Fergie Forgets Rio's Contract Expiry

In May 2008, Rio Ferdinand signed a five year extension with the club ahead of captaining us to European Cup success against Chelsea in Moscow. He was 29-years-old then and at his peak.

That contract expires in the summer and any chance of it being extended earlier have been ruled out by the repeated injury problems he’s suffered with. With just seven months remaining on his current deal, Sir Alex Ferguson has confirmed they will be looking at offering him a new contract.

“Rio can play for two or three years,” said Ferguson. “He has different issues from Paul or Ryan in terms of injuries over the last couple of years. He is not as quick as he was but that is not a big problem because his experience is important. He is still a great footballer and, even at 33, there is no reason why he can’t stay on. We have always adopted that policy of offering one-year contracts, so we will see as the season progresses. I didn’t even realise his contract was up. You are making me panic.”

The issue for Rio is that at 33-years-old, you could hardly blame him for wanting better job security. If he was offered a longer contract from a half decent club or somewhere abroad where they’d pay him a handsome salary, it would probably be in his best interests to take his testimonial then move.