Rio Ferdinand believes the idea Sir Alex Ferguson is to blame for Manchester United’s downfall is a ‘load of nonsense’.
Former Chelsea defender and talkSPORT host Jason Cundy made the polarising verdict on Sunday after Ruben Amorim‘s side bowed out of the FA Cup on penalties to Fulham.
The defeat ensured United would not be able to defend their FA Cup crown and left the Europa League as the English giants’ only chance of silverware this term.
“The squad that he left for David Moyes, I know everyone will say, ‘Yeah, we won the Premier League that year,’” Cundy said.
“Yeah, but look at the squad, look at what he left. He didn’t build a squad.
“That wasn’t a squad that was being built for years to come.”
Cundy added: “It was the start of the decline.”
However, Red Devils legend Ferdinand stuck up for his former mentor, who retired at the end of the 2012/13 season, and fired back at Cundy on X.
Ferdinand began by listing United’s attacking options at the time of Ferguson’s departure as evidence there was enough talent for the future.
Of United’s star forwards, none were over the age of 30.
Wayne Rooney, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia were all 27, while the oldest was Robin van Persie at 29.
There was plenty of young talent ready to break through as well, with Danny Welbeck, Wilfried Zaha, Jesse Lingard and Adnan Januzaj all aged 22 or under.
The former centre-back also pointed out the average age of the squad left by Ferguson was 26.6 years old and was a ‘blend of youth and experience.’
United finishing 11 points clear of their rivals in Ferguson’s final season was another argument Ferdinand made, underlining the dominance of the squad.
“Since then the recruitment have been poor,” Ferdinand said.
“But I’ve read over the last few days it’s The Boss fault. What a load of nonsense….”
Aston Villa legend Gabriel Agbonlahor echoed Ferdinand’s sentiment and felt Cundy’s claim was ‘very harsh’.
“I think he (Ferguson) left them in a pretty good state, to be honest,” Agbonlahor told talkSPORT Breakfast.
GettyFerdinand was not happy about Cundy’s claim Ferguson’s exit started United’s downfall[/caption]
“I feel that what’s happened now has been years of problems. But you can’t go back to Sir Alex Ferguson and what he’s done for Manchester United.
“Yes, it didn’t work for David Moyes of course, and maybe there’s other reasons why that happened.
“But when your read out their names, they’re top players who won the league by 11 points.
“Very harsh statement, to be honest.”
Since Moyes’ arrival in the summer of 2013, United have forked out an eye-watering £1.24billion on players but have just five major trophies to show for it.
The club is also hurtling towards its first bottom-half finish in the Premier League era under Amorim, who is the club’s sixth permanent manager since Ferguson’s retirement.
United’s on-field misery has been compounded by a string of controversial off-field decisions made by minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe this season.
Ratcliffe has overseen hundreds of redundancies, reduced food options to only soup and sandwiches for non-playing staff at Carrington and raised ticket prices by £26.
Even legendary manager Ferguson was part of Ratcliffe’s ruthless cost-cutting measures as his long-serving paid ambassadorial role was scrapped.
Amorim’s next chance to improve the mood around the club is on Thursday as they travel to Real Sociedad for the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.
