Manchester United icon Teddy Sheringham has torn into Marcus Rashford’s decision to leave Manchester United and believes that the England international has burned all of his bridges at the club.
Speaking to Finaria, Sheringham delivered a withering assessment of United’s season and questioned the direction the club were travelling in under Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
Q: Do you think Joshua Zirkzee or Rasmus Hojlund have what it takes to be United’s long-term No. 9?
Teddy Sheringham: I’ve spoken about Hojlund before; I quite like Hojlund. I think he’s had to feed off scraps for the last two years. Manchester United don’t really play wingers that get the balls into the box and feed the centre forwards.
All the wingers do is cut in, and right at the last minute, if they can’t shoot they poke it to Hojlund and it’s like, right you do something with it. He doesn’t really thrive off of midfielders poking little passes through either.
Centre forwards thrive on service and if you ain’t getting the service you can’t score the goals. If you’re not scoring the goals your confidence dries up. When your confidence dries up, your performance doesn’t get any better. Give the boy some service and he’ll score goals, is the way I see it.
As for Zirkzee, I’m not so sure. I hear they paid well over the odds for him. I don’t think he’s a Man United centre-forward, but he’s alright.
Q: Is there another PL striker you want United to bring in this summer?
Teddy Sheringham: The problems all started two years ago when they didn’t make a bid for Harry Kane, the best available centre forward, the leader of football, and a professional at the top of his game. That’s what Man United used to do.
They’ve set their stall out since then and said, look, we’re not going for top players.
They weren’t in for Declan Rice, who would have run the midfield. He’s going for 100 million. That’s what Man United used to do: they broke the bank and got the top players in.
So, you’re asking me now, two years later, when it should have been dealt with two years ago. Is Harry Kane the right man now? Probably not. I know he’s still scoring goals for Bayern Munich, but I don’t know if it would have the same impression on everybody if they were to get him now.
United need to start going for younger guns, but I mean, who’s out there? Would Isak come away from Newcastle to go to Man United at the moment? You’d like to think he would, being a Man United fan, but I’m not so sure he would, so the further they fall down the pecking order, the less chance they’ve got of signing top players.
Q: Do you think Viktor Gyokeres is cut out for the PL?
Teddy Sheringham: A goal scorer is a goal scorer. He’s got to come across, he’s got to get used to the pace of the Premier League. You know, it’s a risk. I don’t know how much they’d have to pay for him; 70-80 million plus.
You know, you start paying 80 million and upwards for a foreign centre forward that’s only really done it in the Portuguese league and the Championship. There’s a big difference in the level. Manchester United haven’t got time to be able to bed in players. I know he knows the manager so it will help, but if he’s still not going to get the service, what’s his confidence going to be like as well? It’s all about how you’re going to play.
If you’re going to feed the centre forwards, then break the bank and get someone in that can score the goals but if you’re not going to feed him then your problems are there.
Q: What do you make of Jim Ratcliffe’s impact at the club so far?
Teddy Sheringham: All those people that he’s made the cuts on, they’re all important kinds of people, most of them, lots of them are on minimum wage. It’s all those people around the club that make the club feel homely, all those little members of staff that don’t get a lot of money but they’re around that love the club, that make people feel welcome when they come into the club.
All those players, all those wives and girlfriends or families that come into the football club, these people serve them and they’ve all been discarded. Football is not like any other business. You need those people around the football club. I’m not really sure what you’re gaining by doing it to be honest, especially when you consider the money the club makes or what certain players are getting on a weekly basis.
Q: What have you made of the Mission 21 statement and wanting to win a title by 2028? Is that pie in the sky for you, Teddy, or do you like hearing that sort of stuff?
Teddy Sheringham: Everybody wants to win a title by that time, don’t they? You know, it doesn’t just happen.
You work towards it together as a football club. That’s why you need all those types of people around the place, the people that have been let go, to get that community feel, you know? So everyone’s striving for the same idea in the football club.
Anyone can talk about winning the title, but it’s going to take more than marketing mumbo jumbo for Manchester United to become a force again.
Q: If Manchester United tried to buy you in 1997 but they were in their current position, would you have still joined them?
Teddy Sheringham: It’s a funny situation. If you’re a top footballer and there’s other clubs in for you, then you look at what they’re going to be doing.
