Ferdinand will be frustrated he’s put himself in the position where he’s allowed himself to be treated like this. England have taken to piss out of him too many times, yet he always seems willing to go back for more.

First they banned him for eight months for failing to attend a drugs test, despite refusing him to be tested half an hour later and acknowledging that he didn’t take drugs.

Then, after being awarded the England captaincy, he had it taken off him for no reason. The manager didn’t even meet with Rio to tell him of his decision to reinstate John Terry.

Since the last international tournament, when Terry had the captaincy stripped for having an affair with the mother of the children of England team mate, Wayne Bridge, Terry was again dismissed as captain after being charged with the racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand. Terry won’t captain England to Euro 2012 but it looks as though he will be in the squad.

It has been suggested that both Rio and Terry couldn’t go together, so instead of dropping Terry, Rio will lose out. Reports have indicated fitness concerns may be given as an excuse, however Rio has played 38 games this season compared to Terry’s 30.

From a United perspective, it is obviously great if Rio gets the summer off, but I do wish he would stop allowing England to humiliate him like this. He may well announce his international retirement, which now is akin to telling the bird that just dumped you that you didn’t want to be with her anyway, honest.

The team will be announced tomorrow at 1pm.

“It’s a cruel way to have lost it,” he said. “But you have to congratulate the other team. Any team that wins it obviously deserves it and they have played well throughout the season. It’s now about us dusting ourselves down and winning the title back next season. This year we’ve had to use our squad to the maximum and that bodes well for the future. That’s one positive we can take from this. I don’t think any other team could have coped the way we have.”

Rio also reflected on how he found out that they hadn’t won the title.

“I got the word during the game that City had scored to make it 2-2,” Rio said. “Then, after our game finished, it went flat and silent, with everyone waiting. The cheers from the home supporters let us know City had scored and the title had gone to them. It’s disappointing.”

As part of the special edition of the fanzine, I wrote an article looking at some well known Manchester United players in their 25th year…

Roy Keane – August 10th 1996

United somehow managed to win the league in 1996, despite being 12 points behind Newcastle in February, and Roy Keane opened his goalscoring account in the first game of the following season in the Charity Shield again Kevin Keegan’s men. United won 4-0.

Plagued with knee problems, Keane made just his third league appearance at the end of October and was sent off for two bookable offences after 20 minutes. United still managed to score three goals without him but conceded six.

From the turn of the year, Keane picked up seven yellow cards in the eighteen games he played in, including a costly booking in the first leg of the European Cup semi-final against Borussia Dortmund. United lost that game, and the return leg without him, 1-0.

Keane was named captain for the following season after inheriting the armband from Eric Cantona who retired. He finished the season with three goals in thirty three appearances before going to the Far East on tour, where he had a run in with Peter Schmeichel.

“I was trying to sleep in a Hong Kong hotel when I heard the banging in the corridor,” recalled Andy Cole. “I went to investigate and saw that Roy Keane, the club captain, was rolling around fighting with Peter Schmeichel, the giant goalkeeper. They weren’t playing. ‘Typical Roy,’ I thought, and went back to bed smiling. The next day, Schmeichel was wearing sunglasses. There had only been one winner. Keane could fall out with anyone. I once saw him come to blows with one of his best mates, Denis Irwin, in the dressing room. They were both from Cork and close friends. And they were being pulled apart.”

David Beckham May 2nd 2000

A week before David Beckham’s 25th birthday, France Football released a report showing that David Beckham was the highest paid English footballer, bringing in £1.4m a year and earning £27,000 a week.

In the summer he was linked with moves to a whole host of top European club, including Barcelona, AC Milan, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, but the biggest story involving him at the time was the gesture he made to England fans following a 3-2 defeat to Portugal at the Euros. After setting up two goals, he was subjected to abuse from his own fans as he walked off the pitch, so he responded by sticking his middle finger up at them. In contrast to the vilification of Beckham we had seen two years earlier at the World Cup, the press, for the most part, supported him.

A few months in to the season, Beckham scored the only goal in the derby with a freekick with just 90 seconds on the clock. United went five points clear at the top whilst City were just four points above the relegation zone.

Just before Christmas, Beckham hinted for the first time that he may be open to a move away from the club. “If I’m happy and my family are happy then I will stay where I am, if things go well with the club and the contract,” he said. “But you don’t know. You can never say about that. So I will have to wait and see over the next few months.”

In the February, Beckham was named England captain by manager Sven Goran-Eriksson but the following month was dropped by Ferguson for the game against Sturm Graz after a string of below par performances.

