United have recently reported a lot of locker room insider information, including players mocking assistant coach Chris Armas, and celebrity Gary Neville said he thought the Red Devils players who exposed the information lacked respect and were disgusting. Not only that, Neville also hinted that there was more than one such player.
"I think it's downright disrespectful," Neville said, "and I don't think there's anything funny about describing Lonnick's assistant coach Armas as Ted Lasso [a fictional character who has only coached U.S. teams but was named premier league manager]. This is not only disrespectful, but also disgusting behavior. And that sums up what I think of them: They don't know how to respect others."
Neville added: "If I were Lonnick and his assistant coach, I would get strength out of it and wouldn't want to be on the same page as the players who leaked their secrets. I also don't like to report which coach the player wants more, don't be nosy, and do your job. If the board chooses Pochettino, he can be appointed, but he should not be chosen because of the player's ideas. I hate them going to listen to the players in the locker room. At this moment, they're all taking care of each other, and behind the scenes of Manchester United, all this, mess.
When referring to United's "inner ghosts", Neville uses "they" as a pronoun, meaning that such players are not limited to one player, he knows the identity of the other party. According to Neville, they "used agents, PR and marketing teams" to say bad things about manager Lonnick.
Neville did not name names, but many fans have speculated on several names in United's squad, among which substitute goalkeeper Dean Henderson is considered one of the suspects. This week, the British "Sun" revealed another scandal, following Mason Greenwood, another Premier League star was arrested by the police for allegedly beating his girlfriend.
At this point, Dean Henderson suddenly debunked the rumor on "Instagram", saying that he had been framed, but he did not specify which of the two things was mentioned above. "I can't believe I had to do this, but I must emphasize that the scandals that have occurred in the last two days, some sad people, have linked me to these disgraceful and harmful events, and this is completely false news." My family has been affected, so I have to debunk the rumors."
Asked at United's pre-match press conference with Brighton, interim manager Ronnick was also asked if he felt the players should be responsible for the dismissal of four managers in the last 8 years, the German said: "I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the players, but I can tell you that the players have been ambitious over the past 10 weeks, they have trained hard and want to get better. They're not happy after games like Middlesbrough, Burnley and Southampton, and my job is to help them find a way to win games and talk about other things until the end of the season."
Lonnick continued: "It was very clear that in the 13 games I've coached, we've scored first and taken a 1-0 lead, but we haven't won all of them. In particular, the last three games have been 1-1, so we lost 4 points in the league and were out of the cup. In these games, we played really well in the first half and now the next step is to improve. Physically, mentally and tactically, the whole game was focused. We conceded the ball too easily in the second half and it was our own mistake to allow the opponent to score."