The brutal warning of Phil Neville to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, boss of Man Utd, about next season

Former Manchester United actor, Phil Neville, issued a blunt warning to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before his summer rebuild.

Neville, who is currently preparing to lead England to the Women's World Cup, said her local rivals in Manchester City were "better" than the Reds who will start next season.

And he warned his former teammate Solskjaer that it might take them "a lot of time" to narrow the gap as they prepared for a gigantic summer in the transfer market.

Neville helped the club reach dizzying heights in the famous Clbad of 92, but they slipped down the Premier League table and rely on Solskjaer and his team to stop the decline.

Neville said of offside rules exclusives: "In the last five years, you have seen a team move away from the vision and philosophy of their club.

"When you look at City, Liverpool and Tottenham, the foundations of their club are really solid – and you would say that United's are from a financial point of view, but stability on the ground?

"If you look at these teams [City, Liverpool, Spurs], they have a system and a style of play and a proven method, while United seems to go to the left and right of manager in manager.

"They need to go back to what United does best, namely to play a certain football brand that is not synonymous with Sir Alex Ferguson, it is from the year on. Matt [Busby], Ron Atkinson …

"You hope with Ole, Mick Phelan, Michael Carrick and Nicky Butt [in the Academy] that United will start coming back to the foundations.

"I think it will take a long time – it's not a quick fix – but I hope that with the officials and the financial power that United still has, they can quickly question themselves." because it's hard to see Man City win everything.

"It's hard because you think they're better than United at the moment."