Gary Neville
Gary Neville said Danny Welbeck would be a welcome addition back at Manchester United
Gary Neville shares the same opinion as Erik ten Hag on Danny Welbeck - given the former Manchester United boss wanted to sign the Brighton striker during his time at Old Trafford.
The Sky Sports pundit was heavily complimentary of the United academy graduate on Friday, following Brighton's comprehensive 3-0 win over Chelsea, where Welbeck, 34, got both assists for Yankuba Minteh's brace.
The former England international - who joined the Seagulls in 2020 after stints with Arsenal and Watford - came through the United academy where he went on to spend the first six years of his professional career.
Welbeck's breakthrough under Sir Alex Ferguson came in the 2010/11 season when he scored 12 goals in all competitions and continued to be a key squad player until Louis van Gaal's arrival in 2014. However, the Dutchman soon rendered him surplus to requirements, allowing him to join the Gunners.
It was a decade later when Welbeck was linked to a sensational return to his old stomping ground, with Ten Hag said to have wanted to re-sign Welbeck to bolster his forward line last year. According to The Athletic, the ex-United boss included him in recruitment talks despite signing Joshua Zirkzee for £36.5million from Bologna,.
It was the 34-year-old's experience that was reportedly identified as a key attribute to bring into the Premier League's dressing room on top of his reputation as a supreme athlete. Neville - who played with Welbeck - sounded off on his former team-mate's quality and admitted a potential return to United would be a "perfect" fit.
"He was let go too quickly at United. If you think about Louis van Gaal, his style of play is very precise," Neville told Sky Sports after Brighton beat Chelsea. "Now Danny Welbeck wasn’t precise in his game back then, so he (Van Gaal) just let him go. He didn’t fancy him at all.
Yankuba Minteh and Danny Welbeck celebrate
Danny Welbeck assisted both of Yankuba Minteh's goals against Chelsea
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Image:
Getty Images)
"But he’s actually perfect for how Manchester United should play. Threatening space in behind, playing off front players. This idea that he’s not good enough for Manchester United is absolutely rubbish. He’s good enough to be in a pool of three or four strikers at Manchester United. For instance, Liverpool have three, four, five forward players across their forward line. They’re all of differing abilities and different types.
"Salah’s the stand-out one but you might move back to Gakpo and others who aren't quite as good as Salah - they all contribute at a certain point in the season. Divock Origi did it at Liverpool.
"I’ve seen Nicolas Jackson talked about at Chelsea last season as not being good enough [but] he is good enough to play at Chelsea, maybe if they had another striker up front to take the weight off his shoulders. He would be one of two very good strikers at the club.
"We always tag these players with, ‘Oh, he’s not good enough’, but he (Welbeck) is, to be part of a 20-man squad at a top club. He can still play at the top level, he’s destroying defences. He’s torn Colwill and Chalobah to shreds tonight. That front four, he was part of it - a big part of it."
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