Rio Ferdinand backs Jean-Claude Blanc to solve three Man United issues Richard Arnold failed to
Manchester United have appointed Jean-Claude Blanc to their boardroom following Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS' upcoming arrival at Old Trafford
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand believes Jean-Claude Blanc will be able to solve issues surrounding Old Trafford, the Reds' lack of commercial awareness and the club's social media use.
Blanc arrived at the Reds on Christmas Eve as a director following the announcement Sir Jim Ratcliffe had purchased a minority stake in the club. While the British billionaire awaits ratification from the Premier League, INEOS' plans are already starting to take shape.
At the weekend, United appointed Omar Berrada as the club's new CEO in what was seen as a huge coup. Discussing the appointment of Manchester City's head of football operations, Ferdinand went off on a tangent and pointed to mistakes Richard Arnold made while he was CEO including not striking a brand deal with leading fashion brand Supreme.
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Speaking on the Vibe with Five podcast, Ferdinand explained: "You know what the madness is? Four maybe five years ago I was asking why Manchester United was not signing with Supreme, I spoke to prominent people: ‘Why are you not signing with Supreme or one of these cool brands?’
"Supreme is red and white, there is perfect synergy there. It was hot, and massive at the time. Why have we not got one of these brands alongside us?
"Who goes out and buys a Man United sweater or t-shirt? They do a few of them but it ain’t something where you go: ‘I am queuing round the block to go and get that,’ you know what I mean. It is just another way to break another [market]. Man United have never tapped into that."
Ferdinand then admitted he had pitched the idea to bring his 'Five' brand into the United family. "Five was a commercial magazine back in the day and I went to Richard Arnold and said: ‘Why don’t you white label what I have got?’ Because Jim in Texas can’t get to Old Trafford and buy a programme every week but this magazine you could white label, digitise it, he can get it, put interviews on there and he gets to be at Old Trafford without being there, through the magazine," he continued.
"I feel all the conversations I had commercially with Man United were: ‘We are so big when we press the button even if we are a year, two, three, four years late, we move the audience and we move the fanbase and they come.’ It is like YouTube, they do massive numbers here now but they were one of the last to come here.
"Why are you [United] not first movers? They are scared to be first movers. They want to see how that space moves a little bit and then we might dip our toe in it and see how it does but when United now put their toe in it, the ripples are different to what everyone else thinks."
While it may seem all doom and gloom, Ferdinand believes there is hope on the horizon with Blanc in the boardroom. "I don’t know why, at United, it is not always switched on socials, digital element to the club," he concluded.
"When they travel, wherever they go, just be on all the time. Crazy. You can control it and this is the world we live in, these players are always on anyway, they are always on social media when they get on the plane. We see it on social media, they take their own pictures. I would have it on the whole time, this is our model now.
"I think Manchester United commercially [will improve] with these guys because Jean-Claude was the guy who managed to get the new stadium for Juventus, he oversaw the Jordan stuff at PSG so this guy knows how to fast-forward a club into the new age and Man United need to do that because we should be at the top."