Rio Ferdinand has revealed that he called up his former Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney after being left amazed by the behaviour of two stars in the dressing-room.
Ferdinand became one the best centre backs in the history of the Premier League during his time at Manchester United, winning six top-flight titles and a Champions League under Sir Alex Ferguson.
However, as with numerous former club legends, he has seen his old side fall away from their previously supreme position in English football in the aftermath of the great Scot’s departure.
As such, Ferdinand has revealed he was even moved enough to complain about some United stars’ behaviour to then-captain and former team-mate Rooney over the phone.
Speaking about the dressing-room culture after Ferdinand’s departure, Phil Jones – who only left the club this summer – opened up on how things changed in the years after Ferguson retired.
Rio Ferdinand has revealed he was moved to call his former team-mate Wayne Rooney about two players’ behaviour in the dressing-room
Ferdinand became arguably the best defender in Premier League history at Man United
Rooney and Ferdinand were long term team-mates for both Manchester United and England
‘Back then, when you look at the dressing room we had… we had so many incredible, powerful leaders that wouldn’t let anything get in the way of the team’s performance and the team winning,’ Jones told Ferdinand on the defender’s YouTube channel.
‘That winning mentality was so strong and powerful that no one that came in could disrupt that.
‘I think now players maybe don’t have the ability to call people out anymore and the power to tell them, “that’s not what we do at this football club… don’t come in here and start acting like that, that doesn’t work here”.
‘I’m not saying that happens every single day at the club but if we lost a game, we’d have a meeting the next day, not even with the coaches. The leaders would be saying, ‘this is not good enough’ after one loss.’
Ferdinand then pointed out the action he had taken after seeing Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard dancing on social media. At this point, the Red Devils were sat sixth in the Premier League.
‘I’ll tell you when it changed, from the outside at least.
‘I rang Wazza and said, “What’s going on here? How are you allowing this?” And he said “You can’t say nothing man, it’s not the same anymore”.
‘He said “It’s not just those two, there would be a big group looking at me like I’m mad if I said anything”.’
Ferdinand rang his old team-mate to complain about both Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard
The two were filmed dancing in the changing room despite the club being sat in sixth place
Perhaps tellingly, Jones added: ‘Can you imagine that happening in our dressing room?! You would get torched.’
Neither Lingard nor Pogba are at the club anymore, with the former now plying his trade in South Korea.
French World Cup winner Pogba last week had his four year drugs ban slashed to just 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, as exclusively revealed by Mail Sport.
Man United meanwhile, are still yet to return to the top of the ladder domestically, with Erik ten Hag’s current reign offering only an FA Cup and Carabao Cup, with the club out of the Champions League this term.
