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Paul Scholes ‘scared’ that Manchester United are heading into wilderness• Scholes fears United could go same way as Liverpool in 1990s
• Says five major new signings needed to ‘arrest their decline’
• David Conn: Glazers continue to thrive as United flounderShare 237
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theguardian.com, Thursday 21 August 2014 08.39 BST Paul Scholes says he feels 'genuinely scared' for Manchester United's long-term future. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
Paul Scholes believes Manchester United need to make five major signings to arrest their decline, or they risk “going into the wilderness in the same way that Liverpool did in the 1990s”.
The former United midfielder, reacting to the club’s miserable 2013-14 campaign and this season’s opening day defeat at home to Swansea, said he felt “genuinely scared” for the club’s long-term future, and urged vice-chairman Ed Woodward to make signings quickly.
Calling the situation “desperate”, Scholes wrote in the Independent: “Let me be clear: I am sick of having to criticise the club which I gave my life to as a footballer. But United need to arrest their decline.
“I feel it is time for major change. What do United need? Five players. Not five players with potential. Five experienced players … for now. Five proper players who can hit the ground running and turn around a situation that looks desperate. United’s forwards are as good as any team in the league. The problem is what comes behind them.
“My five would be: Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Raphaël Varane, Angel Di Maria and Mats Hummels. It would be one very big cheque for Real Madrid, given that four of them would come from that club. It would be hard to land them all. But that is the level that United need at this stage of the transfer window.”
Scholes also said he felt the structural problems at United were long-standing. “I suppose I should have realised that the very fact I was still playing for United at 38 years old was a sign that there was not enough pressure on us senior players from those coming into the side.
“The sad, and worrying, aspect of it all, after watching Manchester City and Chelsea over the first three days of the season, is that United are not on that level. They may not even be on the same level as Arsenal and Liverpool, who I think are the next grade down. United must make some signings in the last two weeks of the transfer window.
“Ed Woodward keeps telling us that the money is there. I would say that now is the time to start spending it.”
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