Rio Ferdinand believes Bruno Fernandes is the only player that's improved at Manchester United since joining the club during "the last eight or 10 years".
United's recruitment has been condemned this season due to the team's poor form. Ralf Rangnick's side are seventh in the Premier League - six points behind Tottenham in fourth - and failed to challenge in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and Champions League.
Big-money signings Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Raphael Varane, Paul Pogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fred, Jadon Sancho, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Nemanja Matic all arrived at Old Trafford with good reputations but have struggled to impress this term.
Fernandes has also had a poor season - scoring just nine goals in all competitions - but was a revelation in his first 18 months at United. During that time, the 27-year-old scored 40 goals and won four Premier League Player of the Month awards in 2020 alone.
"I just feel that, when you look at it, Man United – you can talk about training grounds and all that stuff – but please, you’ve got to get the football stuff right," Ferdinand told his Vibe with FIVE YouTube show.
"You’ve got to get the culture at the football club right, you’ve got to get the players that you recruit right.
"And if you look at the players that have been coming to this football club for the last eight or 10 years, if you were going to do a list of all of them on paper, how many of these players have come to this football club and actually grown in value or got better?"
When asked if Fernandes has improved, Ferdinand said: "I would 100 per cent agree with that.
"I don’t know any others that have come and you actually go, 'Oh he’s actually miles better! We’ll get more money for him now!' There’s none. And that goes down to coaching, that goes down to recruitment.
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"So those areas need to be improved drastically for us to be able to improve because you could go in and buy three or four players this window. But if we’re going to continue in the same vein as what was before, those players that you bring in are going to be declining rather than getting better and improving your team - so that needs to be changed."
United's most recent display was a 1-0 defeat to struggling Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon. The result was overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo, who smashed a phone out of a 14-year-old's hand. The teenager has autism and dyspraxia.
Discussing the performance, Ferdinand said: "In terms of chances, they don’t look like creating chances, they don’t look like they’re getting anywhere near creating any good chances. And the problem is as well, they put the ball in the box and Cristiano Ronaldo is on his own half the time, by himself – for a centre-back [it’s easy].
