Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has praised the potential £50m signing of Andrey Santos from Chelsea as he believes he as “huge potential”.

Posting on X, Ferdinand suggested he couldn’t understand some of the negativity he was seeing around this potential deal, which is expected to be close to being done.

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See below as Ferdinand posted to defend the deal, saying: “For years we’ve been asking for our club to stop signing with eyes closed, blank cheques. The lad has huge potential, premier league experience.”

Andrey Santos joining Man Utd – reported fee £50m!
For years we’ve been asking for our club to stop signing with eyes closed, blank cheques. The lad has huge potential, premier league experience. Seeing some negativity by some…. (@MrStephenHowson)
Trust the process ????… pic.twitter.com/aohhldreYZ

— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) July 10, 2026

This follows the Athletic reporting that Man Utd reached an agreement with Chelsea for Santos, with this deal moving surprisingly quickly.

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Will Andrey Santos solve Manchester United’s midfield issues?

Given that United started this summer being linked with some really big names, it’s perhaps not too surprising that a fair number of Red Devils fans are a little underwhelmed by Santos’ arrival.

The 22-year-old has struggled for regular playing time at Chelsea, who finished 10th last season, so it’s not immediately clear how he improves Michael Carrick’s squad.

As previously reported by BBC Sport, United had some interest in Elliot Anderson, who could surely have counted as a legitimate world class signing to take this team to a new level.

Meanwhile, Tottenham have signed both Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, both of whom are also surely better than Santos.

At the same time, however, MUFC have also blown a lot of money on flops in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, so perhaps this slightly underwhelming deal will actually prove to be more sensible.

Santos does look like a big talent and perhaps he’ll fare better once he leaves this rather chaotic Chelsea project.