Gary Neville believes Manchester United are in great shape ahead of David Moyes arrival as manager.
Moyes will take over at Old Trafford on July 1, with compatriot Alex Ferguson announcing his retirement after winning 13 Premier League titles at the club.
And the former United and England full-back believes that while the current side have yet to reach their full potential, they are comparable to past United squads Ferguson assembled.
When you re at Manchester United and you ve had a manager who has built four great teams 1994, 1999, 2008 and you can now argue this one that has won the league people are always going to compare teams, Neville told the club s official website.
The most important thing to say about this team is it s on an upward curve.
You ve got players like (David) De Gea, Rafael, (Jonny) Evans, (Chris) Smalling, (Phil) Jones, (Tom) Cleverley, (Danny) Welbeck and (Javier) Hernandez, to name eight players, who are still young and haven t reached anywhere near their peak.
This team has still not reached its potential. I m sure there will be additions to the squad this summer so you re talking about a team on the up.
Neville believes that United are well capable of dealing with the managerial change at the club, despite the pressure of trying to continue Ferguson s success.
They should see it as a new challenge and an important challenge, he added.
Since Sir Alex announced his retirement other clubs have already been lifted by the fact he is no longer around.
The players should see that as a slight on them and say Hang on, do you think we can t go out on that pitch and perform with our manager? That is a challenge in itself.
Ultimately the players and David Moyes will need to respond to that. It won t be a bed of roses there will be ups and downs as there always is and there has been over the last 26 or so years.
Everybody is waiting to see how this post-Sir Alex Ferguson era is going to work.
I think we will have one of the most interesting pre-seasons we ve ever had and probably the most interesting start to a season that we ll have ever had.
There will be new managers at three of the top clubs (United, Manchester City and Chelsea) as a minimum.
A number of clubs will be wanting to start strongly: Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs will want to do everything they can to hold on to (Gareth) Bale and push forward themselves.
