Rio Ferdinand has brought up comments from a trio of former Manchester United managers on the problems at the club, feeling that it is clear that the man in the dugout is not the problem.
The Red Devils fell to a crushing 3-0 defeat at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League on Sunday, extending their winless run to eight games.
With just one victory in eight Premier League matches this season, manager Michael Carrick is now under immense pressure and is expected to lose his job.
Ferdinand is not sure how much difference changing the boss will make, though, as he recalls words from former managers Ruben Amorim, Ralf Rangnick and Jose Mourinho.
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All three pointed to much deeper issues at the club than just who was picking the team, leading training sessions and sitting in press conferences.
The issues are clearly bigger than any manager can handle, with fingers to be pointed at the club’s owners and sporting leadership.
‘I think results speak for themselves, INEOS and the ownership of the club, management, we’re back to where we were before Michael Carrick came to the club, in disarray,’ the former Manchester United defender said on Rio Ferdinand Presents.
‘Look at when Amorim was here, he said one thing that feels very relevant today, that next year we’ll be here at the same stage with the same problems.
‘He didn’t go into that as much as we would have liked, but if you read between the lines he’s saying that it’s more than just a manager.
‘Ralf Rangnick said that the place needs open heart surgery, we all laughed at him, everyone was making him out to be a madman.
‘Jose Mourinho said it was the best result in a season he’s ever had, when he won a couple of trophies and everyone thought he was mad when he said that. He said there was more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye.
‘Three guys there who’ve been in that hotseat, they can’t all be wrong. Has open heart surgery happened at Man Utd? That’s an alarming comment to make. Has it happened? Of course it hasn’t.’
Ruben Amorim, Ralf Rangnick and Jose Mourinho’s comments
Ruben Amorim said in November 2024, shortly after arriving as Manchester United boss: ‘We have two ways: we forget about the new idea – and I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season – and we try to cope with what they are used to doing. And next year, at the same stage, we will be here with the same problems.
‘Or we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and next year we will be better at this point. So we have to risk it a little bit.’
Ralf Rangnick said in April 2022: ‘You don’t even need glasses to see and analyse where the problems are. Now it’s about how do we solve them? It’s not enough to do some minor amendments – cosmetic things. In medicine you would say that this is an operation of the open heart. If this happens and everyone has realised that this has to happen and if people want to work together then it makes sense and I believe it doesn’t take two or three years to change those things. This can happen within one year.
‘For sure [strong leadership is needed]. This is something that not just one single person as a manager can do. With all respect to Jurgen [Klopp] and Pep [Guardiola] I’m sure that they didn’t do all the things themselves [at Liverpool and Manchester City]. There were also other people involved in those two clubs, people in certain positions, no matter what area it was, in order to rebuild and build something we want to build here. In all areas you have to have top people and they have to work together in a very close, reliable way.’
Jose Mourinho said in 2019 of his 2017/18 season in charge of Manchester United, when they finished second in the Premier League: ‘If I tell you, for example, that I consider one of the best jobs of my career was to finish second with Man United in the Premier League, you will say, “this guy is crazy. He won 25 titles and he is saying that a second position was one of his best achievements?”
‘I keep saying this because people don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. And sometimes we, in this side of the cameras, analyse things with a different perspective.’
The previous season Mourinho won the League Cup and Europa League with United, as Ferdinand recalled, but it was the 17/18 season he talked up as a great achievement.