24 February 2024 , 09:00
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Rio Ferdinand once played a game for Manchester United while "stinking of alcohol", leaving teammate Wayne Rooney shocked.
Ferdinand had been out drinking the week prior to the match as he celebrated United winning another Premier League title. The defender made the admission back in 2020 when attempting to explain why Liverpool's form suffered a dip after they won the league.
And Ferdinand admitted most teams have a slight "fall-off" after sealing a title as players do not train or play with the same intensity when they are no longer fighting for a trophy. "There's no doubt in my mind that there is a one per cent or two per cent fall-off when you win a league," he admitted.
"Unless you have got a Champions League that is coming up after, which they haven't, you normally just sit there and chill. I remember running past Wayne Rooney in a game once and he said 'Wow, you stink of alcohol' and I said 'Yeah, I have been out all week.'
"So you celebrate. You haven't got to go anywhere, they can be at home on a Zoom call, you don't know these days, things are different. I am telling you there is a one per cent or two per cent at least that has come off, even in training.
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"It's not the same intensity, it's just the way it is. Yes, they are fighting to break records, but that's not the same as fighting for another title or another cup somewhere else."
Ferdinand has previously admitted he was a "lunatic" during his time at West Ham, branding the club's drinking culture "crazy" when he broke into the first-team. "I used to get through a load when I was younger," he told the Guardian in 2019.
Rooney told Ferdinand he "stunk of alcohol" during a game after Manchester United were celebrating a Premier League title win (EMPICS Sport)"I could probably do eight, nine, 10 [pints of Guinness]. Then I'd move on to the vodkas. I could go through loads. I could go all day drinking, then wake up and go again when I was younger. I always say to people who ask if I have any regrets about playing, I wouldn't have drunk alcohol.
"I was a lunatic. When I was at West Ham … elements of my career are a blur. People talk about performances and results at certain times in them games and I just sit and nod my head. I haven't got a clue what they're talking about. I don't remember.
"It was a different culture. Crazy. The culture I was in at West Ham was a drinking culture. Football and drinks and nightclubs, that's the way it was. And that's the way I lived at that time."
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