FRAZZLED FERDINAND
In the preliminaries before kick-off between Aston Villa and Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes last month, TNT Sports landed something of a coup. Having got celebrity Villa fan Prince William to agree to a pre-match interview, Rio Ferdinand and Ally McCoist were dispatched to ask His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge for his thoughts on how the game might unfold. While both former footballers have reached an age where they no longer have forelocks worthy of the name left to tug, Rio was so impressed with William’s knowledge of gegenpressing, xG and heat maps that he issued a stark warning to the heir to the throne. “Do not go into a punditry job because I could be out of the game,” he joked, as those armchair viewers the length and breadth of the country who are forced to pay top dollar for TNT subscriptions if they want to watch European football dared to dream.