Having already won the title in April, United had a difficult game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals. Beckham picked up a silly yellow card for a foul on Stefan Effenberg and would miss the second leg.

“David on his best form would be a massive loss and, of course, I would prefer it if he was available,” said Ferguson. “But he has not been playing as well as we would have liked. He knows that. All great players have little spells when they are not at their best. He is going through it now.”

Beckham finished the season with nine goals and one assist and was still being linked with other clubs. “Let me make it clear, I still love Manchester United,” he said. “I have been at the club since I was 16. Manchester is where I grew up as a footballer, playing for the best manager and the best club in the world. I have lived in the city for 10 years. I regard it as my home now.”

Rio Ferdinand – November 7th 2003

Two weeks before his 25th birthday, Rio Ferdinand was one of the Manchester United players named to have a routine drugs test. He was told that he would be tested for drugs after training. Training ended and Rio went to town where he was pictured shopping. At 2.02pm he called the club to ask could he come back for the test. The testers told him he was too late but they didn’t leave Carrington until 2.27pm, which would have been enough time to return for the test. UEFA’s website confirmed that Rio had asked to take the test on the same day but was told it was too late. Drug-test procedures do not have a time limit so there was no reason why the testers couldn’t have waited, given the implications of what him not taking the test were. Rio was tested for drugs at their next convenience, two days later, and that test came back negative.

Before Rio’s ban and fine had been announced, PFA chief Gordon Taylor was confident, like many, that there would be no problem in clearing the defender’s name, after the evidence that Rio’s plea to take the test before the testers left was rejected.

“If I was representing the FA and they asked me should it go ahead, I would say that unless they can mount an emphatic challenge to this evidence it should not,” he said. “We don’t want to sweep anything under the carpet but the case is now far from cut and dried. It is clear the testers should have stayed. Not enough was done to ensure Rio took the test on that day. It is not good enough to just leave when he was prepared to make it back.”

However, Rio was fined £50,000 and banned for eight months. After the unprecedented punishment was handed out, Rio offered to have a hair follicle test, which would have shown any drug use over the previous six months, going back to before his original test date, but the FA declined his request.

The MEN reported at the time: The FA does not appear to dispute Ferdinand’s claims that he has never taken drugs – they have not listed him for target-testing, which would be the usual procedure for any player suspected of being a drug user. And their refusal to get involved in hair follicle testing is further evidence that they do not question Ferdinand’s claims that he is drug-free. They maintain the punishment is for his failure to take the test alone.

His last game of the season was in January, with United four points clear of Arsenal, but any hopes we had of retaining the title faded away after then.

“Our performances in the first half of the season were terrific – then we lose Rio and all of a sudden we are back-pedalling,” said Ferguson. “We have to adjust to the fact that Rio is not there. We have to handle it. We have lost Rio and there is nothing we can do about it. So let’s get on with it.”

In March, Rio lost his appeal, meaning he would certainly miss out on the rest of United’s season as well as the European Championships in the summer.

“I can’t believe what the FA have done to me,” Ferdinand said. “I’ve always accepted that I missed the test. But I think most people now realise it was a genuine mistake, even those at the FA. So why do they find it necessary to push for such a harsh punishment? They know I didn’t take drugs. The Appeal Board even made a point of saying so.”

United finished the season 3rd, fifteen points behind Arsenal, although did win the FA Cup, which Rio has still yet to win.

Wayne Rooney – October 24th 2010

Wayne Rooney started the season where he turned 25 with details of his private life all over the papers, with it being revealed he had been sleeping with a prostitute behind his pregnant wife’s back. His form suffered and he was left out of the game against Everton at Goodison Park for fear he wouldn’t be able to handle the stick that would come his way.

Rooney picked up an ankle injury in United’s game against Bolton and was subbed off to the bench with half an hour to go where he sat and iced his injury. Fergie claimed he would be out for three weeks but Rooney later responded in the press by saying he wasn’t injured and didn’t know why the manager said he was.

Five days before his 25th birthday, Ferguson revealed at a press conference that Rooney had made it clear he would not be signing a new deal and he wanted to leave the club.

“The one thing I said to him was ‘respect this club’, I don’t want any nonsense from you,” he said. “I don’t know if he has done that. I have doubts on that, we are reading all these things about falling out with me and all that nonsense. It’s disappointing because we have done everything we possibly can to help Wayne Rooney ever since he came to the club. We have always been here as a harbour for him any time he has been in trouble.”

Two days before he turned 25, he put pen to paper on a new five year deal with the club. “I’m delighted to sign another deal at United,” he said. “In the last couple of days, I’ve talked to the manager and the owners and they’ve convinced me this is where I belong.”