Will they be playing in the Champions League? Have they got a big following? Have they got a lot of history behind them? Are they a big club?
Or is it, with all due respect, if it’s a club that’s coming in for you that is doing well this year, would you go there? Would you go to the big club? Man United still have a massive draw.
If you know your history, if you know your football clubs, you know that Man United are one of the biggest clubs in the world. So, I wouldn’t say that people are going to turn it down.
Manchester United is still a massive draw, so I wouldn’t underestimate that. They’re still one of the biggest clubs around the world, but they just need to get back on their feet, don’t they?
Q: Are United good enough to win the Europa League?
Teddy Sheringham: The way they’re playing at the moment, the in and out of their performances, who knows? But of course, they have the potential to. They’ve got to be one of the best teams in the competition, but they’ve got to prove it, haven’t they?
They’re not getting into Europe this year I don’t think now. They’ve got to go on a hell of a run, haven’t they, to get into Europe now. It looks completely beyond them. The only way United will be playing European football next season js if they win the FA Cup or the Europa League.
First impressions of Amorim
Teddy Sheringham: I like how he speaks, but it’s all about results, isn’t it? As a football manager you can do all the talking you like, but you’ve got to walk the walk as well. It’s about getting results at the end of the day.
Yes, you want your team to play better, you want them to have the right ethics on the football pitch and all that, but if they’re doing that and not getting results, you’re still in the same boat. It’s all about results. Football is a results business.
Q: If Man Utd have to sell one of Alejandro Garnacho or Kobbie Mainoo to balance the books, which do you think they should move on?
Teddy Sheringham: Garnacho looks like he’s upped his game a bit since the manager had a few words with him, so he has a good vibe about him. Kobbie Mainoo, I think they still speak very highly of him. You wouldn’t really want to be losing either of those two, would you? I think there’s other players that you would sell beforehand. You can’t be selling your best players, your better players.
I wouldn’t entertain that at all. That would just go down badly in the supporters’ minds there. You don’t want to be doing that at the moment. You can’t think about the PSR gains and sell-off the family jewels from the academy.
I don’t know how popular Jim Ratcliffe is among the Manchester United fanbase. I think if the club sold either of those players, he wouldn’t be winning many popularity contests anytime soon.
Q: Do you think Aston Villa is the right place for Marcus Rashford to rediscover his form?
Teddy Sheringham: I don’t really know if Aston Villa is the right place for Marcus Rashford to rediscover his form and frankly, I don’t really care. Right now, at this minute, I’m not really a Marcus Rashford lover.
I’m looking at him thinking, why are you leaving Man United? Whether he knows something that we don’t, I really don’t know. I’m lost for words when he says he wants to leave Man United because it’s one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Q: Is there a way back for Rashford at Manchester United or are bridges burned for good?
Teddy Sheringham: I think Rashford’s burnt his bridges at the club. As soon as he started talking about leaving the football club, that’s when he needs to start firing on all cylinders for Aston Villa. That’s where he’s laid his hat as such.
He needs to start doing the business now because if he doesn’t do it there, who takes him after that? Because for me, he was at the best club in the world. Now, he’s going downhill. Obviously, they’re above them at the moment, but it’s not a bigger football club. Even with Champions League football, you can’t compare the two clubs.
No, but he needs to start performing, otherwise he’s going to start blaming other people again.
Q: Do you see a bit of Jose Mourinho in Ruben Amorim? Amorim is certainly outspoken and creates good sound bites but can he deliver the results?
Teddy Sheringham: I don’t really see the similarities there. When Jose came over, he was full of himself when he said, ‘I’m the special one.’ He hasn’t come in and spoken like that, Amorim. So, I think he is his own man, really.
Tottenham
Q: Can Ange Postecoglou see out the rest of the season?
Teddy Sheringham: I really don’t know if Ange will see out the season. Going out of the two cups this week is different for the chairman than it was last week, with the optimism of going into the semi-final, going into the fourth round or the fifth round with the FA Cup. Now they’re out of those two.
The situation is very different, and it could change in the chairman’s view as well, but where do you go from here with a new manager unless you’ve got someone that you’re going to instill all your confidence in and back, whatever?
