Rio Ferdinand rages at Man Utd players as Red Devils legend launches furious rant on stunning Dan Ashworth exit

The Red Devils have taken the decision to part with sporting director Ashworth just five months after bringing him in from Newcastle, with a 3-2 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest proving to be the final straw – on the back of already replacing Dutch tactician Erik ten Hag with Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim.

More questions are being asked of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and how the INEOS co-ownership group are running things behind the scenes, with long-serving staff members having been laid off while ticket prices soar – with results seemingly taking a back seat to cost cutting measures.

Legendary former United defender Ferdinand believes more attention should be given to underperforming players – many of whom cost big money – with the ex-England international telling his Rio Presents podcast: “I hope they're this brutal with the sh*t players that are there. If there are any sh*t players that are there, and ones that have either been there too long or the ones that just aren't good enough, be as brutal as they've been. Get them the f*ck out quick.

“I hope they're like that. For better or worse, at least they've made a bloody decision. That's the way I think about it. But you look at the things that are going on. I think there's a lot of noise around the club. Ticket prices are now going up, there's been laying off of 250 plus staff and again, they're very definitive. They're like, ‘We're doing this. We don't care about the noise’.”

Unfortunately for Ratcliffe and Co, the “noise” is building at Old Trafford as United continue to struggle for consistency. They sit 13th in the Premier League table heading into a crucial run of fixtures that will see them face Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League, take in a derby date with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium and travel to Tottenham in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.