Rio Ferdinand urged Man Utd to sign the next ‘best player in the world’, it’s gone horribly wrong

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Manchester United’s record transfer list also happens to be a ranking of the most expensive mistakes the club has made.

Years of mismanagement at Old Trafford have seen hundreds of millions flushed away on players who have either failed to live up to the price tag or have simply been outright horrendous for Manchester United.

The Glazer family ran the football club with no consideration and placed clueless individuals in charge which saw Erling Haaland passed up on by United for peanuts, along with multiple other top talents who have gone on to be world-class.

Meanwhile, United have signed some big-money flops which is headed by the likes of Antony and Romelu Lukaku along with Casemiro further down the list.

Manchester United’s top five record signings

1. Paul Pogba: £89.3 million
2. Antony: £82 million
3. Harry Maguire: £80 million
4. Romelu Lukaku: £75 million
5. Jadon Sancho: £73 million

Some of these deals should never have been done at the price point, yet for United there are some which looked on paper to be excellent recruitment, but things turned out differently. This is the case with one player Rio Ferdinand insisted United sign.

• READ MORE: Who is Rio Ferdinand? Age, Height, Wife, Children, Net Worth

Rio Ferdinand told Manchester United to sign Jadon Sancho

The United pursuit of Jadon Sancho was four years long and was a transfer saga which left fans frustrated for months every summer before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer finally got his dream signing.

It looked like the perfect move, with Sancho so clearly talented and tipped to be the addition United needed in order to get back to winning trophies – only for Ole to be sacked months later.

From then on, Sancho never reclaimed form resembling his time at Borussia Dortmund. Sancho struggled under Erik ten Hag until the big public spat between the pair.

It would have been impossible to foresee Sancho’s time at United failing so miserably, with Ferdinand, the club legend and pundit, even urging the club to sign the winger back in 2020, as quoted by Goal.

“If you have a chance to sign a player who has the potential to be the best player in the world for the next 10 years and has been the best teenager for the last two years, go and get him, it’s as simple as that.”

This was bold praise from Ferdinand, yet at the time it looked completely reasonable to assume Sancho would be on Ballon d’Or podiums for the next decade. But things have gone horribly wrong.

Jadon Sancho never lived up to his Ballon d’Or potential

It may sound bold of Ferdinand to predict that Sancho would be one of the next great players in world football, but it was very true at the time.

When United signed Sancho in 2021, he had just come off the back of a 36-goal contribution season – which had followed a 40-goal contribution season in 2019/20.

In 2019, Sancho came second to Matthijs de Ligt in the Kopa trophy rankings which is effectively the young Ballon d’Or and there was not a single United fan not excited by the signing of Sancho.

Ultimately it worked out to be appalling and Sancho is now Chelsea’s problem with a £25m obligation to buy. This will go through in June barring a collapse for Chelsea considering they need to finish higher than 14th for the obligation to be triggered, albeit for an almost £50m loss.

It is a shame things didn’t work out as he should have been United’s saviour…