Big-time Rio Ferdinand is heading for the Manchester United exit door

By Stan Collymore

Published 22:56 01/11/09

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Rio Ferdinand has been in poor form this season by his standards and I think Sir Alex Ferguson would be shrewd to cash in on the star in January.

England and Manchester United centre-back Ferdinand, 30, has made some glaring errors this term for club and country.

And while he has had some great years at United since joining in July 2002 from Leeds for £30million, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him shipped out soon.

Boss Ferguson has been very successful in the past at moving on his big-name stars when they stop delivering.

He has let the likes of Andy Cole, Roy Keane, Steve Bruce, Dwight Yorke and Gary Pallister all leave at the right time.

And I don’t doubt Ferguson is already searching for a big, tall, solid blocker to play alongside Nemanja Vidic in future.

Ferdinand purrs along and his positioning is very good, but I wonder whether he has just achieved everything he wanted and has got to a stage in life where there is more than football to occupy him.

Rio has a record label and is funding movies.

But all Ferguson wanta is for Manchester United players to be hermit-types like Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, who you never really see involved in anything other than football.

When a player like Yorke started to get too big-time, Ferguson soon bombed him out.

Yorkie moved from Aston Villa to Manchester United and did well for them.

But the Yorkie I knew at Villa eventually turned into a playboy off the pitch at Old Trafford.

I gather Yorkie was the epitome of a 'big-time Charlie’ at United with his bling jewellery and caps back to front. but that certainly didn’t help his United career.

Right back to the Lee Sharp era, Ferguson is very wary of players who take the plaudits on the pitch and take it into their personal lives.