Manchester United Transfer News: Rio Ferdinand Sounds Louis Van Gaal Warning

Rio Ferdinand has warned Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal that unless he changes his stubborn policies, the club will incur a Liverpool-esque decline away from the Premier League elite.

The Merseyside club were untouchable up until winning their last top-flight title in 1990, at which point they slowly but surely began to trade places at the top of the English tree with United.

Former Red Devil Ferdinand wrote in his column for the Sun that Van Gaal risks sparking a similar fall as top players opt to steer clear of Old Trafford under his stewardship:

"Manchester United can afford to lavish more money on the team but can they really afford to be letting this man do it? In any case, will those players come? Because Manchester United is not an attractive proposition at the moment.

Now, players go to clubs for a number of reasons. I won’t deny that money is involved but we are all footballers at heart and, ideally, we want to go to a club to win trophies and we want to go to a club who play good football. We will work hard but we want to enjoy it along the way as well. When I left West Ham and went to Leeds I had three or four options. What sold it to me was the way they played football and manager David O’Leary’s vision for the club. It was a fresh and exciting team to join. I wanted to know if I was going somewhere that would make me better as well—and I did. The club might have come up short trophy-wise but it at least looked for a time that silverware would come.

Now apply all this to Manchester United right now. Even when they have had a decent spell of results the players do not look like they are enjoying it.

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Achmad Ibrahim/Associated Press

Either way, there has been precious little to enjoy lately. Van Gaal was forced to field weak, youthful sides against Wolfsburg in the Champions League and AFC Bournemouth domestically due to injuries, and came away from both vital games empty-handed.

Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker was quick to echo Alan Hansen’s infamous phrase upon the Bournemouth defeat:

Yet Ferdinand wrote that the finger can’t be pointed at United’s young stars, insisting Van Gaal has let too many talented players leave the club:

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Van Gaal has spent £250million and, David De Gea apart, has got rid of a better team than finished both the Wolfsburg and Bournemouth games. You could argue it would give his full-strength side a decent game even now. Is that down to him buying bad players or is it down to what he is doing with them?

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Ferdinand’s words come after the United powers-that-be gave strong backing to the Dutch manager—per Tim Rich of the Independent on Sunday, via the London Evening Standard—saying they won’t cut short his three-year deal at the club no matter which manager is waiting in the wings, including the likes of Pep Guardiola.

The current Bayern Munich boss' links to United appear to be gathering momentum, though, and Miguel Delaney of ESPN FC reported that contact has increased between the two parties.

It's easy to see why, too, as it’s clear the Red Devils simply aren’t the force they once were on the pitch.

Cries of "attack, attack, attack" from the Old Trafford faithful week in and week out tell you all that you need to know: United just aren’t an exciting team to watch any more.

Van Gaal is very much a numbers man, points mean more to him than free-flowing football. He's the kind of manager who would possibly take a drab 1-0 victory over a 4-0 demolition.

But with that comes a big problem. Ferdinand writes that United's lack of flair and excitement going forward is rather alarming, and that the finger has to be pointed at the man in charge:

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There appears to be too much fear of making a mistake or not conforming to the manager’s plan. It is perhaps why they are not more expansive and flamboyant in the final third. There is nothing magical about United any more, with no players like Ronaldo, Best, Giggs, Beckham or Rooney at his best. So if you can’t tick any of these boxes when trying to attract a player, you then have to look to the manager.

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Jon Super/Associated Press

Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure from United left the club under something of a cloud, and based on this season’s evidence, it’s a cloud that will linger over Old Trafford for the foreseeable future.

Van Gaal has delivered nothing more than a minor improvement on David Moyes’ disastrous tenure, and Ferdinand is right to be concerned about how the manager goes about his business.

Vice-chairman Ed Woodward acted ruthlessly when things were going wrong under Moyes for the good of the club, and he may well need to take a leaf out of his own book with Van Gaal.