{"id":788680,"date":"2026-10-01T15:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788680\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T15:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T15:42:09","slug":"man-utd-ferdinand-urges-red-devils-to-sign-real-madrid-hero-on-free-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/788680\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd: Ferdinand urges Red Devils to sign Real Madrid hero on free transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rio Ferdinand has told Manchester United<\/a> to sign a Real Madrid legend on a free transfer to plug a hole in Michael Carrick\u2019s squad this season.<\/p>\n

United sit 12th in the Premier League table as two draws and a defeat in their last three games piled the pressure on Carrick<\/a> at the Old Trafford helm after he signed a two-year permanent deal in the summer.<\/p>\n

The Red Devils\u2019 transfer activity was solely focused on a midfield rebuild, as Youri Tielemans, Carlos Baleba and Andrey Santos arrived for a combined fee of around \u00a3150m.<\/p>\n

Co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe<\/a> and his team of INEOS chiefs have been criticised for not investing more money into improving the squad, with the lack of a backup for Luke Shaw at left-back and no cover for Benjamin Sesko the two major gripes of the United fans.<\/p>\n

Sesko is yet to start a Premier League game this season and missed the 1-1 draw with Fulham ahead of the international break due to a persistent shin injury.<\/p>\n

Matheus Cunha has been used by Carrick as a false nine, but Ferdinand wants to see a classic central striker brought to the club to provide competition for Sesko and provide a focal point for the attack.<\/p>\n

And the United legend believes 38-year-old Karim Benzema, who\u2019s currently without a club after leaving Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal in the summer, would be a good option.<\/p>\n

Ferdinand told his YouTube channel<\/a>: \u201cIf you knew you had to manage his [Sesko] minutes, I totally agree with you. Without him, there isn\u2019t really a focal point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got players that want to come deep to the ball more often than not and get involved in the build-up, and then you lose that focal point out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you had somebody up there who could share the minutes, share the load, help in terms of experience, lend that experience to Sesko for him to learn as well, you\u2019d have been getting so much more out of just a signing to go and play the 90 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelbeck springs to mind, obviously, so does Benzema. Two players I feel would have added huge value to the forward line that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benzema managed 10 goals in 12 league games for Al Hilal before his contract was terminated after just six months, at which point Aston Villa\u2019s Ollie Watkins was signed by the Saudi side.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Michael Carrick given Man Utd sack timeline as two managers come into INEOS\u2019 reckoning<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand has told Manchester United to sign a Real Madrid legend on a free transfer to plug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,448,349,50,7531,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-788680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-front-page","tag-manchester-united","tag-news","tag-rio-ferdinand","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}