‘Lukaku disrespected the Man Utd badge’ – Right call made with Belgian & Alexis, says Parker

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made the right decision in moving Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez out of Manchester United, says Paul Parker.

Questions have been asked of the transfer window logic at Old Trafford after seeing two experienced forwards head to Inter.

Lukaku completed a permanent switch to San Siro while Sanchez is in Italy on a season-long loan.

In their absence, United have looked short on attacking spark and have seen Marcus Rashford add to their injury troubles after being forced out of a 2-0 defeat to West Ham.

It has been suggested that Solskjaer made a mistake in leaving himself light on numbers, with no suitable replacements brought in after parting with a couple of senior stars.

United are now looking to the likes of Rashford, Anthony Martial and 17-year-old Mason Greenwood for inspiration.

Parker has no issue with that as Lukaku “disrespected the badge” with his poor attitude and Sanchez was never going to figure prominently this season after flopping badly at Old Trafford.

Solskjaer is considered to now be playing the “long game”, with the Red Devils taking the decision to build for the future rather than focus too much on the present.

Former United defender Parker told the WeAreTheBusbyBoys podcast of the summer movement in Manchester: “The problem is when you have a long term plan, you can only go as far as the people above will allow, so you have to also work with the short term in mind.

“He [Solskjaer] wanted Lukaku to go, and he would have liked a replacement, but as we know he wasn’t allowed to [sign one].

“As far as Sanchez goes, if he’d kept him and not used him, or he’d have got injured, or if he’d kept him and used him and his performances continued to dip, he would have been slaughtered for not getting him out.

“I think in the long term it’s still absolutely right.

“With Sanchez they’ve been able to get rid of a portion of the money and there was obviously an issue with Lukaku, an attitude problem and the way he conducted himself didn’t help, he disrespected the badge on the shirt.

“It’s the long game he looked at and in my opinion it’s to the benefit of the dressing room.”

While United are looking long-term, their performances in 2019-20 have seen questions asked of Solskjaer’s ongoing presence, with defeat at West Ham leaving them on just eight points from a possible 18.