Neville, Keane lambast Man Utd defensive target Jerome Boateng

Manchester United greats Gary Neville and Roy Keane have laid into reported transfer target Jerome Boateng.

Bayern Munich star Boateng has emerged as a central defensive target for United this summer as Jose Mourinho looks to strengthen his squad to mount a serious Premier League title challenge.

But the 29-year-old has so far endured a difficult World Cup however, with Germany losing the first game of their title defence to Mexico.

They did manage to battle their way past Sweden on Saturday thanks to a late Toni Kroos goal but former City star Boateng was sent-off with eight minutes to go.

Boateng was criticised at half-time of that game by Roy Keane, with Neville joining the party soon after.

“The two centre halves will give you a heart-attack,” Keane told ITV Sport. “Boateng has got to come off. Boateng has been a disgrace.

“He’s been walking around he’s like it’s a game of Sunday league football. He’s been a disgrace, get him off.”

At full-time, and with Boateng having been dismissed, Keane added: “They were better off without him.”

Neville also backed his former team-mate’s views.

“Roy is absolutely right, the centre-backs have been a joke, an absolute joke.

“Boateng thinks for some reason he is (Franz) Beckenbauer, thinks he’s the player. He’s played under Pep and started to believe he is a fantastic football player.

“He has been a joke in this first half. He’s got delusions, thinks he is a player; he’s wandering forward, ambling in the game.

“The performance of the centre backs (was poor), the lack of understanding. I have never seen Germany look so naïve in games. But they got there.

“The Germans are not right, they are not right. The rumours before the game are proving to be true. Something is way wrong.”

Another former United star, Patrice Evra, was also in agreement over Boateng.

“He had a bad game. Sometimes you can see he plays like Beckenbauer, but tonight he had a really bad game. And actually when he was sent off, Germany played better.”

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