Manchester United’s season is over and the focus now turns to the transfer window, where it will be as much about who they sell as it is about who they buy.
Matheus Cunha is almost through the door, and so is Enzo Kana-Biyik, while the exits of Victor Lindelof, Christian Eriksen, and Jonny Evans have already been confirmed.
This is just the start of the massive rebuild Man Utd are set to undertake, of which there will be countless casualties at Old Trafford.
Rio Ferdinand has urged Man Utd not to repeat one mistake they made last summer in selling a player who was mis-profiled by the club.
Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images
Photo by Ivan Romano/Getty Images
Rio Ferdinand on Scott McTominay’s exit
It’s the sale that haunts Manchester United the most because of the narrative and the subsequent success, but Scott McTominay deserves his flowers for what he’s achieved.
McTominay was sold to Napoli at a time when United saw more value in the £25 million they would gain from him than the performances he was giving them.
Since joining Napoli, McTominay has surpassed the wildest expectations, winning the Serie A MVP award in his very first season while winning the league title.
Rio Ferdinand, speaking on his YouTube channel, has now said that the root of the issue for him at United was that he was mis-profiled.
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
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He said: “What an upturn in fortune. You gotta respect the way he’s gone about his business. He’s playing to type, not doing anything different from what we expect from him.
“The managers before didn’t play him in his best position. Man Utd have made a massive [mistake] in getting rid of him. He’s the type of player that you wanna keep. I wasn’t too sure if he’d start but he was definitely making an impact.”
Man Utd need to move forward
It’s all well and good to give respect to players like McTominay for what they have achieved after leaving Old Trafford but it’s becoming an obsession now.
The amount of narratives that have been thrown on the wall about Antony, Marcus Rashford, or McTominay would have one believe that United held these players in chains.
The reality is that the pressure of playing for Man Utd is unlike any other so a direct comparison is not as strong an argument as most seem to think.
In fact, it just hammers home the point that a player needs to be pretty much perfect in every aspect to succeed at Man Utd, without disregarding their achievements after leaving.
United need to move forward instead of looking at displays of their former players with starry eyes. If they played like that at Old Trafford, they wouldn’t be former players.