Pundits: Oliver Holt on Rio
Whatever happened to Rio Ferdinand? Whatever happened to the stylish young defender who was going to break the mould?
Where did the new Baresi go? Where’s the libero who was going to change the way England played?
Where’s the defender who was supposed to be more than a defender?
Where’s the man who was going to step into midfield and give his team something extra?
Steve McClaren might have a lot of players missing for the crunch tie against Israel on Saturday.
But the man the country’s missing most is the man who shrunk back into the shell of the player who will take the pitch alongside John Terry at Wembley.
Back in the late 1990s, former England boss Glenn Hoddle planned to position Ferdinand at the heart of a brave new world.
Hoddle saw Ferdinand’s ability on the ball as the key to the classic sweeper system he hoped to implement.
He experimented with playing Jamie Redknapp there in an Under-21 game in Switzerland but never saw it through. He was waiting for Ferdinand to grow up. But then Hoddle was fired, Kevin Keegan took over, Ferdinand moved to Manchester United and somewhere between then and evading a drugs test, he had all the adventure beaten out of him.
Ferguson might give his forwards and his midfielders free rein to express their glorious talents but his defenders defend.
Ferdinand stopped stepping out. He went from an adventurer to a conservative. He started hoofing his clearances into Row Z.
Sure, he cut out some of the mistakes that had affected his game but he lost far more than he gained.
He’s still a fine player in many ways. He won a league winners’ medal with United last season after all.
But he’s lost what made him special. He’s lost what made him different. The system chewed him up and spat him out as an Average Joe. He’s a stopper now but his heart’s not in it.
Just because he doesn’t get forward in open play any more hasn’t stopped him losing his concentration.
He was poor against Germany in England’s last game and even in United’s colours, he is looking increasingly slipshod.
Watching him dawdle on the ball in his own box against Spurs as Dimitar Berbatov nipped in to steal it away from him was sad to see.
Ferdinand has got to the stage where he’s ripe for demotion. Once, it was a shock when he was dropped.
Now it has got to the point where no one would be surprised if Micah Richards was moved into his England place once Gary Neville is fit at right back.
And if it’s not Richards, it will be Jonathan Woodgate or Ledley King.
Ferdinand’s star is waning. When he takes the field against Israel, he will do so as a poor man’s John Terry.
Everyone recognises that.
Terry is a peerless defender, dominant in the air, comfortable on the ball and described by Alan Hansen as one of the best near post defenders the game has ever seen.
Ferdinand does the same things, only not as well. He’s a bad copy of Terry where once he could have been the England captain’s perfect foil.
Imagine the old Ferdinand playing alongside Terry. What a combination that would have been. The immovable object teamed with the swashbuckling libero.
Terry Venables did his best to resurrect that dream when England switched to a 3-5-2 system for part of the defeat to Croatia.
But McClaren was so traumatised by the loss and the resulting criticism that he has never strayed that way again.
So the old Ferdinand is lost forever. His gradual decline represents another depressing story of a technically gifted English player sinking back into conformity and ordinariness.
He could have been the jewel in England’s crown. Instead, he’ll run out at Wembley one more bad performance away from being dropped.
It’s sad to say it but it looks like Rio’s on the way out. Going without ever having fulfilled a magnificent talent. What a waste.
