. That takes a lot. It takes a manager who can guide them through moments and bring them that stability. The other clubs have got to look at that same model.

“It happened for many years under Sir Alex Ferguson. It happened with Liverpool under Bob Paisley and Bill Shankly, under great managers like Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. You’ve got to be a great manager and you’ve got to have a great bunch of players to be able to do it consistently like they have. The other teams have got to aspire to that.

“At this moment in time, the one who have proven it over the last six years is Liverpool. I know Arsenal have run City close this year but the only team that I can say at the moment that have demonstrated that they can go close to Guardiola’s City is Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool.

“I know they’ve dropped well below their standards this season but you don’t know whether they will get back to those standards next season, because they’ve proven they can do that before.”

More Stories Gary Neville Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Premier League