Ferdinand: Ferguson didn’t give us credit we deserved

Rob Conlon
Rio Ferdinand: Defender says he and Nemanja Vidic were rarely praised

Rio Ferdinand believes he and centre-back partner Nemanja Vidic felt they never got given enough credit from Sir Alex Ferguson.

Following the arrival of Vidic from Spartak Moscow in 2006, the duo formed the bedrock upon which Manchester United won five Premier League titles as well as the Champions League.

However the pair felt they were never praised enough, although Ferguson has since explained his reluctance.

“It is one of the things that pushed me on. With Ferguson, he was very much on your case at all times,” said Ferdinand, who left the Red Devils to join QPR in 2014 before retiring in the summer.

“It was good. He was very much about personalities and working you out. I used to feel I was never given enough credit. Me and Vidic used to talk about it quite a lot.

“It wasn’t until I retired he said ‘your personality, if I had given you too much credit, you might have got carried away’. All the time I was trying to get that credibility from him. He did have that for me as a player.”

Serbian Vidic left Old Trafford at the same time as Ferdinand, but has struggled at Inter Milan and is yet to play this season.