Rio Ferdinand Names The One Signing Manchester United Should Prioritise Over Jadon Sancho

Rio Ferdinand has stressed former side Manchester United must prioritise signing a central defender before the transfer window closes - with Dayot Upamecano the prime candidate.

Donny van de Beek remains United's only summer signing while deals for Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho and Porto left-back Alex Telles are rumoured.

While both targets would add quality to United's squad, Ferdinand thinks a new defender should be the key target.

Speaking to talkSPORT, the former Red Devils defender explained: "I've been banging the drum for a long time about buying a centre-half.

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"It's not going to solve every problem but it's one of the biggest problems.

"There's no dominant centre-half which makes the opposition think, 'I'm going to have to do something today to get any change out of him'.

"You need that if you're going to win anything.

"Jadon Sancho is a generational talent who is here to stay, so you can understand the interest, but for me they need a centre-back."

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He then goes on to name RB Leipzig defender Upamecano, who impressed in last season's Champions League, as a target Ole Gunner Solskjaer should be focused on.

"Upamecano is young, good on the ball, athletic, strong, mobile, plays every game. He's one you can see coming in right now.

"[Kalidou] Koulibaly has been spoken about for two or three years, he might have missed the boat due to his age. There's no resale value.

"Upamecano is the one who jumps out to me, when I watched the Champions League last year, he was the one who stood out to me.

"If you sign Jadon Sancho, I think you still have the same problems as last season."

Following Tuesday's 3-0 victory over Luton Town, Solskjaer said he is currently working with the players he has.

"We're working with the ones we have [right now,]" he explained.

"Let's see what happens. We'll give you updates if there is something."

Starting left-back Luke Shaw recently told TV2: "We have a very good group, but personally I think we need more players to strengthen the squad.

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"It can give us a boost. When you look around at how other teams are strengthening their teams, then we must also do it to keep up with the others."

Topics: Football News, Football, Manchester United, Dayot Upamecano, Transfers, Man utd, Jadon Sancho, RB Leipzig

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

@DanMarland_