Roy Keane says winning the Europa League would not represent success for Manchester United – despite it being the only trophy left they can win this season.
Ruben Amorim’s side are away to Lyon tonight in the first leg of their quarter-final tie. Winning the Europa League and qualifying for next season’s Champions League would be worth up to £100million for United. But former United captain Keane said his old club should be setting their sights higher than the Europa League and claimed lifting the trophy should not be a cause for celebration.
“Not that trophy, no,” said Keane, speaking on the Stick To Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet . “Not for Manchester United, maybe for other teams winning that trophy. There is a plus to it, because it’ll get them into the Champions League, but the trophy and that competition shouldn’t be enough for United, absolutely not.”
Another former United skipper, Gary Neville, disagreed with Keane and said winning the Europa League would allow Amorim and his players to salvage something from an otherwise dismal season.
“The reason I’d say it’ll be successful is because United couldn’t win the league this season, we knew that right from the start,” said Neville. “So they could only win three trophies – the FA Cup, League Cup and the Europa League. If they won one of them, I’d say that’s successful.
“There is a big ‘but’ – they’ve sacked a manager and are 13th in the league and that’s bad.”
United face Lyon with Kobbie Mainoo back in the fold, but Lisandro Martinez, Amad Diallo, Jonny Evans and Ayden Heaven remain on the sidelines through injury. Matthijs de Ligt and Toby Collyer are also out of Thursday’s first leg.
“Matta has a problem in his foot,” Amorim added. “We are trying to assess. We still don’t have the data that he can return. Toby has a small issue in his leg, so we hope to have him in a few weeks.”
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