Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has praised the signing of Carlos Baleba in this summer’s transfer window.
In general, Ferdinand feels that the Red Devils did some smart spending to strengthen their squad without blowing their budget like Manchester City did.
We’ve seen Man Utd spending vast sums of cash before, with numerous big-money signings like Paul Pogba, Jadon Sancho, and Antony proving to be major flops at Old Trafford.
Now, however, Ferdinand has pointed to someone like Baleba as a potential £100m player who joined for much less than that, with his fee set at £70m, according to BBC Sport.
Rio Ferdinand praises Manchester United spending
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand looked for the positives in what was ultimately a pretty quiet summer for United.
Many MUFC fans will surely have been hoping for more new names coming in to help the squad improve on their third place finish of last season, but it’s debatable if they’re really that much stronger overall.
The main changes have come in midfield, with Ferdinand pleased with Baleba in particular as he looks to have joined on the cheap.
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“Man United, there’s no doubt in my mind they were in for (Elliot) Anderson, but there was a a limit to the price they could pay. Man United just didn’t go, “Oh, we don’t want him. We don’t fancy him.” They couldn’t go to a certain number that City obviously could because they couldn’t blow their budget.
“And that word is a key word, I think, in this window when you’re talking about Manchester United.
“They needed numbers in there to cover for the big games, the more games that they’re going to have this season because they’re in the Champions League. So you need cover. You need more bodies in there.
“Two players that are more about potential in this midfield but still have Premier League experience in Baleba and Andrey Santos.
“All right, yes, (they) wouldn’t have been on the probably the top two or three in their list, but Baleba, you know, he’s got potential. We’ve seen that he was being earmarked as a 100 million pound player two seasons ago, right? And that doesn’t happen just overnight for nothing. There’s obviously got to have been some football being played in there.”
United lost Casemiro at the end of last season and also have Manuel Ugarte out injured, so it makes sense that they focused primarily on midfield with three new signings.
Baleba is probably the stand-out name there, but it will be interesting to see how the season pans out and if it becomes clear that the club should also have done more to improve the defence and attack.
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