Man Utd: Ferdinand bemused by Ratcliffe’s ‘left-field’ target as Red Devils ‘push’ to steal Prem chief
Rio Ferdinand is surprised that Manchester United bidder Sir Jim Ratcliffe is reportedly interested in Crystal Palace director Dougie Freedman.
It is now only a matter of time before Ratcliffe completes his takeover of Man Utd.
After initially pursuing a 100% takeover, his revised bid enabled him to beat Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim to a deal and he will pay around £1.4bn to buy a 25% stake in the Premier League giants.
Ratcliffe intends to become Man Utd’s majority stakeholder in a couple of years but he will take control of footballing matters at Old Trafford right away.
One of his first objectives is expected to be to recruit a new director of football with John Murtough’s future in serious doubt. It was claimed last month that ex-Tottenham chief Paul Mitchell is a ‘leading candidate’ for this role.
A recent report from The Daily Star claimed ‘Crystal Palace sporting director Freedman is in the frame to be part of Ratcliffe’s £1.4billion revolution at United’ as the Brit’s right-hand man – Sir Dave Brailsford – is ‘pushing for the 49-year-old to be involved’.
Freedman has had spells as manager at Palace, Bolton and Nottm Forest before he returned to the Seagulls in 2017 to become their sporting director.
He played a key role as Palace signed Eberechi Eze, Michael Olise and Marc Guehi in recent years but Ferdinand thinks these links have “come out of left field”.
“I think he lives in Manchester,” Ferdinand said via his Vibe with Five podcast.
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“His name has come out of left field for me, I’ve got to be honest. I don’t remember anyone going, ‘Wow! Look at what Palace are doing!’ in terms of recruitment.
“Like, Paul Mitchell I get it, he’s had a history of doing good things that people [take notice of]. Michael Edwards and Julian Ward, they’ve got some body of work that people have recognised. Even Dan Ashworth with what he did at England and Brighton and now Newcastle. You can understand [links to them].
“But no disrespect, no-one has ever said to me at Palace, ‘Wow there’s a load of players that have come here’.
“Listen, [Eberechi] Eze, [Michael] Olise and [Marc] Guehi, they’re three players that you go “yeah ok” but that’s over the last two years.
“But for every one of those, there’s a couple of others where you go, ‘Wow, what happened there? Who was that?’
“And I’m not saying everyone gets everything right but they haven’t got the reputation that makes you go, ‘Oh, I get that’.”
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