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17th Jan 2022

Roy Keane names just three Manchester United players he would definitely keep

Callum Boyle

To nobody’s surprise, Roy Keane’s list did not include Harry Maguire

Roy Keane have revealed that he would only keep three players at Manchester United if he was in charge of deciding who to keep and sell at the club.

United dropped more points again last weekend, surrendering a two-goal lead to Aston Villa to leave them seventh in the table and five points adrift of a top four spot.

Questions have been asked of the squad in recent weeks, with talk of ongoing disputes in the United camp and reports that up to 17 players want to leave the club.

The former Manchester United captain, Keane, has been one of those most unafraid to shy away from criticising the squad, and when asked by Jamie Redknapp who he would keep from the current squad, only three names were mentioned.

“How many would I keep you mean? I don’t know, I really don’t.” he said on Sky Sports. Presenter David Jones presented him with one name, Bruno Fernandes, to which the Irishman replied:

“Yeah. Oh, yeah, Bruno, people like [Cristiano] Ronaldo, it’s not all doom and gloom.

“You have [Raphael] Varane, you have some good young players there.”

Later in the discussion, Keane spoke positively of Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood while he has said, in the past, that Scott McTominay would be a useful squad player.

Roy Keane suggests moving on from senior players

To nobody’s surprise, the likes of David De Gea and Harry Maguire did not feature in Keane’s list following his scathing assessments of the pair publicly in recent months. He did give De Gea credit for his recent form, though.

The pundit then continued to say that he believed that the club need to be identifying a core of “fresh, hungry quality players” and if a new permanent manager arrives in the summer, may use it as an opportunity to rebuild the squad.

“If a top coach comes in, at least for a good starting point, you might look at some of the senior players and go at least their contracts are up,” he explained.

“I can move them on and get some fresh, hungry quality players into Manchester United.”

Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata and Paul Pogba are all out of contract during the summer, while Nemanja Matic has a deal that runs until July 2023.

United travel to Brentford on Wednesday night, as they look to try and close the gap on the Champions League places.

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