I would still back Ange, wait till all your players are all back and hopefully things will turn around.
Q: Ange Postecoglou’s stubbornness is the key to his success as much as his problems, but what one change would you like to see him make at Spurs?
Teddy Sheringham: Who knows? Who knows what the answers are to turning around Tottenham’s season? All I will say is the players are still playing at their utmost. I think they’re running on empty a little bit. I’m still going to back the manager because of the way that he plays and the way that they want to go forward and entertain and score goals. You know, everybody wants to see that as a football supporter.
I know how much fun it was when we were playing for Ossie Ardiles. He’s in a similar mode, everybody getting forward and enjoying the attacking part of the football, but we all know that you’ve got to defend as well.
I like the excitement that he generates, and I would rather watch his sort of football than the boring, nicking a 1-0 by defending for 90 minutes, and getting that one goal right at the end or something.
It’s a tough one. You’ve got to have faith in the man that once his first 11 are back out there, then you’d have a chance of doing well. But the longer the senior players stay injured, the younger ones are taking all the flak at the moment and their confidence could be shot by the time they come back. It’s a tough scenario at the moment. They’ve got to dig in and get through this nasty patch.
Manchester United v Tottenham
Q: Who do you think will win the tie between two of your former sides?
Teddy Sheringham: I’m expecting a tired Tottenham team. I listened to Angie talking again the other night, they’ve been playing Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday and it’s a grind. You’re travelling, you get yourself up for one game then it’s not such a big league game, you’ve got to pick the players up again and motivate them confidence-wise. It’s a topsy-turvy season that these young lads are going through.
So, it will hold the club in good stead for these young players, but it’s all about the here and now. You need to start grinding out some results now because it doesn’t look good on paper.
Nottingham Forest
Q: Would you like to have played alongside Chris Wood? He seems like the perfect strike partner for a player like you
Teddy Sheringham: Yeah, teams don’t really do that now, play with two up front, do they? It would be interesting to see the next manager that does actually play two centre forwards against two centre halves and say, go on, go test them out, see if they’re any good.
Put a little bit of weight on them, battle against them and see if you can get some knockdowns and get some chances like that.
Chris Wood’s playing up there on his own and he’s getting fed from Gibbs-White which is great. He’s got the two wingers either side of him as well. Gibbs-White getting forward and giving him some sort of hand up there.
But really, he’s playing up front on his own and he’s just making his own goals for himself. But he’s getting more service from the wingers though. The boys are getting the ball in the box. There’s a difference between playing those two wingers up front with the centre forward, or two inside forwards cutting in. There’s a difference in how they’re playing.
So the Man United boys are getting no service whereas Wood is getting lots of service because that’s what they’re all focusing on, getting the ball to the centre forward to score the goals in the right manner.
When you’re in a confident mood, when you’re confident that people cut in and poke little balls at you, then you can do something with it because you’re full of confidence anyway. So, you try things because you’re scoring goals. If you ain’t getting any service, you don’t try these things.
Getting back to Chris Wood, yeah, he’s on fire. He’s getting the chances and he’s converting beautifully.
Q: Do you think Nottingham Forest will get top four?
Teddy Sheringham: Yeah, I think they can finish in the top four, without a doubt. I mean, I haven’t said that before in any interviews, this is probably the first one I’ve done about football for about six weeks.
They can play Champions League football next season. They’re up there, they’re full ofconfidence. They’re hard to beat, they’re playing as a unit. They’ve got good players in their right positions, playing for each other. They have a manager who is giving clear information about what he wants, and they’re carrying it out.
They’re looking great. Being one of my former teams, it’s like, yeah, I’m a Forest fan now with Manchester United and Tottenham in the doldrums. So, I’m like, I’m a Forest fan.
West Ham
Q: What have you made of Graham Potter’s first few weeks at West Ham?
Teddy Sheringham: It definitely has a different, better vibe to it, doesn’t it? The whole feeling of Lopetegui, thinking he’s not the right man, a lot of people felt that way. I’m not saying everyone, there’s always people who give you a chance, but it did not feel right, or sound right.
Graham Potter coming in there, the vibe is good. There are a lot of people saying let’s work with him, let’s give him a chance, who will back him. That’s all you can ask for as a manager, to be backed by the chairman with money coming your way, and supporters giving you a chance.
