Gary Neville: Manchester United will win the Premier League before Liverpool

The former Red Devil has backed the club to bounce back strongly and claim a crown before their rivals

Gary Neville believes Manchester United will lift the Premier League title again before rivals Liverpool do.

Despite the Red Devils finishing sixth last season and the Reds only missing out on first by a single point to Manchester City, the one-time Valencia coach believes his former club are closer to winning the league than many think.

Though admitting United have struggled in recent years, Neville is adamant Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are close to turning the tide and could beat Liverpool to silverware in the process.

“I don’t sit here every day as a United fan and think my world’s ending. I just see it as a cycle,” Neville said on Sky Bet’s The Big Debate .

“I grew up for the first 18 years of my life and I didn’t see a league title at Manchester United. And the next 20 or 25 years was glorious. It was like heaven.

“But now it’s tough. It genuinely does not concern me because it can be corrected by a little bit of money on the stadium and good decisions in the boardroom and good decisions in the recruitment department.

“What I’m saying is, Liverpool, City, Tottenham, all these clubs have had poor recruitment policies over the last 25 or 30 years at times. So United are going through one at the moment.

“Eventually they will stumble upon the right recruitment system, the right recruitment people, they’ll get a great manager – hopefully that’s Ole – and they’ll start to win again. That’s going to happen.

“I can guarantee you as clear as day, Manchester United will win again. They’ll probably win the league before Liverpool, in my opinion. And that’s not being disrespectful, they’ll probably win the league before Liverpool.”

Neville’s claim comes in the wake of the Reds winning the Champions League last season and backing that up with a Super Cup victory over Chelsea on Wednesday.

While Neville concedes Jurgen Klopp’s side will likely lift more silverware in Europe before the Red Devils, he believes domestically, United are closer to success.

“I think they’ll win a league before Liverpool,” Neville continued.

“They’re more ripe, they’re closer than you think and it’s not as bad as you think. That’s always the way it is.”

United did make a strong start to their season after beating Chelsea 4-0 but so did Liverpool, who dispatched Norwich 4-1.

After a short-lived managerial career with Valencia, Neville recently ruled out a return to coaching , claiming he has no desire to return to the training ground.