Rio Ferdinand has revealed his frustration at Manchester United’s failure to compete for the world record signing of Neymar.
The Brazil international sent shock-waves through European football by opting to leave Barcelona earlier this month and make a sensational £198million move to Paris Saint-Germain.
Jose Mourinho had spoken openly of his admiration for the 25-year-old while reports surfaced earlier this month claiming United had a deal in place to sign Neymar last summer before the former Santos player pulled the plug at the last minute.
The Special One has spent over £150m this summer already on the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof and is hoping to complete a clean sweep of his top targets by landing Ivan Perisic before the window closes.
But Ferdinand believes that both his former club and Mourinho could well end up regretting the fact that they passed up the chance to offer Neymar a genuine alternative to PSG.
‘Neymar’s up for £196m… Man United are one of the richest clubs in the world,’ he told his Youtube channel Five.
Mourinho on Neymar | PSG are getting a bargain
‘When we paid that amount for Paul I told that he was not expensive.
‘Expensive are the ones that get into a certain level without a certain quality.
‘I think with Neymar it’s going to happen the same, I don’t think he’s expensive for 200million, I don’t think he’s expensive, I think he’s expensive the fact that now you are going to have more players of 100 million and you are going to have more players at 80 million and you are going to have more players at 60 million.’
‘I would have loved to have seen him go to Manchester United.
‘Dirty, it would have been dirty but it wasn’t to be.’
Neymar belatedly made his PSG debut on Sunday, scoring in a comprehensive 3-0 win over Guingamp, just hours after United had started their Premier League campaign with a crushing 4-0 defeat of West Ham.
Share this with