Speaking the Clare Balding show, Rio Ferdinand has talked about the day that the players found of Sir Alex Ferguson was retiring.

“It was a shock,” said Rio. “We walked in that morning and it was all in the papers, but you never believe the papers. So we were just debating what was going on. Then a meeting got called in the changing room. The manager came in and told us. He was disappointed that somebody had leaked it to the media before he got a chance to tell us. Looking around the room and seeing all the lads’ faces, like ‘no chance, this isn’t real, surely’. And I remember looking at Robin van Persie. He’d just signed from Arsenal and won his first league title. Seeing the disbelief and the real disappointment.”