{"id":618111,"date":"2022-09-24T13:14:46","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T17:14:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=618111"},"modified":"2022-09-24T13:14:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T17:14:46","slug":"rio-ferdinand-alex-ferguson-arch-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/09\/24\/rio-ferdinand-alex-ferguson-arch-rivals\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Ferdinand Opens Up on Former Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson Calling Arch-Rivals &#8216;Babies&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manchester United legend <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/12\/25\/families-in-football-anton-and-rio-ferdinand\/\" target=\"_self\">Rio Ferdinand<\/a> recently opened up on what former manager Sir Alex Ferguson called their arch-rivals <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/09\/24\/arsenal-tottenham-hotspur-wsl-attendance-record\/\" target=\"_self\">Arsenal<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/09\/20\/ethan-nwaneri-interest\/\" target=\"_self\">Liverpool<\/a> in team meetings<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arsenal and Liverpool have a storied rivalry with The Red Devils. During Ferguson\u2019s time at Old Trafford, the rivalry took a heated turn as United surpassed the Merseyside club\u2019s tally of 18 league titles. Arsenal also enjoyed sensational performances under French manager Arsene Wenger as they went undefeated in the 2003\/04 season in the league, eventually <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Invincibles_(English_football)\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stretching to 49 games<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Their streak was eventually ended by Sir Alex and United.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Sir Alex Ferguson Had a Unique Way of Tackling Pre-Match Team Talks<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Throw back! <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/pI31CfPAHn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pI31CfPAHn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sir Alex Ferguson (@real_Sir_Alex) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/real_Sir_Alex\/status\/358878432047820800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 21, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Rio Ferdinand on What Sir Alex Said About Arsenal<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During his 26-year reign at Old Trafford, Ferguson arguably faced the most competition from Arsene Wenger. Although Ferguson got the better of the French manager on most occasions, their touchline antics and bitterness during press conferences made the rivalry even more enticing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During a recent interview with William Hill\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stripped <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">podcast, Rio Ferdinand opened up on what the Scottish manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-in\/news\/ferguson-called-arsenal-babies-labelled-liverpool-the-worst\/blt07d7cf0f39dba7cb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> about Arsenal during their pre-match talks:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Something Sir Alex Ferguson used to say about Arsenal during his team talks was, \u2018Get in their faces. They don\u2019t like it, they can\u2019t deal with it. They\u2019re babies. Get right up against them, and you\u2019ll win this game. Rio, you\u2019ll overrun them, you\u2019ll overpower them\u2026&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ferguson also had some choice words for Liverpool. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The former United manager had once famously said when he joined the Old Trafford outfit that his job was to knock Liverpool \u201coff their perch.\u201d At the time, the Merseyside club had already won 16 league titles and was considered one of the greatest clubs in history.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, all that changed when Ferguson arrived. The legendary manager went on to win 13 titles during his time at Old Trafford as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/manchester-united\/\" target=\"_self\">Manchester United<\/a> eventually surpassed Liverpool with their league titles tally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking on the same episode of the podcast, Ferdinand revealed what Ferguson had once stated about Liverpool. Ahead of the game against the arch-rivals, the former English defender had this to say:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;The most iconic team talk Sir Alex Ferguson ever gave at Manchester United was when we played Liverpool at Anfield once, and he just said, \u2018I don\u2019t even need to talk to you, really. It\u2019s the worst Liverpool team I\u2019ve ever seen on a team sheet\u2019. That was it. And then yeah, we won that day.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How Did Alex Ferguson Fare at Manchester United?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/2013\/05\/10\/50-random-but-amazing-facts-about-sir-alex-ferguson\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferguson<\/a> is considered by many to be the greatest manager of all time, and this claim is not without merit. The legendary manager was at the touchline in 1500 matches at The Theater of Dreams. His Red Devils team also holds the accolade of being the only British side to win the coveted treble (league title, UEFA Champions League, and FA Cup).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a 26-year reign at the club, Ferguson retired in 2013. The Scotsman oversaw 13 league title wins, two champions league titles, and five FA Cup wins. At the end of his illustrious career, Ferguson won 37 championships and held an overall win percentage of 59.67.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rio Ferdinand\u2019s latest comments on his former manager are, therefore, something that fits Sir Alex\u2019s personality well, as he was well known for being upfront with his players and hated to lose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"UNH8qZ2TQ9ZQm8ntQeZyew\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1242940640\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UNH8qZ2TQ9ZQm8ntQeZyew',sig:'mgx5cjD8Zn4xFQLvS3FPLBtAxlAVsQzOhwZfwPtWVeg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1242940640',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand recently opened up on what former manager Sir Alex Ferguson called their arch-rivals Arsenal and Liverpool in team meetings Arsenal and Liverpool have a storied rivalry with The Red Devils. During Ferguson\u2019s time at Old Trafford, the rivalry took a heated turn as United surpassed the Merseyside club\u2019s tally of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4320,"featured_media":618155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,18,3],"tags":[1110,220],"class_list":["post-618111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-rio-ferdinand","tag-sir-alex-ferguson"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}