Rio Ferdinand has revealed that he never wanted to leave West Ham United ahead of his world record transfer to Leeds United in 2000.
The Irons academy product had become a regular starter in Harry Redknapp’s squad not long after he made his Premier League debut on the final day of the 1995/96 season.
Ferdinand would go on to rack up 145 appearances for the club before he became the world’s most expensive defender at the time in November 2000. Leeds United paid £18million to sign him and he would spend almost two years at Elland Road before making a controversial £30million switch to arch-rivals Manchester United.
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In 12 years at Old Trafford Ferdinand would win a total of 14 trophies, including six Premier League titles and a Champions League winners medal in 2008. Now, 22 years on from his West Ham exit, Ferdinand has explained to the Joe Cole Cast for BT Sport how his transfer to Leeds United came about.
Whilst at Upton Park, the Hammers had assembled an impressive young squad that included players who would go on to make an incredible impact in the Premier League with other clubs, such as Ferdinand and Cole. Ferdinand claims he pushed Terry Brown to strengthen the squad further but the former West Ham owner was reluctant to take the financial risks to do so.
Ferdinand said: “Do you know what I didn’t want to leave West Ham, I didn’t. But for two summers I’d gone to Terry Brown who was the owner and said to him ‘are we gonna [sic] buy anyone?’
“Because I knew what was under the bonnet. I knew that it was like me, Frank [Lampard], you [Joe Cole], [Michael] Carrick, [Jermain] Defoe, Anton [Ferdinand], Glen Johnson all these players coming through – and we’ve got [Paolo] Di Canio, Trevor Sinclair etc at the club.
“This is the conversation I had with him. ‘Just buy a few to add to this, we’re gonna [sic] do something, win an FA Cup or something’ and I’d have been happy with that I swear at the time. And he was like, ‘we can’t go into the red’ and you’ve got to respect that, it’s fine. He was like ‘we’re not going into the red, there’s other clubs that are doing it, we’re not about that’.
“I was like ‘ok cool’ and that summer I was fine, the next summer I did it again and then don’t forget I went [to Leeds] before transfer windows happened, I went in November. So I went and played Leeds on a Wednesday night and we won, [Frederic] Kanoute scored, unbelievable.
“And the Leeds fans were singing my name in the game – it was weird – because there were rumours they were trying to buy me. They were singing my name, West Ham fans were singing my name, it was a surreal moment really… the moment [West Ham accepted a bid] I was gone.”
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