Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has weighed in on his old club’s chances of success this season, and the BT Sport pundit is clearly less-than positive coming into this new campaign. After a summer of negativity, in which Jose Mourinho has regularly complained about the lack of transfer business being conducted by the club’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and bemoaned his missing World Cup performers, the former centre back is finding it hard to back United for Premier League glory this term.
“There seems to be a lot of negativity around United at the moment, and that doesn’t bode well,” said Ferdinand in quotes carried by the Mirror.
“The manager is obviously not happy about the signings he hasn’t been able to make and not having certain players available on their pre-season tour, which isn’t nice to hear if you are a young kid trying to make your mark on the fringes of the squad. He seems to have put a nail in that coffin with the way he has spoken.
“And then there has been the saga of Anthony Martial going home from the tour in America and not coming back. In the meantime, Manchester City look stronger than ever and Liverpool have improved again.
“I’m a United fan, and I want to see them win the title, but I fear it’s going to be very difficult for that to happen this season. I can’t see past City and Liverpool as the top two — and to say that about the two clubs who wouldn’t be top of any United fan’s Christmas card list is horrendous.”
Ferdinand certainly doesn’t paint a positive picture with these comments, but to be honest, who could blame him? Mourinho has cut a dour, frustrated figure for much of this pre-season, and is seemingly banking any success in this coming year on the club’s ability to bring in another signing. That’s hardly an encouraging position to be in.
