Noel Gallagher has made a tongue-in-cheek jab at Manchester United, comparing the team to The Libertines in a less-than-complimentary analogy.
The Oasis legend, who is a longtime, avid supporter of Manchester City, recently appeared on a new episode of talkSPORT Drive, and shared his thoughts on the current changes facing Man United.
It comes as Ruben Amorim was sacked as the club’s boss at the start of the week after a heated press conference. Speaking about the team’s 1-1 draw with Leeds, Amorim hit out at the hierarchy in the club, and was later let go from his position.
Now Manchester United are left having to replace him midway through the season, and names including Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner, former Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, and Former England boss Gareth Southgate are among the bookies’ favourites to take on the role (via talkSPORT).
Another name widely rumoured to be taking on the position is Aston Villa’s Unai Emery – and when the show’s host Andy Goldstein claimed that Emery would be jumping at the chance to take on the Manchester United role, Gallagher was quick to shut him down.
“I think you’re living in the past there a little bit,” Noel said when the host suggested it would be an upgrade to go from Aston Villa to Man United.
“It used to be that job and players going there used to be the pinnacle in English football, right? It isn’t anymore,” he added. “A player would be absolutely insane to go there.”
The Britpop icon went on to say that the “whole club is in ruins”, has “too many voices on the outside”, and deducted that the “only reason you would go there is for money”.
Making a music analogy for the situation, Gallagher then quipped that switching from Aston Villa to Man United would be “like asking me to leave Oasis and go and join The Libertines”.
The Libertines, like Oasis, were giants of the indie scene when they emerged back in the ‘90s. While they have continued to pull huge crowds over the years, the mammoth response seen to Oasis’ ‘Live ‘25’ reunion tour took things to another level for the Gallagher brothers.
As for Manchester United, the team were riding high under the leadership of Sir Alex Ferguson and routinely finished high up on the Premier League table between the mid-90s and early 2010s. Since then, ESPN has highlighted how the time since has seen a more varied set of results, with the finishing places taking an overall decline between 2013 and 2025.
As aforementioned, Noel has been a longtime supporter of the team’s rivals, Man City, and 2024 saw him both design the font on the team’s home kit for the 2024/25 season and then design a new clothing range for them inspired by Oasis‘ 1994 album ‘Definitely Maybe’.
Back in 2012, he also opened up about his reaction to the team winning the Premier League title, joking that he “cried like a baby” when he found out.
In other news about the artist, Oasis wrapped up their huge reunion tour at the end of last year after kicking off the tour in the UK over the summer. Since then, Noel’s brother, Liam, stoked rumours last week that the band might be active in 2026, after having appeared to confirm that they would not be touring again until 2027 at the earliest.
More recently, Noel has responded to recent reports that Oasis are in line to record the theme song for the next James Bond film.