By the turn of the year, Rooney had scored just two goals in all competitions for United. The players and manager defended him though, until Giggs broke ranks in February.

“For the fans, and probably me to an extent and a lot of the players, what really got our backs up was as soon as City were mentioned,” he said. “For me, as a United fan, as soon as you hear City being talked about, you think, well, that can’t happen. I was surprised.”

A week later was derby day and the stage was set for Rooney. At 1-1 with ten minutes to, Rooney leapt up in the air with his back to goal and with an extraordinary overhead kick scored the winner for United.

Finally he started earning his money, scoring for United in the league, FA Cup and Champions League much more regularly. He even got a hattrick against West Ham but this wasn’t without controversy. He swore down a camera when celebrating his 14 minute hattrick and was banned for two games, meaning he missed the FA Cup semi-final against City which we lost.

As the season approached its end, with United favourites to win the league and in the European Cup final, Rooney admitted he was wrong to question the club. “Obviously I understand I made a mistake,” he said. “When I look at it now, how wrong was I? I admitted that and I apologised for that and I have wanted to try and prove myself again to the Manchester United. I feel I am doing that now. I am 100 per cent committed to this club.”

Rooney finished the season with sixteen goals, including one in the European Cup final defeat to Barcelona, and the Premier League winners medal to satisfy his ambition.

Rio Ferdinand has sung the praises of Scholes’ impact since coming out of retirement.

“There are a number of reasons why we’ve done well since the turn of the year,” he told United Review. “There’s no doubt one of them is Paul Scholes. Would we have been in the same position [without him]? It’s impossible to say. It’s great to have him back, though. It’s not just the quality of his football that impresses me but the way he’s adapted physically. He was out of the game for months and yet he’s come straight back into top-level football and he’s hardly looked out of place. At this stage of his career, that’s phenomenal.”

Now, even Liverpool and City fans admit he’s the best man in the job, offering a fresh insight and concise analysis of the game. It really puts the work of Match of the Day to shame.

Rio Ferdinand is pleased for the success Neville has had but jokingly claims they would have done anything to shut the former captain up when he was still playing.

“Gary’s found his niche,” said told the official site. “Finally he’s found somewhere where he’s allowed to talk as much as wants. I can’t believe people actually pay him to do it. We would have paid money to shut him up! Seriously, though, Gary talks a lot of sense. There are hundreds of people out there who have played the game to a similar level, but how many of them are as honest as Gary, or can put their points across as concisely as he does? He’s doing a top job. We’re all pleased for him.”

Rio says that when he loses he goes in to a big sulk and won’t speak to his other family members for a few days.

“It’s special if we win when we play against each other,” said Rio. “I can enjoy it more, but if we lose I go into hiding and don’t come out. I don’t speak to family or anyone for a few days. I have blanked family and friends at Upton Park before because we have not got the right result. I have just got on the bus and made my way back to Manchester. They have been texting to ask where I am. I don’t reply for a couple of days. I get in a sulk sometimes because I want to win. Sometimes West Ham have needed the result to stay up, or at Sunderland so the rest of the family just go with who needs the results. This time I don’t think they can side with anyone because we both need to win.”

Rio has gone from strength to strength this season, having already played in more games than he has in the past two seasons, and Nemanja Vidic has claimed his top performances shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

“At the beginning of the season there were a lot of people questioning Rio, asking whether he could do what he did in the past, can he play, is he finished?” Vidic said. “This was nonsense. Rio has hunger and now he has proved people they are wrong. He is a very important player, not just this year but over the past years and he has done very well over the last few months.”

Fergie has already confirmed that he has left Rio in charge of talking to Paul Pogba to convince him to shun Juventus in favour of a new contract with us, but has today revealed that our defender has an influence on the entire dressing room.

“I forget Rio’s been here for nearly ten years now. I keep thinking I signed him three or four years ago!” Fergie said. “He has taken on that role of the influential person in the dressing room. He’s great in the dressing room with the players. That’s the advantage you have if you can keep players long enough for the influence to spread. In the modern game, as we know, it’s difficult to keep players for more than five or six years. But the longer they stay here the better the influence spreads to them and they can maybe take over from the older players as they disappear.”

“We’re in the position at the minute that we want to be,” said Rio. “We want to be top at this stage of the season, but more importantly we want to remain there until the end of the season. I think this is a vital period, each game is a must-win game. At the moment, if we win all of our remaining games until the end of the season, we will be champions. That’s what we’re going out to do.”