Q: What is a good season for Potter?
Teddy Sheringham: I think all fans want instant success; they want better looking teams. It doesn’t necessarily work like that. I know there are some times when a new manager comes in, they get that little buzz from players and they have the first four or five games. It’s like, wow, they look a different team.
But, you know, in the long run, if the club is progressing in the right manner, then you’re quite happy, aren’t you? There’s always different standards for different football clubs of where you’re at or where the team is at when the manager comes in. What is progression? Progression is to look better, climb the league.
Q: Do you think West Ham’s fans will regret the departure of David Moyes after seeing him succeed at Everton once again?
Teddy Sheringham: What is success for Everton at the moment? Over the next two or three years, what is success? Getting into the top ten, then getting into the top seven, competing in the Europa League. It’s a tough one.
Do you need to be challenging? Do you need to be winning a cup? From Everton’s perspective and knowing full well how big a football club they are, moving into their new stadium, there’ll be people saying Moyes should be winning something next season, straight away. That’s how big the football club is. You go back to the 80s, Everton were winning European trophies, winning the league. That’s what some supporters will demand, but they’re a long way off.
The money issues, the points issues, over recent years, so it’s tough to say what will be success for Everton, he’s obviously started off on a lovely comeback in the first few games.
They lost in the FA Cup, which is a big blow. Last week I’d have said get to mid-table, get a cup run, and it’s all great.What’s good now? Getting to 10th, 12th. Yeah, great. That’s not what a lot of Everton fans want their club to do in the long-term.
General Premier League
Q: If Liverpool go nine points clear is the title race over?
Teddy Sheringham: I think there’s still a long way to go. I don’t think it’s going to be as plain sailing as if it was Manchester City. I would say it would be pretty much over because they’ve been there, seen it, done it. Guardiola will keep them focused on every aspect of each game.
Whereas it’s new for Slot, it’s new for a lot of Liverpool players. I would still expect there to be a few bumps in the road.
I know they didn’t have their full team out for the Plymouth game but it’s still a big body blow to the football club to go out of the FA Cup. You never know what filters through from above Slot. There might be a few question marks from the hierarchy like, what are you doing? What are you doing in the FA Cup? Why are you not playing your proper team?
When we all know full well in hindsight, if he’d have played an even better team with his top guns out there, they would have gone through, and the club keeps rolling on. He’s obviously looking to keep them fresh for Wednesday night’s game, which is obviously a bigger game on paper.
Now they’re out of the FA Cup it’s like, what the hell? Are there problems in the camp?
You only need those questions coming from the hierarchy above you to have your manager looking over his shoulder. I didn’t expect that from Plymouth, he now has to answer questions he didn’t expect. It’s a funny scenario, will it dent his ego or his team, who were challenging for the quadruple. All of a sudden, it’s gone flat. They’ve got to pick themselves up.
Q: Who will miss out on CL football out of Chelsea, Man City and Nottingham Forest?
Teddy Sheringham: The top two speak for themselves, don’t they? Newcastle are a dark horse, but possibly also Bournemouth. Anyone that’s playing with confidence. You know, a togetherness that they grind out results at the right time and they’ve got that flair to score goals, then you’ve got to put them in that list.
Newcastle are firmly up there. Chelsea can be up there. Manchester City are having a season that anyone ever expected, they can falter, but they’ve got such brilliance in their armoury. I don’t know if I’ve missed anyone else out there who’s up there. Any one of those five or six will be challenging for third and fourth place.
Q: Is Arsenal’s defeat at Newcastle a sign that Mikel Arteta is not able to change the club’s brittle mentality?
Teddy Sheringham: I thought Newcastle were phenomenal in both games. It was a kind of old-fashioned performance, especially at St James’s Park when Trippier went flying into the left-winger very early and said, ‘Do you want some? How much do you want it?’
Midfielders getting up against people, rattling them. The left back, getting up tight against people, knocking them over. You’re coming to our place. It was like a little bit of a throwback. And I think British people still want to see that.
The two games they just bullied Arsenal and for me I thought it was absolutely fantastic, fantastic viewing from that perspective because you don’t see a lot of that these days. What kind of laid the law down, Partey made a bit of a naughty foul in the first 10 minutes, and he didn’t get a yellow.
