In the long line of great central defenders the club has seen, Rio ranks up there right with the best : he's had a few partners over the years but until his departure last season he, more or less, was a constant. Whether you like him personally or not, he simply was a fantastic player and that can't nor shouldn't taken away from him...
Club should at least think about a testimonial or maybe an presentation on the first home game or some such. The way he left being transferred close season meant OT never got to say goodbye properly, which wasn't befitting for a legend who had given such lengthy service and should be rectified.
He had a testimonial against Sevilla at the beginning of last season. It was more the lack of any sort of acknowledgment at the last home game of the season last year.
A successful post playing life. Decent on commentary though sometimes still got the little England attitude all do, strong social media, clothing, etc. One of our all time great CBs.
Wonder if he will ever get bored and try to get into coaching. That football IQ of his is far too valuable to go to waste.
I wished, personally, that Rio get out of the commentary chair and tries his hand at management. He's one of those guys, just by listening to him speak in his studios gigs, you just have the feeling he'd end up being very successful managing. He mentioned once how he was willing to throw his hat in the ring for the England job, so there is some type of interest. The only reason why I could see him not taking that plunge, is because his kids are still pretty young and him being a single dad, must surely take the bulk of his time (and that makes sense). He's still just 35 though and I guess he's got some time to explore that further down the line, if he wants to. Still disappointing that the Valencia experience completed turned off Gary Neville from the job apparently.
Rio strikes me as more an assistant coach than anything. doesn't seem the management type to me. i think he would work well with youth in some kind of coach/mentor role
I think he'd have a hard time with respect considering his personality. He enjoys fun and joking too much.
I was thinking just that. @Chaz Striker I think he could be a good bridge between the manager and the players, as an assistant. An arm around the shoulder type, but could give a stern telling off when it's warranted.
While I agree that starting at youth level would be a great fit for him, who knows where it would take him from there, especially if he were to show the aptitude and more importantly get results. As far as him getting respect, Rio very much strikes me like the kind of guy who would command tons of it. He's definitely enjoys a laugh and a good time, but when it's time to get serious, the guy buckles down and doesn't mess about. So no, I don't think that would be an issue at all for him.
Oh my god. I finally found the clip, it just popped up on my suggested videos. Whoever said (honestly forgot) injuries weren't a contributing factor to Rio's captaincy snub can eat a bag of dicks.
I don't recall ever writing or believing that injuries either were or weren't a contributing factor to Rio never being handed the armband. Fact is, when the armband was up for grabs two times while Rio was on the roster Ferguson believed others were a better fit for it. Those are facts. When Keane left the job was open and Ferguson picked Neville. When Neville left Ferguson picked Vidic. No one argues that Neville was a greater defender, or footballer all around, than Rio. I don't and I've never come across a single poster on any forum or online in general or any television or radio pundit who makes such a claim. Maybe there's one out there somewhere but the overwhelming consensus is that Rio was a greater defender/footballer/athlete than Neville (although as an analyst Neville > Rio, though Rio would undoubtedly beat the shit out of Neville in the ring). Yet Ferguson saw in Neville leadership -- captainlike -- qualities that he did not see in Rio. There was no controversy about that decision at the time and there's certainly no doubt that in hindsight that Neville was a fantastic choice to wear the armband. As for Vidic, we've had our debate here over whether Vidic or Rio was the greater defender. Let's not rehash that. But it goes without any question that there was no controversy at the time whatsoever over Ferguson's choice to go with Vidic over Rio. And hindsight compels the conclusion that Vidic was a fantastic captain, the obviously better choice at the time. One is free to speculate that Rio would have been a better captain than Neville and Vidic, but one is not free to deny that Rio was passed over TWICE, once by a clearly inferior (though still brilliant) player and once by a superior (at least IMHO) player, a player who was twice named EPL Player of the Year, an aware Rio NEVER (sorry about the all caps) won.