Rio Ferdinand and Gary Lineker
Legendary footballer Rio Ferdinand has lambasted his fellow ex-English footballer, Gary Lineker, for claiming that Sir Alex Ferguson is partly responsible for Manchester United’s decline.
During the Match of the Day (MOTD) aired on BBC, Lineker asserted that Ferguson’s inability to assemble a promising squad for the team before resigning from his role is part of the reason Manchester United are struggling.
He likened the situation to how current Liverpool manager Arne Slot is thriving with the club after Jurgen Klopp made good signings to keep the team in good shape after his exit.
“If you look at Liverpool now, they’ve got a new manager in Arne Slot, and it’s a testament to how Jurgen Klopp left the club in a really good state. So, the structure is really good. That probably was not the case at the end of Sir Alex Ferguson’s [time at Old Trafford].
“I know they won the league that season, but it was not their best side, and a lot of their great players were coming to the end of their careers. I think from there they had problems. The academy wasn’t delivering the players that they were before,” he said.
Ferdinand, who played under Ferguson, quickly rebuffed Lineker’s claims and posted a table of United’s net spend at €1.27 billion (£1.05 billion) being the highest of several European clubs since the 2014-15 season.
Ferdinand described the claims as ‘a load of nonsense’ that discredit Ferguson’s legacy at the club.
“Ps we won the league by 11 points… Since then, the recruitment has been poor. But I’ve read over the last few days that it’s The Boss’s [Ferguson] fault. What a load of nonsense….” Ferdinand wrote on social media.
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