Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves have offered strikingly different verdicts on how Manchester United can address their crisis in the summer transfer window.
The Red Devils were dumped out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night as the Spanish club won 1-0 at Old Trafford to progress to the quarter-finals. The last-16 elimination condemns United to another year without a trophy - a barren run which extends back to 2017 - and led to a full-blown inquest involving former players Ferdinand, Hargreaves and Paul Scholes.
Club legend Ferdinand tore into the "culture" of Ralf Rangnick's side and declared "it doesn't matter who you bring in" if this is not addressed. In contrast, ex-midfielder Hargreaves was "optimistic" about the prospect of an influx of young talent capable of getting United back on track, starting with Borussia Dortmund wonderkid Jude Bellingham.
"I'm optimistic because Man Utd has the opportunity to go and get anyone and most people would want to come here," Hargreaves told BT Sport.
"But you have to start somewhere, get a coach in, get a sporting director start and go and get Jude Bellingham, send a signal to say this is where we are going. I think you need young, hungry, dynamic players Jude is the guy I'd start with."
Bellingham is widely regarded as one of Europe's most promising midfielders after a meteoric rise with Dortmund, making 81 appearances for the German giants by the age of 18.
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However, Hargreaves doubts whether United will be able to pull off the signing as there is still great uncertainty ahead of next season.
Old Trafford chiefs are yet to appoint the permanent manager who will succeed interim Ralf Rangnick while numerous players are either out of contract or searching for pastures new.
"They don't have a coach for next year, we don't know who the sporting director is," Hargreaves said of the Red Devils. There's a lot of players out of contract like (Paul) Pogba, (Edinson) Cavani there's the (Anthony) Martial situation there’s five or six or seven player situations,"
"When we played we knew who was going to be signed, the coach was already in there and you knew who was already signing in March. They don't have a sporting director, a coach or the recruitment side sorted."
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