Rio Ferdinand has criticised Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese appeared to have a sly dig at his scouting network in his post-match comments.
Alongside Paul Scholes in the BT studio, Ferdinand was damning in his assessment of a Manchester United performance and defeat that he believes is likely to spark serious discussion within the upper hierarchies of the club.
Losing 3-1 to West Ham United in the London Stadium, Scholes criticised the attitude of the players and their apparent unwillingness to show the required conviction; a problem that has plagued the club in recent weeks.
However, it was with Mourinho's post-match comments that Ferdinand took particular umbrage with.
"The [West Ham] centre-backs had a fantastic match. Congratulations to the scout that found the 21-year-old kid Diop - a monster, dominated everything in the duals," Mourinho announced during his response to his team's defeat.
Ferdinand understood these comments to be a shadowy criticism of United's own scouting network. Indicative of the current back-biting making its way out of the club and into the public domain, Ferdinand believes such comments to be far from conducive to enacting positive change.
The stability of the club is key. For any football club, you need stability from top to bottom. Here, there seems to be mini-wars going on in the changing-room, probably above that as well.
Even talking about the scouting networks there that found the young centre-half, is that a sly dig? That's a dig at his own scouts. That's what I read into that.
He'd probably deny that, but that's why I think he mentions that. So, there's mini-wars within the camp. It has to be ironed out.
A theory endorsed by Scholes beside him, Ferdinand went on to criticise Mourinho's handling of the situation in comparison to how Alex Ferguson once dictated matters within the club.
