Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has confessed in his new book, My Decade as a Red, that the Old Trafford club had become the love of his life. The veteran central defender admitted that he could never have imagined spending over a decade at the club after making the switch from Leeds United back in the summer of 2002. The 34-year-old former England international will play his testimonial match at Old Trafford this evening against La Liga side Sevilla said he wanted to carry on playing for the Barclays Premier League champions for as long as he could after “falling in love with winning.” Rio signed a new one-year contract extension during the summer break, which includes another 12 month extension which could be added next summer. It falls in line with comments the now retired Sir Alex Ferguson made about Ferdinand, saying he believed he could play on for another 2-3 years at the top-level. In his new book, Rio is quoted as saying: “For as long as my body allows me to, I’ll keep playing; and for as long as I can stay at Manchester United then I will stay there. “When I looked at pictures as I looked towards the testimonial, it evoked old memories and has relit those fires a little bit in terms of being able to win things, get those emotions back. “Whether I can do it, we’ll have to wait and see. But it does definitely light fires within you that you want to continue, I’ve still got that burning passion to want to achieve and win things. “I could see myself at a club for ten years which wasn’t as big and as prestigious as Manchester United. But to do it at Manchester United is just crazy to think about. I never believed it, I never even thought about it, if I’m honest. “I thought I would be at United for a couple of years, maybe three or four, and then go abroad somewhere. But I just fell in love with Manchester United. I fell in love with winning, fell in love with the history of the club and being part of it was something I could never have imagined. “The pull of staying at Manchester United and being part of the success has probably got stronger as the years have gone by. “My ambition now is just to keep playing. I want to keep playing for as long as possible. For the past two seasons I think I’ve been available for 90 per cent of the games and I want to maintain that, and add silverware. “When you get older, you appreciate it a bit more. You realise that the tunnel is coming to an end. Even driving into Carrington every morning, you feel yourself looking around and thinking, ‘I don’t know how long this will go on for.’ “The quality of the surroundings that you’re in at the training ground and Old Trafford, you look around and you take things in a bit more. “Hopefully, I can do it for a couple more years.” Whilst with Manchester United, Rio has won six Barclays Premier League titles, to League Cups, the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. He said he has one burning ambition as the club enter a new season and new era under the guidance of new manager David Moyes. United had played in three UEFA Champions League finals in four years, winning only one against Chelsea in 2008. Rio wants to help improve that He continued by saying: “I don’t ever set out to win a particular trophy at the start of each season,” said Ferdinand. “We go into four or five competitions and I want to win as many of them as I can. Which one I don’t care as long as I’ve got silverware at the end of the season I’m happy. “There is a tier to it, obviously. You’d rather win the Premier League or Champions League. But they all count and that’s the way I look at it. “We’ve been in three Champions League finals in four years and to only win one of them is disappointing. We never gave a good account of ourselves in the two games against Barcelona and that rankles with me all of the time. “When you see highlights – and you see them all the time – it leaves you thinking, ‘If only we’d played to our maximum, then I might have had another winner’s medal.’ “I still look back and think I have been fortunate to win some trophies but I think there’s more time left and we can win a few more things yet.” David Moyes, the new United manager has inherited a title-winning team and taking over from the man that was Sir Alex Ferguson will never be an easy task. United have a tough start to the Barclays Premier League this season, starting away at Swansea, then playing Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City in their next few matches. Ferdinand said it could not be any harder for Moyes, but it is viewed as a positive. Rio continued by saying: “It’s a tough start. Swansea away is never easy. Then I think we’ve got four of the top six of last season in our first six games. It’s a tough start but you have to play them sometime. “We have to got to do what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to make sure we’re at it from the start which has sometimes been hard for us. “But it means you have to focus for the start of the season. Make sure you’re on your mettle straight away. Sometimes I think you start thinking you can get away with a couple of results at the start of the season because we’re not at our best yet. “But not this time. We’ve got to hit the ground running. Make sure we’re ready from the off against big teams who will be there or thereabouts with us through the season. “The new manager is coming into a championship-winning team. “There’s no better time to come in. Whoever came in would have to fill big shoes. But the manager we’ve got now was at Everton and he built something that I respected. “They were a hard-working team, strong team, hard to play against. If we can add some of the elements from his own team into ours then we’re going to be a force. “It’s the perfect time for him. We went away on tour, had a long time together, he got to know us a bit, we got to know him a bit and learn about his methods and the way he does things. I’m sure we’ll keep learning through the season about it. “I think the lads have really enjoyed it. From what I’ve seen on tour and heard about in training, there’s been a real zest in training. That eagerness to want to be in his team.” Rio Ferdinand thinks that Manchester United’s young players can help bring success during the new era under David Moyes. During the clubs pre-season tour of Thailand, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, the new manager gave plenty of playing time to young stars Wilfried Zaha, Jesse Lingard and Adnan Januzaj. Rio said: “Zaha was really good. He’s a new signing and he was one of the better players on tour for us. “The best players were the young lads: Wilf, Jesse Lingard and Adnan was silky – he set up a great goal in one of the Japanese games. “Jesse was top scorer on the tour and from left midfield shows what a quality player he is. They were three plus points on the tour and hopefully this season we’ll see some more of them. “The manager would have assessed the squad before, been aware of them as the two boys were here already but Wilf had just arrived. “The two lads trained with us last season, Jesse came on tour with us last year so we were more than aware how good the players are.” You can buy Rio’s new book, A Decade As A Red for £10 from our Amazon store. We also have a competition where you can win a Signed Rio Ferdinand shirt, which closes on Monday [12th August 2013] at 12 noon. You can find out how to enter here.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 12:49:59 +0000
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