If it had been a Newcastle player that had done the foul that Partey had done, early on, they might have got cautioned and then they wouldn’t have been able to do all the snarky little ones that put Arsenal in their place for the next 20 minutes.
Partey’s challenge had the wrong effect, even though, you probably want your centre midfielder to hit someone hard early and get away with it. I think it backfired a little. I
Arsenal weren’t allowed to do anything because Newcastle were that good.
Q: Can you comprehend that Arsenal went through another season without signing the striker that they so obviously need?
Teddy Sheringham: I’m astounded they let Nketiah join Palace, because he is the type of player that scores goals, I think he is a young Ian Wright. Obviously not ready to lead the line full-time for Arsenal, but to throw him in every now and again.
When you’re beating an Everton 2-0, throw Eddie in and let him score a couple, have a couple of chances, get his confidence up. When you play against Crystal Palace at home, you win 3-0, throw Eddie in, get him a goal, get him a bit of confidence.
He’s a goal scorer. He comes alive in the box. That’s what Arsenal need, from my perspective. They need a goal scorer in those vital moments to convert all the chances that they make. So, to not have anyone in their ranks that they could do that with, is astounding.
You can’t have the whole country saying they need a striker, it doesn’t have to be a top player. Just someone who offers around the six-yard box to convert chances. It could even be a Championship player that is a decent goalscorer. Could even be Patrick Bamford, someone like that.
‘We need a goal in the last 20 minutes, you go after the ball around this penalty spot, six yard box, go and score a goal like you do. You can score a goal, go and score a goal.’
They haven’t got anyone that’s a natural goal scorer. You know, it doesn’t have to be the best. Just the type of player that they can throw in there.
Q: Have City done enough to retool the squad after this season’s majorly disappointing campaign in the Premier League? Can you see City finishing in the top 4 this year?
Teddy Sheringham: I think they’ve got too much quality in their ranks to not qualify for Europe at all.I would still expect them to finish in the Champions League spots. It might be fourth, might even be third, but I would still expect it just because of the know-how, it becomes a long hard season when you get into the last two months.
That’s when the season starts as such, when you are challenging for trophies, when you’re at the end of the season. From their perspective it hasn’t even started, when the real pressure comes.
Nottingham Forest haven’t been there, Bournemouth haven’t been there, Newcastle don’t know about it. Man City will grind results out, they’ll run people down. I would fully expect Man City to be in the mix and doing that at the end of the season, that’s another two month’s time for the new players to bed in and understand what’s expected of them.
Q: Would missing out on the CL be a failure for Guardiola?
Teddy Sheringham: It would be huge for the football club, but I don’t think anyone could hold it against Pep Guardiola, for what he’s done for the football club. I mean, it’s a huge blip. The man’s a legend though, simple as that. You’d take that at Arsenal, what he’s done. I know everyone jumps on the bandwagon all the time, but let’s put it into perspective.
Q: Do you think Manchester City are capable of raising their game to beat Real Madrid over two legs?
Teddy Sheringham: I’ve not seen a lot of Spanish football this year but they’re obviously in the same boat, otherwise they would have qualified perfectly. It’s not all a bed of roses for Real Madrid but I would still expect Real Madrid to come through this at the moment.
Man City have got new players bedding in, understanding what Pep wants, coming from foreign leagues, so it’s not easy for them to bed in at the moment.
I don’t know if they’ve got any other players that are coming back from injury, but I would expect – not always, but this moment in time – I would expect Real Madrid to be that little bit better.
Q: How long can Cristiano Ronaldo go on for?
Teddy Sheringham: Well, he’s a physical specimen. He’s getting the most out of his body because he’s looked into what can prolong his career and to make him flourish for as long as he can. He’s phenomenal. He’s pushing boundaries. I don’t know how he’s scoring goals.
People question the quality of the Saudi league, but there’s a lot of footballers going over to Saudi. He’s playing against professionals; you’ve still got to get up for it. It’s not easy to play when you go past 35, 37. It gets harder on your body to prepare for the next game. If he says he’s the best, he’s the best.
Q: How much credit does he deserve for his longevity?
