Rio Ferdinand tells Erik ten Hag what he cannot afford to get wrong at Manchester United

Rio Ferdinand is backing new Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag to fix the recruitment issues that he believes have dogged the Reds for the last 10 years.

Ten Hag has finally been announced as United’s new manager and he has a huge job on his hands. United’s fall from grace and the reasons for it have been well documented. But Ferdinand insists that poor recruitment has been arguably the biggest issue.

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The figures also say it all and back up what Ferdinand is thinking. According to CIES Football Observatory United have spent £1.3billion on players over the last 10 years.

They have recouped just £397m in sales, which means a net spend of £908m. That would not look too bad if it had resulted in success on the pitch. However poor signings have contributed to United’s slide down the table.

Now it is Ten Hag’s chance to try and get it right. United will no doubt be very active in the transfer market again this summer. But on this occasion Ferdinand believes they have a man with the potential to succeed where the others have failed.

Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Edinson Cavani, Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic are all out of contract and will move on. There are also doubts over a host of other players.

It is a huge rebuilding job for Ten Hag but he has shown what he can do with Ajax.  Speaking on his YouTube channel