Paul Scholes has admitted that he cannot understand Manchester United's decision to appoint Ralf Rangnick as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's replacement on an interim basis.
Following United's decision to sack Solskjaer in the wake of their 4-1 humbling at the hands of Watford in November, the club confirmed that they would look to appoint a manager on a short-term basis.
Despite believing they had a chance of luring Paris Saint-Germain chief Mauricio Pochettino to Old Trafford mid-season, United were forced to settle on an interim appointment, moving for Rangnick, who arrived in England with a view to taking up a consultancy position beyond his spell in charge of first-team matters this summer.
Despite having lost just one of his first seven games at the helm, many fans and pundits have voiced frustration with Rangnick's style of play, with United struggling for goals and attacking fluency.
For Scholes, the decision to appoint the German has left him baffled, so much so that he has described it as "astonishing."
Scholes told the Webby and O’Neill YouTube channel : "We have gone to a man well regarded across Europe especially by managers who speak highly of him like [Jurgen] Klopp and [Thomas] Tuchel. But he’s not had much success as a coach.
"He won promotion in Germany and a bit with Schalke but he has been asked to come and manage the biggest club in the world, it is something I just cannot get my head round.
"They should have the best available out there as their manager and they haven’t got that and I find that astonishing.
"We should have one of the top five managers in the world. Now Tuchel, [Pep] Guardiola and Klopp are the top three but they are unavailable, there is no chance of getting them. But then you look at Antonio Conte."
As well as questioning United's decision to install Rangnick on a temporary basis, Scholes has also hit out at the club's current troubles as a whole, labelling it a "mess."
"The club just feels like it's in a mess, player, staff and manager-wise," Scholes continued. "Who wants to come into this club? It feels like a right mess; it does feel poisonous."
Scholes has also raised doubts about the state of the squad.
He added: "It has to come a point where you think, 'are these players good enough?'
"We know [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Paul] Pogba, [Raphael] Varane, [Nemanja] Matic have great experience and won trophies but the rest of the squad haven't proven themselves to be good enough to win anything.
"Some of these players have had a lot of games now. Marcus Rashford, he's had a lot of games - are we ever going to see these lads reach their potential?
"Are they ever going to be good enough to win trophies? [Harry] Maguire, is he good enough? [Victor] Lindelof, is he good enough?
"We keep saying how good they are but they are failing to produce what is required on the pitch."
Sign up to our United newsletter so you never miss an update from Old Trafford this season.
