Rio Ferdinand has taken his talents to the media since retiring and is loosely involved in Manchester United’s day-to-day thanks to his status as one of the club’s legendary players. However, since the news of Sir Alex Ferguson’s ambassadorial deal being cut off by minority owners INEOS, the former defender has realised that there are big changes coming.
INEOS came into power following their acquisition of the club’s footballing environment and immediately set to changing the way things are run at the club. Manchester United as a football institution has seen a drastic change in their transfer dealings, with the club acquiring multiple players way before the transfer deadline, as well as cutting down on the club staff to save cost and channel funds into other areas.
The latest casualty of the INEOS wave of change is Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s legendary manager who retired from coaching in 2013 after winning the club’s 20th Premier League title (their last one to date), and taking up a role as a global ambassador.
Reports indicate that Ferguson was paid £2.16million-a-year to be a global ambassador for the club, a deal that both parties struck two years after his retirement. This is one of the reasons why he was seen around the club quite often post-retirement, unlike his veteran counterpart Arsene Wenger who rarely made appearances at the Emirates.
After a face-to-face meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Sir Ferguson lost the deal, leading Ferdinand to state that “no one is safe” at Manchester United anymore.
“If Sir Alex can be taken out, then NO ONE IS SAFE at [Man United] – anyone can get it now. Ineos sending a message to ANYONE at the club?!?” Ferdinand wrote on X.
There are more cost-cutting measures that the club wants to take in the future, but the decision to axe Sir Ferguson shows that some of them will be drastic. In the meantime, INEOS is having to deal with the fact that Erik ten Hag is not delivering on his mandate. In the media, there are reports of Zinedine Zidane being discussed in the upper echelons of Manchester United as a potential replacement for the Dutch manager.
Emmanuel Petit, Zidane’s former teammate, weighed in on the talks and gave his opinion on what the former Real Madrid manager will need to become the manager of Man United.
“I’m not sure that he speaks very good English as well. And communication is very important in the dressing room. Honestly, I know a little bit, Zizou [Zidane], and he needs to get guarantees if he wants to sign over there in Manchester United,” Petit told the Manchester Evening News.”
“At the moment, the environment at Manchester United for years has not been good. The stability of the bench, the level of the players as well, the expectation of the club is not the same that it used to be. United is still a huge club, but not on the pitch anymore.”
