Keane, Neville accused of ‘cronyism’ over ‘bland’ Solskjaer debate
Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has accused Roy Keane and Gary Neville of “cronyism” after they failed to address a question about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s future at Manchester United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side responded fairly well to their chastening midweek Champions League loss against RB Leipzig by battening down the hatches and securing a 0-0 draw in a drab derby clash with rivals Manchester City.
United ended Saturday eighth in a concertinaed table but Solskjaer remains under pressure despite being only five points off the summit, with a game in hand on all the teams above them.
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However, Jordan was frustrated that Neville and Keane – who are former team-mates of Solskjaer – failed to properly address a question from fellow pundit Micah Richards.
“The discussion after the game was about the performance of the side, but more so the performance of the manager,” Jordan told talkSPORT.
“Micah Richards was quite brave, I thought he came out with a salient question really, as we look now is Ole Gunnar Solskjaer the man to take Manchester United forward?
“I thought it was cronyism [in terms of the other two]. Gary Neville was very robust, brilliantly robust, about calling out Mino Raiola for the divisive slop he is in terms of the situation regarding [Paul] Pogba.
“When it came to the real burning question of Manchester United, what’s going on with the club and how far Solskjaer is going to take them – both [Roy] Keane and Gary Neville disappeared back into the cronyism; used to play with him, used to have a relationship with him and didn’t really want to answer the question.
“I text you [Jim White] going ‘are you watching this bland nonsense?’ It disappointed me as I felt as though it was a very interesting conversation to be had.
“And if we’re going into the territory of robust punditry then you should have robust punditry.
“That [game] as an advertisement for the Premier League was as dull as dishwater.”