Manchester United spent £155million to sign Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos this summer, but Rio Ferdinand thinks that money could have been better spent elsewhere

Rio Ferdinand believes Manchester United missed a trick by pulling out of the race to sign Ayyoub Bouaddi in the summer transfer window. Bouaddi joined Manchester City from Lille in a £85million move and has begun to show his talents on the pitch.

The 19-year-old midfielder was one of the most sought after players in the summer after catching the eye for Lille and Morocco. After selling Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez and losing Bernardo Silva on a free transfer, City splashed out to sign Bouaddi, Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez.

They were competing alongside United for midfielders, with Michael Carrick's side bringing in Carlos Baleba, Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos for a combined £155m. Ferdinand is worried that their recruitment could be shown up after watching Bouaddi star off the bench for City against Paris Saint-Germain last week.

"Did you see when Ayyoub Bouaddi came on? This is why I was talking about him over the last year and during the summer transfer window," Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel.

"He came on and showed PSG that they may have missed out on someone who was on their doorstep when he was playing in France. He turned 19 this month, right? His transfer fee is the same as Santos and Tielemans combined. Manchester United were in for him, 100 per cent, but the fee was just too much.

"Just that little cameo against PSG makes you go, 'oh, I can’t believe we missed out on that. I can’t believe it.' I’m so gutted, so gutted. He’s bad! He’s so calm under pressure.

"Man City have got that many games that then can share the load about. Because of his age you can just dip him in and out but sooner rather than later that’s not going to fly with him because he’s an incredible footballer. They’ve got Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernandez in that midfield as well but this kid could be the best of the three, easily."

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Bouaddi has been eased into action by City manager Enzo Maresca, who sang his praises before starting him alongside Mateo Kovacic in their 3-2 win over Ipswich on the weekend.

"Ayyoub, first of all, is a fantastic player," said Maresca. "The good thing about Ayyoub is that when he's on the pitch he's also improving the ones around him and this is what top players do.

"The ones that move around them are better and with Ayyoub the feeling that I have is that all the players around him are better. There are players who playing alongside some players can be better."

Bouaddi will be in contention to start for City when they host AEK Athens in the Champions League on Tuesday night before travelling to face Aston Villa on Saturday in the Premier League.

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