Apparently at Rio Ferdinand’s first Manchester United training session Roy Keane yelled at him for picking the easy pass.
For those of you who don’t know both of these men were players but Roy was the captain and apparently he shouted something along the lines of:
‘Youre not at Leeds any more! Play the right pass!’
On day one Rio got a taste of the challenging environment at Man United.
Here, not only would the manager be on your case to improve but the players would push you to be better too.
And it is arguably this culture, under Sir Alex Ferguson that resulted in so many trophies.
Had they been at another club, a club content with avoiding relegation then maybe Rio would’ve been let off.
It was his first day after all!
But Rio chose to join Man United.
Rio picked this challenging environment where there are no first day excuses.
One could argue that Rio only became a world class defender after living and breathing the Man United standard for years.
This ‘push each other to improve’ environment is not for everyone but for those who are eager to learn and better themselves it’s priceless.
Thomas Duggan 