Man Utd to be relegated?! Rio Ferdinand makes ominous prediction as Red Devils enter final 13 games of disastrous Premier League season

The 13-time Premier League champions have slumped to 15th in the English top-flight standings. Only two teams – Wolves and West Ham – are separating them from the drop zone with 13 games left to play in the 2024-25 campaign.

United do have a 12-point advantage over the bottom three, but 12 defeats – with eight of those coming under Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim, who took charge in November – suggests that the Red Devils run the risk of being dragged into a basement battle.

Speaking on his Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, a man who that won the Premier League and Champions League during his time at Old Trafford said: “Manchester United are absolutely struggling at the moment. Only Wolves and West Ham separate my club from the relegation places. Do you realise we’re that close?

“Someone said we need 11 points just to stay up and I’m starting to think like that. I’ve got the fixture list here and I’m looking at the game and I’m being serious here. Go through it. Everton away, Ipswich at home, Arsenal, Forest away, Man City, Newcastle away, Wolves, Brentford, Brighton, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Leicester.”

Ferdinand added on the problems that United face: “The only place I potentially see us getting anything – and I’m not even saying a win – is Leicester. We’ve slapped up Leicester a couple of times already this season so we’ve got their number.

“Normally you look at the fixture list and you can see where the points are coming from. We just looked at the fixture list and I’m not seeing outright wins, I’m not looking at it thinking there’s three points here and there’s three points there. That’s the problem.”

The Red Devils suffered a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham last time out and have picked up just two wins in their last nine Premier League fixtures. There is clearly work to be done on the field, while Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the INEOS co-ownership group continue to make unfortunate headlines off it with controversial cost-cutting measures.