Rio Ferdinand is grasping the Champions League trophy so tightly that you’d be a brave person to try to pry it away from him.
The moment is playing out 14 years in the past, but even in a photo – even through a phone screen – you can feel the intensity emanating from Ferdinand, just the third Manchester United captain ever to lead the club to a European Cup victory.
“That’s the best moment I had on the pitch,” Ferdinand tells The Independent over Zoom, looking at a picture of the celebrations that followed the 2008 penalty shootout against Chelsea in Moscow. “That feeling I had there, when you’re leading out your team... and the way that it finished. If you could write the script, that’s it. Good times, man. It always evokes good memories.”
Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez, Nemanja Vidic... It feels unfair not to list the entire squad, such was the quality dispersed throughout and the importance of each player’s contribution. Every man was inextricably tied to one another, and they remain so to this day.
“That’s something that probably doesn’t get spoken about enough: how tight-knit that squad was,” Ferdinand says. “Everything we did was competitive, whether it was a card game, a computer game, a basketball game. There was a real energised, competitive spirit, but also a really, really genuine togetherness.
“We’ve all got our own ways of looking at it, our own little memories, but that night knits you together. We had some great times winning three Premier Leagues back-to-back and getting to three Champions League finals in four years, but winning that one... that was the pinnacle of it all.
“That’s memorable stuff that will never, ever leave you.”
Manchester United are very different nowadays. Football is very different. But would the changes in tactics and officiating have had any negative impact on Ferdinand, if he were to have played today?
He looks to the floor and laughs gently. “What do you think? Tell me what you think, first.”
I suggest that a man considered by many as the greatest defender in Premier League history would likely have been OK, to say the least.
Ferdinand agrees, the former England centre-back’s self-belief justified by a career in which he won six league titles, one Champions League, two League Cups and a Club World Cup – all across 12 seasons at United.
“The referees blowing up for every little bit of contact wouldn’t have affected me,” he says. “I think I went a season or two without a yellow card, or I had two in three or four years – something like that. I don’t know how many games I went without even a foul against me.”
“The responsibility of taking the ball and starting every attack would have been something different, but my game would have lent itself to that. I always wanted more touches of the ball, but we weren’t allowed to, so I would have loved that. But it would have been hard, don’t get me wrong,” Ferdinand adds, “because where they’re taking the ball now, there’s an element of risk.”
There has also been a shift in the popularity of certain tactical systems, something that Ferdinand, 43, has frequently discussed with old friends.
“For most of my career, I played against two strikers and you’d be man-for-man,” he explains, “or there would be one striker with a No 10 behind, who you’d have to engage with. There were a lot of questions raised in a game. I think there were more incidents for you as a centre-back.
“Now, centre-backs can kind of ghost through games. A lot of the time, teams play with one striker and two wide guys coming in, so you’re just covering the runs rather than the man. The demands are less probably and I think you’ve probably got more energy to deal with people.
“I think the defenders of today won’t like me saying this, but I think it’s probably easier for them. Teams are so well drilled from front to back that defending’s often done two or three phases before the ball even gets to you. All the teams want to win the ball high up the pitch, so you’re probably not having as many duels. I’m presuming here, but it’s so efficient in the way teams defend further up the pitch.”
You have to wonder what Manchester United would give to have a player like Ferdinand – if there are any – on the pitch right now. Their Premier League title win in 2013, in Ferdinand’s penultimate season at Old Trafford, remains their most recent.
Current captain Harry Maguire, an England centre-back like Ferdinand but not exactly regarded in the same vein, is one of the chief targets of criticism. What would Ferdinand say to the 29-year-old, if he were stood next to Maguire ahead of kick-off?
“It’s about going back to basics, fundamentals that you’ve worked on for years and years and continue to work on,” Ferdinand says. “And communicating with others to make your life easier, that’s huge.
“For me, sometimes it was about pulling people into positions to help protect me and make sure the ball wasn’t going into certain areas, so I could remain comfortable. When you retire, people seem to forget the down times you had and just look at it through rose-tinted glasses. There were times when I lacked confidence.
“Listen, the best players in the world, when they lack confidence, disintegrate into a fraction of what they are. Your 10-yard pass to your full-back – to Luke Shaw in Maguire’s case – is a normal ball. You can do a no-look pass at Old Trafford, you can play it with your eyes closed even, because it’s that easy.
“When you’re not confident, that feels like a 45-yard ping that Scholesy was doing, which is a difficult thing. That 10-yard pass becomes absolutely mind-boggling.”
Finding a player like Ferdinand in the modern game seems a near-impossible task, but what would Manchester United give to have a mind like his involved in the running of the club?
Not enough, it seems.
Turbulence has reigned more effectively at Old Trafford than any of Sir Alex Ferguson’s successors, with incumbent interim manager Ralf Rangnick understandably struggling to implement a rapid overhaul of playing style.
Still, “No one’s reached out to me,” says Ferdinand, now a television pundit. “But I might be too outspoken for this generation, for the way people coach and stuff. I think the environments are quite sanitised now, where speaking your mind is frowned upon a little bit.
“You’ve got to toe the line and dance to a certain tune. That’s never really been the way I’ve conducted myself. I’ve always been quite open and honest.
“I think everyone thinks they can change a club [from the inside]. I’m no different. We all believe we could go in somewhere and change the fortunes, the mindset or culture, or help an individual or group.
“Until you go in there and get the opportunity, no one will ever know, man.”
Whether or not that opportunity arises at Manchester United, it is evident that Ferdinand would relish engendering an environment like the one that enveloped him and his teammates in 2008.
“If I was to ever be part of a team, in the next phase of my life, that resembled anything like that, then I know it’s going to be an enjoyable and successful one.”
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