Former 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.”
Rio Ferdinand calls for ?long-term thinking? amid turbulent times at Manchester United
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.”