ANNOUNCED NOISY NEIGHBOURS AS AN EMERGING FORCE
MAN CITY v MAN UNITED
RIO FERDINAND can remember the exact moment he knew rivals Manchester City were about to turn into the neighbours from hell.
It was back in 2009 when the new super-power of English football had the audacity to lure Carlos Tevez from Manchester United to the Etihad in a deal that would stun the game.
A modern version of the bitter enemies will clash at the same stadium on Sunday afternoon for what promises to be another explosive chapter in one of the greatest footballing stories of all time.
City now rule the roost in the English game, not just in Manchester, having become the dominant force in the land.
The blue half of Manchester has seen City win six Premier League titles in the last decade, including three of the last four, not to mention seven FA and League Cups.
And former United legend Ferdinand admits he realised what was coming the day he tried — but failed — to persuade Tevez to remain with him and Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
Radar
“When I first signed for United, Manchester City were nothing. They weren’t even on your radar,” said Ferdinand. “It was like ‘Yeah they’re local rivals, but they’re never going to win anything — shut up’.
“They might beat us, but they’re not going to win the league.
“If they beat us it doesn’t mean we’re not winning the league.
“It was nothing.
“Then all of a sudden they get that injection of money, they start building and it’s like ‘Actually, they’re here to stay’. “The big one was when Carlos Tevez went there from us,” added Ferdinand. “That moment I was like ‘Right’ — because we knew how good he was and exactly what player they were getting.
“At the time I was like ‘This guy doesn’t myself, because coming from France, there were always young, talented players that were supposed to be the next big thing,” he said.
“Then he arrived in training and it was like… ‘wow’.”
Haaland has grabbed the headlines with a barely believable haul of 13 goals in nine games in all competitions since his summer move from Borussia Dortmund.
And such a return will be giving United defenders sleepless nights ahead of understand the rivalry — what’s he doing?’
“David Gill, the chief executive at the time, asked me to ring him, speak to his agent and tell him the club want to sign you.
“I remember his agent saying to me ‘Rio, it doesn’t matter what money they’re offering, he won’t sign — he feels he’s been disrespected, so that’s it’.”
Like Ferdinand, Paul Scholes was part of the United side left in a state of complete shock when Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp goal in 2012 denied them the title and sealed it for City on the final day of the most infamous season of all.
Scholes, on The Overlap with Gary Neville, revealed the moment reduced the first Manchester derby of the season at the Etihad on Sunday.
Yet, according to Sagna, Erik ten Hag should be equally concerned about Foden standing in the way of his first shot at bragging rights in the city.
“Haaland is a machine and it is crazy how he can have such a huge impact in such a short space of time,” he said. “It’s insane what he is doing.
“In his first games, particularly the Community Shield, he missed a few (left) (below) him to tears but all these years on he admits what City have gone on to achieve has earned them his ultimate respect.
“I nearly cried, you know, when City beat QPR and we won at Sunderland?
“That was bad. It was f ****** ridiculous,” said
Scholes.
“We went to Sunderland thinking ‘it doesn’t matter anyway, it doesn’t matter what happens here’.
“We didn’t think we’d won the league, you don’t think like that, chances and some people were quick to judge him, but he has made them eat their words. He responded to that in the best possible way: scoring goals.
Fearless Matter
“The biggest credit that I can give him is that he has made a team that was already at the very top, even better.
“But honestly, I think Phil Foden is the best young player in the world behind Erling Halaand.
“He is fearless, confident.
He doesn’t care who he is facing and backs himself to always deliver, which is very difficult at his age.
“He was a key player for them last year too, and to do that, at his age, when he is competing with top, top, players who are a lot more experienced than him, it shows you just how important he is.
“To have the personality to be one of the main men in this City team at his age tells you everything you need to know about the player.” do you? Then that happened ...
“All I knew growing up was you were either a City fan or a United fan, so that was probably why (City was always the biggest game). “Liverpool is a big game, but City was always the one for me, even when they were in League One or whatever they were in.
“They were always the one.
“I have a lot of respect for how good they are and what they do. “Obviously you’d like it the other way round, wouldn’t you, but it isn’t, and you have to admire a team like that, what they’re doing.
“They’re brilliant aren’t they?”