Manchester United should stay clear of Neymar

Manchester United have found themselves linked to a summer move for Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar but they'd be better off to stay clear.

There's something inevitable about Neymar being linked with a move to United at the end of the season, perhaps because it's not the first time.

The Brazilian's time at PSG has not gone as well as expected when he made his world record smashing £198 million move from Barcelona in 2017.

The French champions would probably not be against offloading the 31-year-old either and the reasons for that are pretty much why Erik ten Hag should stay clear.

Injury prone

Since the World Cup the former Barcelona star has missed 15 games through injury and having had ankle surgery he won't be back until the summer.

It is the latest in a long line of problems that the former Brazil captain has had since arriving at the Parc des Princes that's seen him miss an awful lot of action.

A lot of those games have been at important times as well, including missing the 2019 Champions League clash between the pair which saw United's amazing comeback.

Huge wages

Last year L'Equipe reported that the forward earns himself £3.4 million per month in the French capital, which works at £850,000-a-week.

Ten Hag has reportedly decided that no player should earn more than £200,000 every seven days, known as the 'Ronaldo Rule.'

He may have to break that to sign Marcus Rashford onto a new deal or sign one of the other targets on his list but Neymar's wages would be on a whole other level and could impact on United strengthening elsewhere.

Marcus Rashford

Speaking of Rashford, the England star has been carrying Ten Hag's side at time during this campaign and he's finally back to the level fans expected of him after a tough couple of years.

He has played through the middle at times but his best position has been on the left, cutting inside, and he has a great partnership with Luke Shaw.

Signing someone in his position who would demand to start would be totally counter productive to what the manager has done in his first season at United.

No doubt the team needs more goals but they need to come from signing a central striker, not forcing Rashford to play in another role.

Team cohesion

After looking like strangers so often last season and the debacle surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo, like at Old Trafford has seemed relatively serene in recent months.

Whilst Casemiro reportedly wants his countryman to join him in the north west of England it feels like signing him would be more likely to have an adverse effect on most of the squad.

It might have been as much Kylian Mbappe's fault but the fact the pair fell out at the beginning of the campaign doesn't bode well for a potential move to the Theatre of Dreams.

Neymar on crutches recently. Image: Alamy

Of course there is no doubting how good the former Santos player is on his day and he could potentially rip the Premier League apart.

However overall there are far too many problems with signing Neymar, from how much he'd cost, to his injuries and even his age and appetite to continue much longer.

It would be a disastrous move for a United team who are slowly but surely trying to take themselves away from the dark days of signing high profile players for the names alone.