Gary Neville sets bar for Erik ten Hag success in first Manchester United season

Gary Neville believes that even a fifth or sixth place finish in the Premier League this season would be a success for Erik ten Hag, but reclaiming a top four spot would be 'brilliant.'

Ten Hag's United reign will begin in earnest on Sunday when his new side gets the season under way against Brighton at Old Trafford. United go into the campaign coming off of their worst ever Premier League performance, after finishing sixth on just 58 points last season.

So Neville believes that, given the difficulties the Dutchman has faced this summer, improvement on last year's dismal campaign — even if by just a place in the table — would make for a good first year in charge for the new manager. He said on Friday Night Football: "I think it would be to grab that fourth place. If he was to grab fourth place from where I sit here today, I’d say that is a brilliant performance, I really would.

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"Actually as I sit here with the business they haven’t done, I would say I wouldn’t expect him to get fourth place I would say to be fair, Chelsea have done good business, Arsenal have done good business, Tottenham have done good business, City and Liverpool have improved. If you’d have said to me I’d probably say sixth at this moment in time but if you shifted them up to fifth or fourth I’d say that was a good performance.

"If they got [Frenkie] De Jong or someone else in then that bar comes higher. The Ronaldo situation distracting, you seen him having to answer questions about it in the press conference, the fact that Martial’s injured and he was actually going to leave the club six months ago, the fact they haven’t got De Jong yet, the fact he