Eamon Dunphy was scathing in his appraisal of the prospects of both Manchester City and Manchester United tonight, accusing City of effectively burning their money in the transfer market and insisting that the Red Devils need “a couple of billion” to restore them to their former glory.
Jose Mourinho saw his Manchester United team run ragged by a rampant Chelsea in a 4-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, while Manchester City’s winless streak was stretched to five games as Southampton recorded a 1-1 draw against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Chronicling United’s decline on RTÉ 2fm's Game On, Dunphy said: “The people who run Manchester United are the people who are responsible. The beginning of the end for Manchester United came before Alex Ferguson left.
"In his last successful season, Robin van Persie scored the goals, a player who was coming to the end of his career. He was a quick fix. He did the job.
"But Manchester United, when Ferguson left, had very little. It was a club that needed to be rebuilt from the foundations upwards.
"Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were coming to the end. Wayne Rooney was even coming to the end.
“They had to start again and nobody has addressed that core problem.
"Everyone is looking for a quick fix. David Moyes was given seven months and no budget and then they got Louis van Gaal, who was supposed to be a quick fix. He was given some money, but he wasted it. And now Mourinho has come in.
"The waste in the summer of £100m on Paul Pogba is one example, the centre-half Eric Bailly, who some people think can offer something, he cost £35m.
"They’re in denial about where the club is - it's on a downward spiral that is beyond the capacity of one coach to fix unless you gave him a couple of billion.”
"They're doomed to mid-table or maybe scrapping for a Europa League place, that's where they fit now" -Eamon Dunphy on Manchester United
Considering what needs to be done at Old Trafford, aside from providing a manager with the biggest transfer budget in the history of the game, Dunphy added: "Manchester United need to assess where they are and then choose the person who is going to rebuild them into being a great club.
“They are a mile away at the moment.
"There is a young guy at Bournemouth, Eddie Howe, he should have got the England job, he should probably get the Manchester United job and say 'this is where we are at, it’s going to take us four or five years to get back to where we need to be'.
"In these times when there are so few players available who are worth going for, United are stuck.
"I think Mourinho is good and he'll keep them in the mix a little bit. He'll do what he has to do, like he did at Liverpool last Monday, but he can't make top-class players out of the players he's got, they are just pretty ordinary.
"They're doomed to mid-table or maybe scrapping for a Europa League place, that's where they fit now."
Manchester City remain short-price favourites to win the Premier League, but they won’t carry the money of the controversial pundit.
“They’re in a worse state than Manchester United. They have got fewer players and their manager is off-the-chart crazy.
“What’s happening at Manchester City and what’s happened over the last several years is mad stuff.
“They’ve spent the kind of money Manchester United would need to spend now. Theirs is gone. They burnt it.”
Dunphy’s opinion of the league favourites was so damning that he opined: “If Manchester United played Manchester City now, all other things being equal, the two best teams on the field, I think Manchester United would beat them. That’s how bad they are.”
