How talking about Man Utd's cycle of doom became an industry
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Gary Neville and Michael Carrick were Manchester United and England team-mates Manchester United.
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More a high-volume content farm than a football club these days. Michael Carrick's starring role in what has become one of the nation's favourite soap operas has been extended for at least another week, with the 45-year-old set to be in charge for Saturday's visit to Chelsea.
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Good news - you'd think - for Carrick.
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But even better news for Amazon's All or Nothing camera crews, who have been given "unprecedented" access to document the behind-the-scenes goings-on at Old Trafford this season. United fans will presumably be relieved when the football resumes on Saturday, if only to break up the constant stream of opinion for 90 minutes.
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But while the wall-to-wall reporting of one of the world's biggest football clubs is hardly new, the unrelenting coverage from former players is a growing phenomenon.
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It is easier to name the Manchester United legends who don't have a platform from which they scrutinise the club's every move than those that do - and it begs the question whether the club's demise has been industrialised into a content-creating machine.
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Whether supporters feel comments from ex-players are damaging or not differs from fan to fan, but what cannot be denied is how difficult it is to escape their views.
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Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville provided scathing on-air commentary during United's 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth last Sunday, before conducting a post-match podcast in the Old Trafford gantry in which he accused some of their players of being unprofessional.
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"There's a couple of them...
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I live in Manchester and they're not that professional, some of them," Neville stated. "I've got no time for them.
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There's a few of them that don't go to bed at the right time. Don't eat the right things. Don't think about Manchester United every single minute of every single day." But it's digital and streaming platforms that are re-defining a new age of analysis.
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Neville launched The Overlap in 2021, and its success across video and podcast platforms has seen the channel become one of the most influential outlets in sports media.
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On Tuesday, Wayne Rooney appeared on Neville's Manchester United-dedicated YouTube channel 'Stick to United' where he said Carrick's players "need a firework up their a***".
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Neville has since hosted his own The Overlap show where he said managers sometimes need to be sacked "for their own good", while ex-United captain Roy Keane said Carrick and his backroom staff are "lucky boys" to still be in jobs.
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Neville acquired a network of YouTube channels from United influencer Mark Goldbridge last summer, which has significantly increased the channel's coverage of the club.
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Largely known for viral clips of his expletive-laden rants during streamed 'watchalongs' of their matches, Goldbridge's YouTube channels had amassed more than 3.7million subscribers.
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Goldbridge - whose real name is Brent di Cesare - now co-hosts the 'Stick to United' show with Rooney, the club's record goalscorer.
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But Neville, Rooney and Keane are far from the only ones setting the agenda.
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Class of '92 pair Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt co-host their own podcast called 'The Good, The Bad & The Football'.
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Before last season's Manchester derby at Old Trafford - Carrick's first home game in charge - Butt said City striker Erling Haaland would "pick Lisandro Martinez up and run with him", while Scholes said the Norway forward would "throw him in the net" after scoring.
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United won the game 2-0, with Martinez putting in a stellar performance.
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Asked about Scholes' comments after the match, the Argentine defender said: "Honestly, he can say whatever he wants.
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I told him already, if he wants to say something to me, he can come to wherever he wants. To my house, wherever. I don't care." Asked during Thursday's news conference how he deals with the 'noise' from former team-mates and ex-players, Carrick said he avoids it as best he can.
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"I don't see it really.
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I see the things that I need to see," he added. "I don't look for it - it doesn't really help in any way.
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"I've said it before, I care about what the supporters think.
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I care about what it feels like in the stadium, and them travelling to games for us, to come and see us and support us. I care about what we give them, and what we offer them, and what they see. I genuinely don't take any notice of anything else." How Lineker and Neville became rival media moguls 'Fully committed' Fernandes to remain Man Utd captain Sometimes managers need sacking for own good - Neville Where once a low rating in a newspaper could anger players, they now have to deal with days of debate after a bad result or below-par performance.
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Former manager Erik ten Hag recently alluded to the difficulty his Manchester United squad had dealing with the opinions of people like Neville and Rio Ferdinand, and said former players could be "more helpful" to the club.
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"I did nice interviews with them both [Neville and Ferdinand], so it didn't hurt me.
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Of course, they have podcasts, they have their models," Ten Hag told The Athletic, external.
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"Sometimes it's difficult for players.
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Some of them get affected by it, get annoyed by it.
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"They achieved massive successes. But also, they can help the club more, help the players more.
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There should be two ways that they support it. But I think always the thing you most love, you most criticise."
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Speaking on Ferdinand's podcast, external last summer, it was put to Neville he had been overly critical when covering his boyhood club. "It's a balance though Rio, isn't it?" he told his former United team-mate. "It's like, do I want [Manchester] City to win the league?
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I absolutely don't want City anywhere near the league title."
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And he insisted "United are the hardest games I do". "People might think that I'm more critical of United when they don't play well.
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Sometimes, over the last maybe 10 years, the balance, maybe I've not got it right," admitted Neville. But, having won 18 major honours in 19 years at Old Trafford, few are better placed to judge the club than Neville.
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"There was a banner in the first half [against Bournemouth] that was held up in the Stretford End - 'standards'.
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They went a long time ago," he said last Sunday. Like Neville, Butt also came through United's academy and said former players have the club's best interests at heart.
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"When it goes bad, you can't cry and go, 'Oh, they're [ex-players] having a go at us'," explained Butt back in January.
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"We love the football club. I've been a Manchester United fan since the age of six or seven, as long as I can remember.
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I'm not saying it to go, 'Let's stab everybody in the back'.
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I'm saying it because it is genuinely c**p."
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While the club would rather be awash with positivity, negative coverage is consumed by a wider base that more regularly includes non-Manchester United fans. It's difficult to apply a value to the club's popularity but United have remained one of the highest-grossing football clubs in world football since last winning the Premier League in 2013. Much of their off-field success has been underscored by industry-leading commercial deals, as well as strong matchday revenue. Only Arsenal made more money from matchday revenue last season in the Premier League.
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Former executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward angered supporters in 2018 when he said: "Playing performance doesn't really have a meaningful impact on what we can do on the commercial side of the business."
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Being a constant source of attention is something that the club and supporters have regularly boasted about, too.
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The 'hated, adored, never ignored' mantra regularly appears on banners at Old Trafford, while the club even released a clothing range that adorned the slogan. It's fair to say, then, that the club are as guilty as anyone in capitalising on their global fame and ability to grab headlines.
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