Rio Ferdinand has slammed Jose Mourinho for his negative comments about the club’s young players this summer.
The Manchester United manager has been in pretty miserable mood this summer, bemoaning the lack of transfer activity and players available to him during his pre-season tour of America.
The lack of players meant Mourinho was forced to take a number of players from United’s youth Academy, but as we wrote last week, instead of encouraging the youngsters and offering them hope of first team opportunities, he decided to whinge and moan, much to the annoyance of Ferdinand:
“If I was a young player and listened to and read what he said about the youngsters who aren’t going to play a part at all this season — it doesn’t fill you with confidence,” said Ferdinand.
“I was a young player once. When you get an opportunity to go away with the first team on tour you see that as the best opportunity ever.
“But it seems with his comments the manager has just shut those avenues down and shut the confidence and belief of a player.
“He has dug out Ed Woodward over the past couple of weeks and put pressure on to get his players in because he is frustrated but I think you need positivity in a squad.
“Whether he is doing that behind closed doors, who knows? But the public perception right now is of a negative state of mind within the club and that’s not good.”