Rio Ferdinand has urged John Stones to seriously consider a move to Chelsea, and believes that Manchester United should do all they can to sign the centre back.
Chelsea have had two bids rejected from Everton, with the Toffee’s insisting the player is not for sale. However, should a club bid over £30 million for the starlet, it is difficult to see how they could turn it down. Ferdinand believes United would do well to sign Stones, whatever the cost.
Rio argues that United’s back-line is too unpredictable, with LvG not even knowing what his best pairing is, meaning that Stones would walk straight into the first team and enjoy a good 10 years or so as Manchester United’s No 5. But the former England captain thinks it would be a different story at Chelsea, as the Blues have plenty of talent in their ranks – not to mention John Terry and Gary Cahill’s formidable bond.
“If he goes to Man United, he plays every week so that’s the right club for him,” Ferdinand said. “If he goes to Chelsea, he’s not playing every week. He’s at that stage of his development where he wants to play every week. If you say to any young footballer to leave a club to sit on the bench, you’ve got to be a lunatic. You have to be.”
“He’s very good on the ball.”
“I took a real interest in him and watched him at Loftus Road against Bobby Zamora, who gave most centre-halves problems last season physically, and he handled Bobby well, and that physical element. That was one of the areas that I hadn’t really seen him under pressure with and he looked up for that battle. With all the other stuff he’s got, he’s got a real good chance.”
On Manchester United:
“I don’t think [Van Gaal] knows his best defence – that’s a problem in itself.”
“Part of the reason he doesn’t know it is because he hasn’t had a chance to watch them all play over a long time – consistently for 12 or 15 games. If you don’t get that familiarity between you as defenders, it’s difficult to build foundations.”
“I played with Vidic for six years with no fitness problems between us. I woke up on a Saturday knowing that Vida was going to be fit and he was the same with me. At the moment these guys aren’t doing that. They don’t know if Chris Smalling is going to be fit, if Phil Jones, Jonny Evans or Marcos Rojo are going to be fit. So how can you start to build relationships? That’s been part of the problem for Van Gaal.”
Rio also casts doubt on the likelihood of Sergio Ramos joining United:
“I always knew that was never a goer. I said at the beginning on Twitter that he’s obviously up for a new contract [at Real] and he may be using United in that respect. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know but he’s signing a new deal according to what we read.”
[All quotes sourced from the Guardian]