Rio Ferdinand

TheRisingSun said:
Was Terry's knee in the back violent conduct? There was no need for Sanchez to go down there either - both stupid off the ball nothing incidents as far as "Sunday league" goes, but the consensus seemed to be that Terry should've been red carded at the Nou Camp. If that's the case, then Rio's was also a red card.
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A trip or a knee? Bit of a difference in my opinion.

A fail to see on what planet a trip would constitute a red card.
 
Baxter said:
A trip or a knee? Bit of a difference in my opinion.

A fail to see on what planet a trip would constitute a red card.
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Off the ball? Really? It's obvious malice. We've seen red cards given for things like that a million times.
 
In the England squad.
 
Back in the circus. This just makes me hate Hodgson even more to be honest, everybody knew why Rio was dropped and it had nothing to do with football, now he gets called up after being treated like shite for the past 2 years. I can just imagine Woy sat at a table with Rio explaining how non of it was personal and how he's now a big part of his future plans the despicable two faced cnut.
 
He's twice as good as any other English centerbacks available to Hodgson. No Brainer.
 
Happy for him, still the best English defender there is. But, the way he's been treated, he should tell the FA to feck off and announce his retirement.
 
I can't understand why he still would want to play for FA/Hodgson. The FA must have told him they would ban him for the Torres stuff unless he'd play for England.
 
He's only being picked because Jagielka and Jones are out injured. Once they're back fit he'll probably be dropped again. I'd rather he not waste his time playing back up.
 
Don't care much about England but that's great for Rio. Roy has some splainin to do but at least he was big enough to recognise the form he's in this season.
 
ha_rooney said:
Happy for him, still the best English defender there is. But, the way he's been treated, he should tell the FA to feck off and announce his retirement.
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I agree with this. He deserves the call-up, he never deserved to be dropped anyway, that ''footballing reasons'' excuse was a slap in the face to him but I hope he retires for United's benefit.
 
It would be ideal to see him telling them to feck off, but that won't happen, too bad he is better man than any of them are.
 
He seems to genuinely love playing for his country, so I'm pleased for him. On form he's arguably the best English centre half, even allowing for the fact he's not the player he was.
 
You'd wonder whether Hodgson has genuinely changed his mind or whether he's allowed himself to be barracked into the decision by the press.
 
Brophs said:
You'd wonder whether Hodgson has genuinely changed his mind or whether he's allowed himself to be barracked into the decision by the press.
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I suspect it's simply because he doesn't have many other options due to injuries and such.

He's the only good England centre half actually playing regularly.
 
Probably watched Rio over 2 legs against Madrid and realised what a mistake he made.
 
Glad for him. As Brophs said, he loves playing for England and he deserves it also.

Perhaps for another topic, but surprised to see Ben Foster back in the fold. Doesn't have the mentality for international football, IMO.
 
That's great news for him personally,and a bit of humble pie from Hodgson.
 
100 said:
Probably watched Rio over 2 legs against Madrid and realised what a mistake he made.
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Surely no one actually thinks it was "footballing reasons" initially do they?

His quality is, and always has been, obvious. Basically Roy favoured Terry. Then Terry quit so it left Hodgson nowhere to go.
 
#Carl said:
Surely no one actually thinks it was "footballing reasons" initially do they?

His quality is, and always has been, obvious. Basically Roy favoured Terry. Then Terry quit so it left Hodgson nowhere to go.
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I'd agree. I also don't know why, as Rio has always been the better player.
 
Is Terry in the squad as well?

I also wonder if it is possible that they didn't ban him for the Torres thing, because Hodgson was going to use him, and they didn't want Rio having second thoughts because of the ban.
 
Bill.s.preston said:
I'd agree. I also don't know why, as Rio has always been the better player.
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In my opinion it was because Hodgson thought he could get a tune out of Terry for much longer than he could Rio due to his injuries etc.

Performances from both over the last 18 months has made Hodgson look a bit daft though. That said, it should have been handled by the FA to start with.
 
Great news for Rio, and fair play to Hodgson, he could easily have continued trying to bluff his way through, but he's shown a willingness to be the bigger man here.

not exactly great for us as United fans, but we have enough centre backs to see us through. For once!!
 
Bill.s.preston said:
I'd agree. I also don't know why, as Rio has always been the better player.
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Tbf, Terry is 2 years younger and was more likely to last till the 2014 WC and play there regularly than Rio. Rio has outperformed him easily this season though.

Anyways, not sure about this recall as England don't need him in the qualifiers that desperately and he'll be 35 and a half come the world cup. As it is with his back problems and age he is being played carefully by United, so playing in a condensed tournament at that age isn't too likely.
 
Sandikan said:
Great news for Rio, and fair play to Hodgson, he could easily have continued trying to bluff his way through, but he's shown a willingness to be the bigger man here.

not exactly great for us as United fans, but we have enough centre backs to see us through. For once!!
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Not sure about that. He fecked Rio over when it mattered and now that the whole turmoil seems to have melted, he calls Rio. Every football fan who watched our two legs vs Madrid knows Rio's still comfortably the best English CB. Hodgson really had no choice, esp given his options are limited atm.

He really bottled it big time, too little too late now (literally).
 
Delighted for Rio
 
It would have been really embarrassing had he not been called up.
 
Brophs said:
You'd wonder whether Hodgson has genuinely changed his mind or whether he's allowed himself to be barracked into the decision by the press.
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I'd suggest that the hounding did get to him in the end. Thing is he wouldn't have got bothered about it so much if he hadn't have blabbed that he wasn't going to pick Rio again on the freaking tube!

Ever since then every press conference has started with him facing the question "what's the situation with Rio?" and this from last month suggests he didn't really want to call him up again,

“For years and years England had a centre-back pairing everyone was really satisfied with, two very good players,’’ said Hodgson. “For various reasons we’ve moved on from that and so we have to try to solve the problem."
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Now he's backtracked because of a few injuries and the meeting between him and Rio will be interesting. Rio deserves it on form, but then he did the last few squads and didn't get a look in. I can only think that Hodgson has been basically forced into calling him up because of the ground swell of support Rio has got for his great games against Madrid. I honestly believe Hodgson would rather not have had to choose him.
 
if I was Rio I'd tell England no

it was disrespectful to the player to suggest that someone like Martin Kelly could ever get into the squad for 'footballing reasons'

it was obvious that with the John Terry case Hodgson backed the wrong horse when omitting Rio

he's 36? we have some huge games coming up - he shouldnt be off playing qualifiers

I bet Fergie isn't pleased
 
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