Rio Ferdinand wants Manchester United’s INEOS leadership to stop operating in silence.
The former United defender used his own podcast after Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth to speak directly to the club’s owners, saying the fans deserve answers about the culture, discipline and direction at Old Trafford. Michael Carrick’s position was hanging by a thread after an eighth consecutive match without a win, and Ferdinand was clear that pointing the finger at the manager alone would not do.
“The fans need to hear INEOS. They need to be accountable. They can’t be a faceless operation within this, in these types of situations,” Ferdinand said on his podcast.
He added that firing the head coach and then going quiet is not a plan. A fresh appointment, in his argument, risks being flattered by the usual “new manager bounce” before the same structural problems resurface.
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Three managers, same warnings
Ferdinand’s wider point is that Carrick is far from the first United boss to describe the same issues. On his podcast he pointed back to Jose Mourinho reflecting in 2019 that finishing second in 2017-18 had been one of the best jobs of his career; to Ralf Rangnick’s “open heart surgery” line from April 2022 about the scale of change required; and to Ruben Amorim’s warning during his time in charge that without real change the club would be in the same place a year later with the same problems.
Three former managers, in Ferdinand’s view, cannot all be wrong.
“I think results speak for themselves, INEOS and the ownership of the club, management, we’re back to where we were before Michael Carrick came,” he said.
United’s worst Premier League start
The timing has stripped INEOS of any room to brush off the criticism. United have taken one win and seven points from their opening eight league matches, a worse start than any Premier League campaign in the club’s history. Their previous low was nine points after eight games in 2019-20 under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Carrick’s side sat 16th going into Monday, a single point above the relegation zone.
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Carrick had not been formally sacked by the time Ferdinand recorded the podcast, and he was still in post the following day. Technical director Jason Wilcox and chief executive Omar Berrada held crisis talks on Monday after the Bournemouth loss, with Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann among the names being sounded out as potential successors. The club, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, cannot issue a management-change statement without first meeting its market disclosure obligations.
Carrick’s next league fixture is away at Chelsea on Saturday.
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