Rio Ferdinand has blasted Antony after the Brazilian called out former Manchester United players in the media, who never offer ‘constructive criticism’. 

The 23-year-old has been a disappointment since arriving at the Old Trafford last summer and has failed to nail down a regular spot in Erik ten Hag’s squad. 

Some of those performances have been slammed by the likes of Gary Neville, who labelled him ’embarrassing’ after kicking out at Jeremy Doku during United’s 3-0 loss to Man City – while he’s also received stick from Paul Scholes in the past.

But Ferdinand has hit back, recalling a period when the Old Trafford crowd even turned their ire towards Ryan Giggs before urging the winger to ‘deal’ with the pressures associated with playing for such a big club. 

Rio Ferdinand has hit out at Antony after the winger called out certain former Man United stars

Antony has struggled to impress this season – failing to score or assist in the Premier League

Ryan Giggs was first booed by a section of the Old Trafford crowd during a League Cup emi-final clash with Blackburn in 2003

‘Listen, Giggsy was getting booed at times.’ He told Vibe with FIVE. ‘Ryan Giggs! So I see people like Antony chatting in the paper about where’s the support and players not having the type of pressures I’ve had.

‘I haven’t seen him get booed at Old Trafford yet. Ryan Giggs was getting booed week in and week out for a sustained amount of time. Let that sink in! And these man are talking about pressure.

‘It’s different times and different pressures but it’s similar across the board and it’s about how you deal with pressure.  

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‘I wasn’t looking for no support from people, I had pressure when I came back from my drugs ban and I had to play you think I weren’t under pressure to perform? You think I didn’t have all eyes on me every minute of the day? In training, in the matches, off the pitch do you think there weren’t paparazzi following me everywhere?

‘I wasn’t moaning this is part of it, this is Manchester United, this is what this emblem brings. It brings an extra level of pressure that a lot of other clubs bar the Real Madrids of this world don’t really feel.

‘When you walk into the door at that club there’s going to be every type of pressure you can feel, or you didn’t even dream you could feel.

‘Listen, I sympathise with Antony in some of things, he’s had a few big issues off the pitch. But listen, us ex-players, we aint a vindictive bunch, we’re not a personal bunch. None of us have called him out personally, we’re just saying what we see.’ 

Antony turned in his best performance of the season in the midweek victory against Chelsea

Antony is still waiting for his first goal of the campaign, having gone 15 games in all competitions without finding the net for the Red Devils. In fact, the former Ajax star is yet to register a goal contribution of any kind.  

He did turn in one of his best performances of the season in United’s midweek win over Chelsea, which may have earned him another spot in the starting line-up for the weekend clash with Bournemouth.  

Ferdinand added: ‘If there’s a player [that] isn’t doing and we think he should be doing, we’re within our rights in the job that we do to call it out. Simple as that.

‘Listen, how many of these players are going to accept a DM from most of these guys who are talking? Listen bruv you need to sort yourself out, you need to start doing this or doing that. You think man are going to call you back and thank you for it? I doubt it very much.’