Fergie said he played rio every 7 days ( more like every 5 as we played monday then saturday at times ) except for just after january where he played 3 in 7 a number of times. This was because we had the FA Cup, the CL knock out stages and the Europa League ties to play. So all Fergie did was tell England Rio can play 3 games a week as long as its not over the course of a full season. The Euros is 3 weeks long and only during the group stage do you play 3 games in 7 days. Rio would of had no problem. Also 7th or 8th choice.....eh, behind who. Cant wait to see you name 7 defenders better than Rio who are english and what you base it on. You would struggle to find 7 in world football never mind just English but do try by all means. I will saqy that evidence, like erm...football matches last season showed Rio to be the countries second best english defender and the 3rd best in the PL with all nationalities taken into account. The 2 ahead of him played for City. Of course dont let reality get in the way though.
His club manager said he wasn't sure if he could play in every single game, not that he was incapable of doing so, he also talked about Rio playing 3 games in 7 days for United and even said Rio should be in the squad, but if injury worries were the "footballing reasons" why he wasn't considered, why take Kelly? He's spent far more time injured recently than Ferdinand, who has actually played the same amount of games as Cahill and more than Jagielka this season.
Sol 'give me a job' Campbell has done another piece on the subject, this time completely undermining himself and showing that this whole situation is, to him, a chance to publically question why he wasn't at the last world cup
Kelly because he was ahead of Ferdinand already, Kelly was part of the provisional squad and was then on stand-by. I can't see why you would put a player on stand-by and then choose another over them. When Lampard had to withdraw Hodgson brought in Jagielka, a centre back. Phil Jones continued in his position as secondary right back. When Cahill got injured that meant England had 2 LB's, 1RB, 1RB/CD/DM & 3CD - by bringing Kelly in Hodgson moves Jones over to become back-up centre-back or defensive midfield. If Hodgson had brought Ferdinand in he would have had 5 players who could play central defence. If you consider the likelihood of Jones having to play centre midfield (he and Milner are the alternatives to an injured Parker - if Gerrard goes as well it is down to Henderson and Milner) then the need for more cover at right back is obvious.
If it's because of racism how come Johnson, Chamberlain, walcott, lescott young etc etc are going!? It's because Rio for some reason thinks he's better than everyone else and deserves to be in the squad and now suddenly someones standing up to him he's turning it into a big ordeal publicly The fact is he's old, losing his ability, injury prone, and a gobshite! Terry shouldn't be going aswell, he's even ****ter!
Calm down mate! In Roy's interview after announcing the squad, he said he left Rio out because he barely played for England since the world cup and Roy didn't think he should be credited with getting England to the tournament. He had to repeat it several times and IMO it's a legitimate selection policy. I'd guess that Kelly got selected because of his youth. If we didn't select twats, we'd rule out most of the squad. Terry might be a twat, but he's innocent until proven guilty on the racism front and we shouldn't allow that to cloud our judgement on him as a footballer.
shhhh don't you know that all these people have is the race card? If you show how much utter **** that is they'll have to blame their own failings on themselves.
What has Rio said to suggest he thinks he's better than everyone else and deserves to be in the squad because I must of missed that?
This whole row was started because Rio suggested that his not going was for other reasons than he's over the hill as a footballer and not up to International football. I also notice the people sticking up for him are nearly all United fans. If you were a Chelsea fan sticking up for him I might actually respect your opinion, but it just comes across as pathetic partisanship.
As a United fan I have actually said that I wouldn't of picked Rio in the first choice squad anyway, and to be perfectly honest I couldn't give a flying f*ck if you respect my opinion or not.
Can't say I've watched MUTV but the quote attributed to Ferguson on there in May was as follows "You play something like a game every four days. Rio Ferdinand couldn't do that." No mention of 7 days etc? Regardless unless he can be fit to play in every game then I wouldn't take him. He's had his time with England like many others and has fallen short.
