Gary Neville has urged Manchester United forward Angel di Maria to forget about his "bad divorce" from Real Madrid if he wants to succeed in the Premier League.

The Argentine insists that he was forced into a move to the Red Devils and left a message for the Madrid fans stating that he never wanted to leave.

The midfielder is under intense scrutiny by some fans, who believe that the 27-year-old is failing to live up to his £60m price tag.

Neville insists that he must shake off his demons and start performing for the club.

"Within days of signing for United, Di Maria released a letter to Real Madrid supporters insisting it was never his wish to leave the Bernabeu," Neville wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

"Having grown up in and around Manchester as a United supporter, it is easy to regard the club as the biggest in the world, but we have to accept that, as a South American, playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona is probably the fantasy of every footballer from that part of the world and Di Maria has moved to England after being told he was not wanted at his dream club.

"So he has come to United when he did not want to leave Madrid, has suffered the trauma of a burglary, and started to work for a new manager while playing in a team that is still in a 'storm' phase of development. All of those are factors that would go some way to explaining why Di Maria has struggled after his bright start."

Di Maria has only scored four times in 21 appearances for United this season, but manager Louis van Gaal has said that he has no concerns about the midfielder.