Graeme Souness furiously slams Man Utd chiefs and makes worrying Ruben Amorim prediction

Graeme Souness has slammed Manchester United chiefs for their lack of football knowledge and for handing incoming boss Ruben Amorim an impossible job.

Liverpool legend Souness accused United's new hierarchy of wasting £200million on inadequate signings in the summer and undermining former boss Erik ten Hag by sounding out potential successors before sacking him.

Souness claimed United, the most successful club in England with a record 20 league titles, are the worst they have been in three decades of the Premier League, with a squad of players not fit for purpose.

He told William Hill’s podcast, Three Up Front : “I think the club are at their lowest point in the history of the Premier League, with the lowest quality group of players they’ve had in that time.”

“I look at Manchester United since INEOS came in and it’s screaming out to me that they don’t really get football,” said Souness. “They’ve now got their so-called footballing people in charge, in Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox, and I can’t believe for a minute that they didn’t have an input on the players they signed in the summer.

“They brought in Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs De Ligt, and Joshua Zirkzee. If they think those players are good enough for United, they’re wrong.

“They’ve still allowed £200million to be spent on players like that. They’ve had one summer at the club and look what they’ve done with it. That has to fall at Ashworth’s door.

“Ruben Amorim’s job now is to get the best out of this group of players, in whatever system that may be. He is walking into what is a very difficult job.”

Souness, speaking on William Hill's podcast Three Up Front, also claimed the United hierarchy effectively made Ten Hag a dead man walking by interviewing potential successors in the summer.

United spoke with candidates, including newly-appointed England head coach and Brentford boss Thomas Frank, before deciding to stick with Ten Hag and triggering his one-year contract extension.

“Where they went really wrong was during the off-season,” said Souness. “It was public knowledge that they were out looking for and interviewing a new manager. Did they have any thought about what that was going to do for Erik ten Hag’s position in the dressing room? They cut his legs off.

“Then they turned around, maybe feeling guilty about speaking to several other managers, and gave him another year’s contract. As a player, I would be thinking ‘he’s not going to be here for very long’.”

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