Rio reflects on his Irons days with ‘brilliant’ Bilic
The recently retired central defender, who learned his trade at Upton Park before multi-million pound switches to Leeds United and Manchester United, has revealed the new Irons boss had a huge impact on his early development.
Speaking in the match day programme for tomorrow’s game against Bournemouth – via www.whufc.com – Ferdinand said: “Slaven was brilliant for me as a young player.
“I have always had a good relationship with him and we have stayed in contact regularly since the days that we played together, all through his time as Croatia manager and with clubs in Russia and Turkey.
“As a player, had he not had the hip injury, I believe he could have gone to play for one of Europe’s top clubs – he was that good. As a teammate, he was really nice too, helping me and the other young players to develop.”