Gary Neville has claimed Ed Woodward blocked a move for Manchester United to sign Jerome Boateng under Jose Mourinho - and believes it was the right choice.
Neville has been a vocal critic of Woodward in the past with United coming under-fire for their transfer policy after a number of big-name additions flattered to deceive.
But this summer has signalled a change of approach, with former right-back Neville approving their focus on younger players such as Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Daniel James.
He believes club bosses realised they need to "stop saying 'yes' to managers" as they blocked Mourinho's efforts to land Boateng in a £50m move from Bayern Munich.
“What the club have realised, what the Glazers have realised and probably what Ed Woodward has realised in the last 18 months is that they’ve stopped saying ‘yes’ to managers,” Neville told Sky Bet's Big Season Debate .
“Jose wanted to sign [Jerome] Boateng for £50million. I probably would’ve blocked that myself if I was the owner of a football club.
“Bayern don’t let anyone go if they’re half decent. We’ve been burnt on [Bastian] Schweinsteiger, they didn’t want to pay the money for [Harry] Maguire at the time, I think the club are changing the policy with the same people.
“I think for the first time this summer, there is a profile of player that it looks like they’re going for.
“They announced at the end of the season that they were going to sign young players that were more fitting with what United would do in the past. I don’t disagree with what they’ve done this summer.
“Man Utd were never going to get the best player in the world or the top 10 best players in the world this summer, they weren’t going to come.”
Woodward and United have eventually landed a centre-back, paying a world-record £80m fee for a defender to land Harry Maguire earlier this month.
The Leicester man was wanted by Mourinho, who joked on Sky Sports last weekend that the signing came "one year later!"
