Man Utd Transfers: 5 Replacements For Rio Ferdinand

4. Ryan Shawcross

Alternatively, we could attempt to re-sign former youth team prodigy Ryan Shawcross, who left the club in 2007 on loan to Stoke City before making his stay at the Potters permanent a year later. Sir Alex Ferguson once stated that he regretted letting the centre-half leave Old Trafford, and that he would not have done so had he known Gerard Pique was angling for a move back to Barcelona. Since then Shawcross has gone on to be a success at Stoke, being named captain by Mark Hughes for a fifth-successive season at the end of the 2012€“13 campaign. And now, we want him back, according to Sports Direct News. Shawcross is a no-nonsense defender known for his combative style of play, and has been more consistent than the likes of Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling in recent times. Signing him would also give us a good pool of English talent. Stoke only paid £1 million for Shawcross in 2008 but would likely command ten times that should we make our interest formal this summer.