Lionel Messi Or Cristiano Ronaldo Wouldn't Solve Manchester United's Problems, Says Wayne Rooney

Wayne Rooney has slammed the current state of Manchester United after claiming a number of world-class stars wouldn't sort out the problems at Old Trafford.

England and the Red Devils' all-time record scorer believes that not even the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale or Sergio Ramos would be enough to put the club back at the top of English football.

"Ole's better spending £30-40m on players with potential and building the squad around those five or six players," he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek.

"You could bring in players in Ronaldo, Messi, Ramos or Bale, but it's going to cost you £350m and you'd get two years out of them and you've written that money off."

The DC United forward added that the main priority for Ole Gunnar Solskjær is to build his squad and he should not target "one or two players for £100m."

He said: "The first thing Ole has to do is build the squad and I don't think bringing in one or two players for £100m is going to help the players already there."

The United boss has started work on overhauling his squad and made his first summer signing after snapping up Daniel James from Swansea City.

But Rooney believes the 46-year-old Norwegian needs to focus on younger talent and ruled out United challenging for the Premier League title.

"The club needs to rebuild with younger players but they need to be good enough and I think the fans will understand that they are probably not going to compete for the Premier League next year," he said.

"Let Ole have that time to build a team for the next two or three years that are going to compete at Premier League and Champions League level.

"It's down to teams like United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham [Hotspur] and possibly Everton in the next two years to get to the level of Liverpool and Manchester City."

United will compete in the Europa League next season after finishing outside of the top four.

Agree or disagree with Rooney?

Let us know in the comments.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, Sergio Ramos, Football, Manchester United, Lionel Messi, red devils, Premier League, gareth bale, Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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