Rio Ferdinand has named four ex-Manchester United stars who should not have been let go and he “couldn’t believe” two former forwards were leaving.
Man Utd have been a shambles on and off the pitch following the exit of Sir Alex Ferguson, as they are currently 16th in the Premier League with one game remaining.
The Red Devils can salvage something from a disastrous season on Wednesday night as they face Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final with a trophy, Champions League football and huge prize money on the table.
The Premier League giants have got plenty wrong in the transfer market in recent years and Ferdinand reckons the club were wrong to sell Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez (Chicharito), Rafael de Silva and Fabio de Silva.
Ferdinand was particularly shocked about Welbeck and Hernandez, as he “couldn’t believe” they were leaving.
“There’s players I would have kept,” Ferdinand admitted on his YouTube channel.
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“Danny Welbeck, Chicharito, Rafael de Silva, Fabio de Silva. Has anyone come into those positions and done better than what they would have done?
“There’s no full-backs who have come in and done much better than Rafael or Fabio.
“When I heard we were letting Chicharito go, I thought, ‘what am I hearing here?’ When I heard him and Welbeck were going, I couldn’t believe it.
“I was like, ‘What? Why?’ Those were great squad players but could have become starters when a few of the bigger and older players were leaving.
“The generation was changing and I could see a place for them at the club.
“You’re letting Chicharito go when he’s scoring mad amount of goals on a regular basis, Welbeck is impacting games with and without the ball. Look at Welbeck now, what United would do to have him in the team now.”
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Earlier this year, Gary Neville also backed Welbeck, arguing why Man Utd “let him go too quickly”.
“He was let go too quickly at United,” Neville said
“If you think about [former United boss] Louis van Gaal, obviously his style of play is very precise.
“Danny wasn’t precise in his game back then. So he just let him go, just didn’t fancy him at all.
“But he’s actually perfect for how Man Utd should play: threatening space in behind, playing off front players… And this idea he’s not good enough for Manchester United is absolutely rubbish.
“He’s good enough to be in a pool of three or four strikers at Manchester United, just like, for instance, Liverpool have three, four, five forward players across that front line. They’re all of differing abilities and different talents. But they all contribute at a certain point in the season.”
