Does anyone else think that the whole Alex Ferguson – Rio Ferdinand shirt thing would never have happened during the centre back’s more capable days? It looks there might not be so much of a future for the former England international with Manchester United, and his home club of West Ham seems like a nice play to finish his career.
It’s months and miles away from actually happening, but it’s never too soon to lay down the ground work. Sam Allardyce, doing a good job with the Hammers so far this season, ranked 7th in the Premier League with 14 points (only 4 behind United), and is keen on the opportunity to get his hands on Rio Ferdinand, if things do go in the right direction.
Ferdinand himself has said nothing about the subject, but certain sources say that he would very much like to finish his career where it all began, in East London, playing for West Ham. His form (and health) over the last couple of seasons hasn’t been very promising, and sometimes it feels like he has a place in the starting lineup only because there are too many injuries for players in front of him in the rotation. We’ll probably know more about his place in the hierarchy once Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are back from their injuries.
Allardyce himself is waiting for Ferdinand to not sign a new contract: I think it’s highly unlikely that we would consider Rio Ferdinand at the moment, but if it’s at the end of the season and he hasn’t got a new contract and he is going to leave Manchester United then we would be interested if we can sustain our Premier League status. It depends entirely on Rio.
The chairman likes to think big and it’s nice to have a chairman who thinks big. Everything has to be in place. If Rio wants to come back, the financial package and so on and so forth and whether they want to release him or not. If he wants to live back in London eventually, which is where he comes from, which is what quite a few players like to do before the end of their careers then that might be an advantage for us.
During his successful tenure with Bolton, Allardyce was known for putting his faith in again veterans to do his bidding, which didn’t win him any titles or fans for style, but the club certainly overachieved with him. Ferdinand played for West Ham between 1995 and 2001 before being sold to Leeds. He began his United career in 2002, playing 272 times for the club, winning 5 Premier League titles and one Champions League trophy.