Gary Neville says he told Manchester United to sign £30m Arsenal player

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It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Manchester United’s biggest problem is at the moment.

Indeed, United have massive goalkeeping issues, and Arsenal saw that first-hand on the opening weekend of the season.

Altay Bayindir made a mistake against Arsenal at Old Trafford on the opening day, as Arsenal exploited his weaknesses, while Andre Onana was up to his old tricks against Grimsby midweek.

Luckily, Arsenal don’t suffer from the same problems, David Raya has earned a lot of praise in recent times, and he is a safe pair of hands between the sticks for Arsenal.

Speaking on Stick to Football, Gary Neville has been discussing Manchester United’s goalkeeping situation, and he’s made an interesting revelation about David Raya.

Gary Neville told Manchester United to sign David Raya

Neville claimed that he told Manchester United a few years ago to sign David Raya when he was at Brentford.

Of course, Raya joined Arsenal back in 2023 after shining for Brentford in the Premier League, but prior to his move to the Emirates, Neville told United to go after Raya.

“Two or three years ago I’d mentioned Raya to someone at United. I’d watched him quite a bit for Brentford. I thought he looked like a good goalkeeper,” Neville said.

“And they said, he’s not good enough with his feet. The person I spoke to at United at that time.

“I was talking to them before a game, three years ago, I was thinking, I watch Raya a lot, he’s pretty good. And you’re thinking, he saves a lot of shots. He’s quite good at dominating his box, he’s quite brave.”

David Raya compared to Andre Onana last season

Manchester United opted to pass on Neville’s recommendation of Raya and ultimately ended up with Andre Onana as their goalkeeper.

This is surely a decision the Red Devils regret at this point. After all, Raya outdoes Onana in almost every key statistic you’d want from a goalkeeper in terms of both stopping goals and ball-playing.

Manchester United have made their fair share of transfer mistakes in recent years, but opting against signing Raya only to bring Onana in later has to be considered a massive error.

United’s loss was certainly Arsenal’s gain in this situation.