Manchester United have fallen a long way in the 12 years since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement with nobody able to replicate his success.
May will bring up 12 years since Sir Alex Ferguson called time on his managerial career and his incredible Manchester United reign.
The Scot decided to end his incredible career in 2013 and went out on top.
United clinched another Premier League title in stunning fashion with Robin van Persie’s hat-trick against Aston Villa securing a 3-0 win.
That was United’s 20th top flight title and the hope was that the success would continue after Ferguson’s exit.
Sadly, we are coming to the end of the 2024-25 season and United remain stuck on 20 league titles.
Rio Ferdinand defends Sir Alex Ferguson
David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag and now Ruben Amorim have all had a crack at turning United around.
The success has been limited but the spending has grown and grown with United throwing money at the problem over the years.
Some have even blamed Ferguson for United’s struggles, believing that he didn’t leave a competitive squad behind for future managers.
Gary Lineker suggested that Ferguson left behind an ageing squad with key players heading towards the end of their careers.
This topic has emerged with Arne Slot on the verge of delivering a Premier League title at Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp signed the likes of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Slot has been able to thrive with some of Klopp’s final signings but Rio Ferdinand has now moved to defend Ferguson.
Posting on X, Ferdinand suggested that the notion of Ferguson being to blame for United’s current situation is ‘a load of nonsense’.
Ferdinand highlighted that Ferguson left behind the likes of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Ashley Young and Shinji Kagawa among others.
Ferdinand pointed towards the average of the United squad in the 2012-13 season, but the 26.6 average noted is actually this season’s statistic.
Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Dimitar Berbatov, Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick and Nemanja Vidic – as well as Rio himself – were all in their 30’s as David Moyes arrived.
Ferdinand still feels that Ferguson left more than enough behind for somebody to achieve success – it’s just that recruitment has been ‘poor’ since Ferguson’s exit.
Manchester United have wasted too much money
Some of Ferguson’s top stars were heading towards the end and the young talents perhaps didn’t develop as hoped.
Adnan Januzaj, Nick Powell, Wilfried Zaha, Phil Jones, Danny Welbeck and Chris Smalling were all exciting talents at one point but either didn’t live up to their potential or were moved on at a fairly young age.
Then you look at United’s spending and Ferdinand has a point on that front; it has clearly been United’s biggest prblem.
United’s most expensive transfers feature an astonishing amount of wasted money with Antony, Romelu Lukaku, Jadon Sancho, Casemiro, Angel Di Maria and Mason Mount all in the top 10.
Paul Pogba didn’t quite shine as hoped, Harry Maguire has blown hot and cold, Rasmus Hojlund is on an 18-game goal drought and Leny Yoro is a project for the future.
That top 10 just isn’t good enough and United’s terrible recruitment leads us to today – sitting in the bottom half of the Premier League table and with no clear plan to get back to the top.
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