Teddy Sheringham: It’s tough. You’ve got to be lucky with injuries, you’ve got to avoid those big, nasty injuries that take their toll. Your desire has to stay there, too. You have to want to carry on. You get knocks, you rarely play injury-free anyway. When you get to 37, 39, it becomes even harder with knocks that take 10% off your agility, and you’ve already lost some compared to younger players.
Trying to carry on through that is tough, to compete against twenty-something players flying around the pitch. Good on him that he’s still loving his life.
Q: Could Ronaldo be a useful coach for Mbappe?
Teddy Sheringham: It’s interesting that he says that he would be the perfect coach for Mbappe, because obviously he turned from a flimsy little tricky little winger to a phenomenal goal scorer. I wouldn’t say that he’s a centre-forward goal scorer, which makes it more phenomenal, how many goals he scored over the last 20 years.
He’s not a centre forward type that I was just talking about, that stands and gets the tap-ins. He scores all sorts of goals. Right foot, left foot, long range, short range, angles, free kicks, headers.
So starting out, if you’d have said 23 years ago that you’ll have that amount of goals, he’d have thought you were joking because he was a winger. Then he realised he could score goals, and he adapted his game to score even more.
Mbappe’s not really a centre forward is he? He doesn’t stand up there like Michael Owen or Robbie Fowler, poaching goals. He plays on the left wing and cuts in, bit like Thierry Henry. He scores his goals like that.
Phenomenal players. So perhaps he could teach Mbappe something, but I’m sure he’d want to be standing on the touchline – as a striker coach like I was – I bet he wouldn’t do it for the money that I got at West Ham. He could probably teach the boys at Manchester United a thing or two as well.
Q: Would a Carabao Cup for Newcastle win transform their self-belief?
Teddy Sheringham: When you’re asking about these different managers, what do you expect? I think, you know, you want progression from your football club. I think when you look at Eddie Howe and Newcastle, that is happening. You know, there’s no doubt about it that the football club is progressing.
Yes, they have got a lot of money, but they’re not really buying their way to the top. They’re an organised, structured, and a flair team, aren’t they?
They’ve got a bit of everything in their team. The Newcastle supporters can associate with that, they like a workmanlike team, but with flair as well, and an abundance of goals in Isak at centre-forward which they love to see up there, I mean they’ve finally found the player that can get close to Shearer with the amount of goals he’s scoring.
He’s scoring goals because he’s getting the right service from his wide boys, from his midfield players, to service the goal scorer to win the games. It all works hand in hand, and it looks fantastic.
Q: Does Thomas Tuchel have to drop one or more of Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham from his starting XI?
Teddy Sheringham: I think he’s got to find a formation to play two of Palmer, Bellingham and Foden. For me, Declan Rice is good enough to play that central midfield role on his own. I don’t think he needs to play with a holding midfield player alongside him.
If Rice is a six, then Bellingham would be an eight, just in front of him, which would allow 10 for Cole Palmer or Foden. For the three of them to have work rate, skills, to able to rotate in there, to adapt to that, I think is enough.
I don’t think you need another holding midfield player to play alongside Declan Rice, so that you can only play one more in front. They’re all good enough to be able to adapt to three in there. If one misses out, then it would be Foden at the moment. I’d probably pick Cole Palmer alongside Bellingham and Rice in there at the moment.
I mean I love Foden as a player, you could even play him on the right wing at the moment as Saka’s out, which is probably his favoured position. That would get all three of them into the team, but when Saka comes back, he’s obviously the natural right winger, the way he plays for England and Arsenal.
Q: Which uncapped player do you think Tuchel should bring into the England squad?
Teddy Sheringham: Myles Lewis-Skelly, Lewis Hall. Lewis-Skelly is right-footed but knows how to play left-back. I don’t mind that. I don’t know if Tuchel will play four at the back so he might not have to find a left-back if he can play a wing-back. I wouldn’t like to play a right-back at left-back like he did with Trippier, given there are natural left-backs about.
So, if Tuchel is going to give an opportunity to an uncapped player, then maybe he’s looking at Lewis-Skelly at Arsenal and Hall at Newcastle. I also think that Liam Delap might be in with a shout. He looks like he has the ingredients to play for England in the future.
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