Rio Ferdinand believes that Cristiano Ronaldo will stay at Manchester United this summer as he doesn't think there are any clubs that can afford to pay his wages.
Ronaldo expressed his desire to leave Old Trafford at the start of July, but the forward is yet to secure a move away with less than 72 hours of the transfer window remaining. He has started just one of United's four Premier League matches so far this season — 4-0 defeat at the hands of Brentford.
The Portuguese international's agent, Jorge Mendes, is still trying to secure his client a move away from United before the transfer window shuts. But it's looking increasingly unlikely.
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Several sides — including Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich — have all rejected the chance to sign him, but Erik ten Hag reiterated his desire to keep Ronaldo after United's 1-0 win over Southampton on Saturday.
Ronaldo came off the bench and played 22 minutes as United secured their second successive win thanks to Bruno Fernandes ' well-worked second-half goal. In recent days, Napoli have emerged as a potential option for Ronaldo. While the Italian side cannot currently afford to sign the attacker, reports have suggested a possible swap deal with striker Victor Osimhen.
However, United legend Ferdinand doesn't think Napoli are capable of signing Ronaldo this summer, and backed him to remain at Old Trafford.
"I don’t think he’ll go. I don’t think there’s anybody who can pay his wages. Napoli’s only a possibility if Osimhen goes to United. I think financially, I don’t think it’s capable of happening in this window," Ferdinand said on his Vibe with Five podcast.
Ferdinand also suggested that the former Real Madrid man would be 'fuming' right now after being dropped to the bench
Ferdinand added: "Whether he stays or not, none of us know. Knowing Cristiano, I know for a fact that he will be absolutely fuming right now, forget who’s starting right now that he’s not starting. You don’t get to do what he’s done in his career over this amazing amount of time, at the levels he’s been playing, to sit there and accept not starting and being in a team that’s not in the Champions League.
"People can’t sit there and say ‘he should be fine, he should be alright, he should just be a team player’ for some people that’s cool but Ronaldo ain’t built like that so you can’t expect him to change at 37. He was the same at 21, he won’t change, we was talking before the game with Scholesy, I remember when Becks got dropped with the Madrid game etc, he’s fuming, superstars are built different.
"They don’t believe they have bad games, they don’t believe they don’t play well, they don’t believe they don’t get things wrong in the game because they are so hellbent on success and their belief in their skills and themselves that they don’t see failures.
"They don’t see things that go wrong, all it is in their mind is ‘I know what I bring to the table’ and Cristiano Ronaldo, whatever anyone says about running, pressing, he’ll be sitting there going ‘I scored 24 goals last season, talk to me’ the hardest thing to do in football is put the ball in the back of the net and I done it 24 times last year.
"How many times did anyone else get near that in this team?’ He knows these things because he knows his stats, ‘I got my team more points than any player last year with the goals I scored’ he got his team more points than anybody.
"So when people say he’ll maybe be at fault, he’ll be sitting there going whether you believe it or not or think he doesn’t press or suit the team he’ll be thinking ‘Who [has] done more than me to get us to the position we was?’ That’s what he’ll be saying."
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