“I don’t think anything is going to change in terms of the football,” Carragher claimed. “I have seen this before at Liverpool. Go back before (Jurgen) Klopp came in when there was talk of Brendan Rodgers losing his job after one season. They weren’t sure what to do, FSG, and they kept him and Rodgers changed his staff.
“You expect something different, but the manager is the main man. Rodgers was gone in October. Ten Hag said in his interview ‘we will see where we are at the end of the season’. I would be surprised if he is still there at the end of the season.”
But a visibly distressed Neville hit back at Carragher, amid the pair both raising their voices and interrupting one another, and responded: “They (INEOS) were open about the fact that they looked to go for a manager to replace Erik ten Hag and they couldn’t find one.
“Erik ten Hag wins the FA Cup, it shocks everybody and they think ‘OK we will still look around Europe and see if we could find a manager’. They couldn’t find a manager that they felt would take the club forward better than Ten Hag could. So, he kept his job. It should not be demeaned that two trophies in two years is all of a sudden a really bad time.
“Eighth in the league is unacceptable, but they have won two trophies in two seasons. In Man Utd’s history there were seasons that they went years without winning trophies. Sir Alex (Ferguson), it took him six or seven years to win a Premier League. It takes time, it took Klopp five or six years and (Mikel) Arteta is on a journey too.”
Carragher hit back at Neville’s call for patience and said: “In Jurgen Klopp’s third season they were in a Champions League final and you could see something building going forward.
“Man Utd are one of the biggest clubs in the world. Would Real Madrid or Bayern Munich accept being sixth in their league? We are saying eighth – that is where we are with Man Utd right now.”
Neville began to understand Carragher’s argument and conceded that should Ten Hag’s struggles continue then he will leave the hierarchy with no option but to dismiss him.
“Erik ten Hag will get a few months with these new players coming in – (Rasmus) Hojlund coming back and (Manuel) Ugarte coming in,” Neville stressed. “He can’t be eighth at the end of November, he has to be in the top four or five.”
