Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand was so stunned by videos of the leaks at Old Trafford, he thought it was the work of Artificial Intelligence.
The Red Devils suffered their 14th Premier League defeat of the campaign as they were beaten 1-0 by title chasing Arsena on Sunday. While the performance of Erik ten Hag’s side was an improvement from their previous 4-0 away loss to Crystal Palace, United fans were still feeling glum after the result.
Towards the end of the match, huge leaks in the roof and the walls of Old Trafford resulted in streams of water coming down the steps and a waterfall pouring from the top of the stadium. It was a surreal sight, given United are one of the biggest and richest football clubs in the world.
Ferdinand, who won six Premier League titles and the Champions League among other trophies at the club, was particularly shocked by the leaks.
While speaking on his Vibe with Five podcast, Ferdinand said: “I thought it was a joke, I thought it was AI doing it’s magic. Is that for real?
“That’s unbelievable what I was witnessing there. It was only a little bit of rain as well. There wasn’t even any big rain, it wasn’t like what we saw in Dubai the other day.”
Arsenal fans sang Old Trafford is falling down as cascades of water fell from the top of the stadium. Others also believe it was the perfect image to sum up how far backwards United have gone in comparison with their rivals.
Ferdinand also said there are other areas of the club that have also been allowed to decay, pointing out United’s iconic ‘The Cliff’ training base, which is home to Manchester United women and the club’s academy teams. The ex-England captain said he knew things were going south at United when many of his team-mates were sending their children to go and play football for fierce rivals Manchester City.
“We’ve seen that. Manchester United players that have been at the club for 10 or 15 years, big signings, their kids are signing for Manchester City. United have had to buy Darren Fletcher’s two sons off of Manchester City.
“Robin van Persie, when he was harem his boy was playing for Manchester City. They’re only doing that because the training was better, or the facilities were better.
“If I was in the club then and one of the players who was playing there had sent his kid to a rival’s academy, I would have stopped the whole thing there straight away.
“Who is responsible for allowing these kids, who are top players, to go over there? Fletcher’s two boys are top players and so is Van Persie’s boy, they were top players as kids.
“You’ve got to be shutting down the academy down and going, ‘press pause right now. How is two of our players, currently playing here, their kids are going to City? We need to do a real big check on this, go through it, and see how, why, where and what’.”
