INSIDE THE DRESSING
ROOM - WITH RIO FERDINAND - From Red View
England's latest skipper, Rio Ferdinand, says he's one of United's
more mature squad members. Somehow, though, you sense he's still in
the thick of the dressing room banter...
Best trainer: Scholesy. He’s such a good passer,
and his team always wins in training.
Worst trainer: I’d say Wes or Wazza. They must be
saving themselves for the games.
Fittest squad member: Wayne or Ronaldo. They’re
both explosive players that could run at the same pace in the last
minute of a game as they could in the first.
Who tries the most outrageous skill? Obvious…
Ronaldo. Nani tries to compete, but to no avail!
Most competitive and toughest tackler: Wayne, Vida
and Scholesy. There are some big tackles that go in. Maybe they
don’t like their team-mates.
Anyone play out of position? No, the manager
doesn’t let us. Back in the day I used to play up front in
training. But that was stopped, I think I was too much of a threat
to the forwards.
Joker in the dressing room: The sly joker is
Fletch. People don’t suspect him, but when something’s going on he
is normally involved. Pique and Fletch are always at the centre of
pranks with player’s clothes. Me? I don’t get involved. It’s not my
game. I’m a very mature member of the squad now so I don’t get
drawn into the young boys’ antics!
Most intelligent player: Edwin van der Sar would
like to think that he’s the most intelligent. I’d probably put
myself up there [laughs]. But seeing as Edwin thinks he’s the most
intelligent, let’s let him believe it.
Person you'd least like to have on your quiz team:
Got to be Ando (Anderson). Considering he joined the club at the
same time as Nani, Ando’s English is shocking by comparison! Nani
is holding television interviews in English and Anderson struggles
to hold a conversation with the lads. He wouldn’t get us many
answers.
Best dressed: I’d say the person that puts the
most effort in is Ronaldo. He doesn’t just wake up, go into his
wardrobe and throw something on. He tries really hard. Every day
his clothes are a planned event.
Worst dressed: Tomasz Kuszczak! I say that purely
for the electric blue shirt he wore one night out once. It was
shocking. It was one of the worst colours that I’ve ever seen. The
thing is, he’d saved it just for that occasion as well.
Best dressing room music: Mine. My iPod has by far
the greatest variety of music; 80s pop, 80’s soul, R‘n’B, reggae,
dance, old house music... there’s a mixture there. Unfortunately,
some of the young European lads don’t appreciate old Hacienda house
music. Patrice likes to get involved with selecting dressing room
music. He tends to cater for the foreign lads a bit more with his
Euro pop. To be fair to him he mixes it up with a bit of R‘n’B. But
he doesn’t have the variety and depth of music knowledge that I
have.
