Rio Ferdinand says two signings would have saved Man Utd from post-Sir Alex Ferguson woes

Manchester United have gone more than a decade without winning the Premier League but former United defender Rio Ferdinand has pointed to two big transfer mistakes

More than a decade has passed since Manchester United last won the Premier League, but one member of that squad things just two signings could have made things very different. Rio Ferdinand won his sixth and final league title in 2012-13, as part of a strong English core under Sir Alex Ferguson, and believes compatriots Declan Rice and Harry Kane could have set United right in the years since.

Since Ferguson stepped away at the end of that season, United have secured just five top-four finishes. They were distant runners-up behind Manchester City in 2018 and 2021, while last season’s 15th-place finish was their worst in half a century.

United have spent big in the last 12 years, breaking their transfer record in 2014 with a move for Angel Di Maria and again in 2016 when Paul Pogba rejoined the club from Juventus. Three of their 10 most expensive signings arrived in the window just gone, with Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko joining for a combined £200million.

There have been plenty of expensive mistakes, though, and Ferdinand doesn’t think Rice or Kane would have struggled in the way some have. Both have been linked with Old Trafford switches in the past, only for Rice to join Arsenal when he left West Ham in 2023 and Kane to trade Tottenham for Bayern Munich a few weeks later.

Ferdinand described United’s failure to sign Kane as their biggest mistake over the last decade. “I think if they go and pay the number that Spurs want, they would have got him,” he said during a conversation with Michael Owen on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.

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“And if we’re to believe that, then I think if it didn’t happen because of a couple of million here or there, I think it was a terrible decision,” Ferdinand continued. “I honestly think, I’ll say this and I’m convinced, if United had gone and got Declan Rice and Harry Kane in that [summer 2023] window, Man United are in a different place now.

“Because it goes back to the environment, those two drive an environment. You’ve got two players who are salt of the earth type people, top pros.”

United did spend money in the summer of 2023, but not on Kane or Rice. Rasmus Hojlund was signed as the new main man in attack, but he has now been sent on loan to Napoli after two challenging seasons, while £60m midfielder Mason Mount has only just started to show what he can do after a tough time with injuries.

Just 12 months after that, United paid another £200m on a raft of new signings, only for manager Erik ten Hag to get the sack in October. His successor Ruben Amorim has overseen another busy summer, and it remains to be seen whether his signings can help lift United back up to where they want to be.

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