Tuesday, December 31, 2024 - Manchester United player Rio Ferdinand has revealed what he thinks is the solution to the Club's footballing dilemma.
Formerly
the world’s most expensive defender, the former England international lifted
six Premier League titles, the Champions League and two League Cups during an
illustrious 12-year spell at Old Trafford.
Those were
the days when United's dominance was par for the course; the reality now is
that the Red Devils languish in the bottom half of the league table with few
immediate signs of improvement since the appointment of Rúben Amorim six weeks
ago.
“It’s got
to be long-term thinking now,” he told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies after winning
the Player Career Award at the recent Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates.
“It’s
weird to say this of Manchester United, but I just don’t think we can put
targets on things. We’re not in a position to do that.
“We have a
lot of rebuilding of players individually, of a team, but also of a culture and
environment.
“That’s
going to take time, so to put a target above that in terms of position and
winning things … takes away from all of those four things that need building.”
The team
in charge of spearheading this renewal project is the combined force of the
head coach, Amorim and the soccer operations arm of the club, INEOS.
Both have
staked their reputations to help reverse the United’s stark decline in fortunes
in the post-Alex Ferguson era.
“We need
to give INEOS the chance to prove that they are capable of dragging the club
from where we are,” Ferdinand explains. “They’re now making decisions and their
decisions are going to be judged.
“What he’s
(Amorim) done with Sporting… (He) changed the narrative of that football club
for a few years. But also his charisma and his ability to communicate has been
very impressive and it was before he came.
“It’s
alright doing that at Sporting. It’s a very different beast at Manchester
United.
“In 2025, I
hope Manchester United become a positive football club with positive energy
around them, and the narrative isn’t always dejected disappointment.”
One club
that United could take an example from at this moment is historic arch-rival
Liverpool.
Questions
were raised as to whether Jürgen Klopp’s successor, Arne Slot, could follow in
the footsteps of one of the most successful managers in the club’s era.
But the Dutchman is currently leading the Merseyside outfit to both the
top of the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League tables, winning all
six games in the latter.
“It’s a lot
of confusion and noise over (Manchester United) compared to a very seamless,
quiet kind of approach (at Liverpool),” he said when asked how he
views the clubs’ contrasting approaches to succession planning.
“(It)
shows you the importance of the infrastructure behind the scenes, but also
don’t forget that (the Liverpool) squad was a much more stable squad as well.
“A team of
people who have won at that club, (that) have been there for a long time. They
had the components in there that were working but just wasn’t maybe working the
right way and needed fine tuning.
“I always
look at it as (Manchester) City winning – ‘That’s a nightmare’ – or Liverpool
going to be winning this year, ‘It’s a nightmare.’ … I can suffer that over
there a little bit if we’re starting to move and go in the right direction.”
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