Rio Ferdinand names just three Man Utd players who have met expectations in the last 10 years

Rio Ferdinand believes only three players signed by Manchester United over the past decade have lived up to expectations at Old Trafford.

United became the most successful team in English football history during Sir Alex Ferguson's 26 seasons as manager, but in the 11 years since he retired the Red Devils have severely underperformed.

United have spent an extraordinary £1.4 billion on transfers in that time, including 14 players for £50 million or more and a then-world record £89 million fee for Paul Pogba in 2016.

Plenty of other stars have arrived for lower fees but with big reputations, but ultimately few have delivered what was expected of them.

There are other factors behind United's struggles, but underperforming players is certainly a key factor.

Former United defender Rio Ferdinand has never been one to mince his words, and he's now claimed that the only signings over the last decade that lived up to expectations were Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Ferdinand said on The Sports Agents podcast: "When you look at the recruitment, I think there’s only three players that I can remember coming in and then going, 'Okay, they’ve played at a level that you would have expected'.

"Bruno [Fernandes], Cristiano [Ronaldo] and Zlatan [Ibrahimovic]. The only three players I thought that you go, 'Actually I saw consistently what I expected to see from them'.

"Everyone else just fell well short. For whatever reason it is, they just haven’t hit a standard you expect them to come in for.

"There’s no value in them in what you expect. So they have to get to the bottom of that."

United's new minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has looked to improve United's recruitment by hiring Dan Ashworth as sporting director and Jason Wilcox as technical director.

The academy recruitment team will be bolstered by the arrival of Sam Williams from Ipswich, who take on the role of chief scout.

Topics: Manchester United, Transfer News, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Premier League, Football

Alex Brotherton

Alex Brotherton is a journalist at SPORTbible. He has previously worked with publications including the Manchester Evening News, GOAL and BBC Sport. He is a football fanatic, but also dabbles in tennis and American football. He can often be found watching dreadful non-league football.

@alex_brotherton