{"id":374282,"date":"2025-08-26T06:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374282\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T06:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T06:45:13","slug":"rio-ferdinand-raves-about-man-utd-transfer-target-he-considers-nearest-thing-to-michael-carrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/374282\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand raves about Man Utd transfer target he considers ‘nearest thing to Michael Carrick’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has named his first choice midfield signing for the club.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manchester United\u2019s lack of midfield control was a problem in the 1-1 draw to Fulham<\/a>, especially after going 1-0 up. United relinquished the lead and had to settle for a point.<\/p>\n

It has intensified the debate over whether Manchester United could pursue another midfielder<\/a> before the end of the transfer window.<\/p>\n

United\u2019s efforts to sign Carlos Baleba<\/a> were knocked back by Brighton<\/a>, while the club have also expressed interest in Crystal Palace\u2019s Adam Wharton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"CrystalPhoto by Eddie Keogh\/Getty ImagesRio Ferdinand prefers Adam Wharton to Carlos Baleba<\/p>\n

Speaking 24 hours after Manchester United\u2019s 1-1 draw away at Fulham<\/a>, Rio Ferdinand<\/a> was asked about who his ideal midfield signing would be.<\/p>\n

Speaking on YouTube, Ferdinand responded by saying he would prefer to see United sign Adam Wharton than Carlos Baleba, citing his versatility, and compared him to his former teammate Michael Carrick<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI like Wharton, I mean, Baleba as well. But they are very different players.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Wharton\u2026 in terms of controlling the tempo for us. He\u2019s the nearest thing I\u2019ve seen for a while to Carrick in terms of these things ticking. He can move, he can become an eight in certain phases of the game. He can come be a six, receive it, and get us going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a player that could really get the tempo going again to the one that he wants, and control it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferdinand had previously talked up Adam Wharton<\/a>\u2018s ability to deliver in big games, claiming to be impressed with his performances for Palace in the FA Cup Final against City and the Community Shield against Liverpool, with Palace winning both.<\/p>\n

Ferdinand challenged over Wharton likelihood<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace have just sold Eberechi Eze<\/a> to Arsenal for \u00a368 million, and are not thought to be under any financial pressure to sell Adam Wharton. <\/p>\n

Whenever United have been linked to Wharton, figures of \u00a3100 million<\/a> have been cited as a deterrent.<\/p>\n

Ferdinand accepts a deal with Palace is unlikely in this current transfer window, similar to a move for Carlos Baleba.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re just, you can\u2019t get them, so they\u2019re gonna have to make do with what they have now, until the window opens again in January, it might change that or wait until summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waiting until next summer sounds like an impossibly long wait right now, and Ruben Amorim may not have this luxury, with fans already growing frustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has named his first choice midfield signing for the club. Manchester United\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[9877,94,24465,15038,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-374282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-adam-wharton","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-michael-carrick","11":"tag-rio-ferdinand","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115093721896828146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}