Gary Neville blasts new Manchester United signing as 'nowhere near ready' after Fulham draw

Ruben Amorim press conference after Fulham 1-1 Man Utd
Ben McCaffrey

By Ben McCaffrey


Published: 25/08/2025

- 21:38

The Red Devils are yet to win this campaign after they drew 1-1 against Fulham on Sunday

Gary Neville has blasted a new £74million Manchester United signing as "nowhere near" ready, after the Red Devils drew 1-1 against Fulham on Saturday.

Ruben Amorim’s side were hoping to kickstart their season at Craven Cottage, after they fell to a 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal last week.


The feeling around Old Trafford had remained positive after an encouraging performance despite last week's result.

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Unfortunately, after an exciting opening 10 minutes, the Red Devils looked relatively flat in west London.

Goalkeeper Altay Bayundir was the only United player to create a big chance on the afternoon, and United’s solitary goal came from a corner; their woes up top are evident already this season.

The club invested £74million in Benjamin Sesko to counter that problem.

The 6ft 4in physical monster joined the club from RB Leipzig after a transfer tug-of-war with Newcastle, but the Slovenian has yet to show any spark during either of his two cameo appearances.

Benjamin Sesko

Gary Neville has slammed Benjamin Sesko as "nowhere near" ready

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Sesko, who scored 13 Bundesliga goals last term, offered little to a United side that struggled to pose any threat to Bernd Leno in Fulham’s goal.

The Red Devils actually took the lead through a Rodrigo Muniz own goal, after Lenny Yoro saw his headed effort deflected.

Emile Smith-Rowe, a Fulham substitute on the day, equalised 15 minutes later.

The Cottagers then had the better of the remaining 20 minutes despite Amorim boasting his £200million new-look forward line, Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, in its entirety.

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Matthijs de Ligt, Emile Smith-Rowe, Bruno Fernandes

Emile Smith-Rowe grabbed the equaliser for the hosts

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Former United captain Neville believes United looked worse in the second half when Amorim made substitutions, including bringing on the 22-year-old.

Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, he said: “The problem in the second half is that it opens up, and it's a little bit worrying that Fulham got stronger after they made their substitutions and United got worse when they made theirs.”

Sesko was joined by full-back Diogo Dalot to enter the pitch just seven minutes into the second half. Manuel Ugarte later replaced Mason Mount after United went ahead.

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“Sesko at the moment, let's just say it, he is nowhere near in terms of fitness or getting up to speed,” the 50-year-old proclaimed.

“Obviously, there is a clamour to play him. Even I was saying last week, let's get him straight in.

“[Amorim] is going to have to get Sesko in against Grimsby and give him 90 minutes so that he can be played [from the start] against Burnley next Saturday because you can see he needs football.

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Gary Neville

Gary Neville believes new £74million signing Benjamin Sesko should play 90 minutes against Grimsby on Wednesday

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“What you can't do is let a player of that value, that potential, just keep being on the bench. The problem he'll have is that he wants to keep Mason Mount in the team.

“But when Sesko did come on and Mount went into midfield and they took Casemiro off, they did get opened up and it looked [more likely] that Fulham would score.”

With just three minutes of normal time to go and United chasing the game they were once winning, Amorim brought defenders Ayden Heaven and Harry Maguire onto the pitch. Neville felt this was a “strange” decision from the United boss.

“The strange one for me was the change of the back line with Leny Yoro and Luke Shaw going off with five minutes to go,” he added.

“You don't want to be changing that back line if you can help it.”