Rio Ferdinand has slammed Manchester United’s ‘reactive’ decision to sack Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as ’embarrassing’.
Solskjaer was sacked on Sunday following the Red Devils’ 4-1 defeat at Watford, a result which leaves the side eighth in the Premier League and extended their recent record to seven defeats from 13 fixtures across all competitions.
United have placed Michael Carrick in charge on a short-term interim basis, but Ferdinand has criticised his former side’s lack of planning and says the lack of a clear succession plan is ’embarrassing’.
Speaking on his Vibe with Five show, Ferdinand said: “All of a sudden, the game happens and we lose, and the club make a decision. It’s all reactive. Nothing is prepped. Even the management situation, surely you look at this before?
“You identify a certain candidate and know. It’s almost like, ‘oh, this result has happened, we’re going to sack Ole, now we look for someone to come and take charge. We’ll put an interim before the interim, and then we’ll look for a manager.’
“It’s actually embarrassing. You’re just sitting there trying to protect the club, and you want to be positive, but I can’t. Surely there’s a candidate that should have been identified weeks ago because you could see what was coming?
“You see the club isn’t performing, you have a two-week international break. It’s the perfect time to start going round and identifying the next candidate. You can’t keep changing the conductor if you do nothing with the orchestra.”
Ferdinand was critical of several aspects of the club at present, believing the Red Devils are trailing their rivals both on and off the pitch.
“Man United have always been a team you associate with being best in class, elite in all aspects of the club – whether it’s the business angle, the commercial angle, also on the pitch.
“At the moment, it’s everything but that in all of those areas. That is the worrying thing for me. Every area looks like it’s just flagging.
“Yeah, the commercial area is doing well, but Man United are a global brand so you expect that. In terms of making decisions and being decisive, it’s everything but.”
