Rio Ferdinand: We were all comfortable with Roy Keane’s MUTV interview. He has said far worse to our faces

Ferdinand spent three years playing alongside Keane at Manchester United before the current Ireland assistant manager got the boot for criticising United players during the interview which was subsequently not aired.

“We all went up to the manager’s office. Keanie called a little meeting and said ‘listen guys there is something that has been pulled on the MUTV channel that I am not ashamed of and I would say it all to your faces, if you want to see it, no problem’,” said Ferdinand on 2FM’s Nicky Byrne Show today.

“We were all quite comfortable with it really. The manager wasn’t happy about it and the club weren’t happy about it and we all went in and saw it, had a look and to be fair he had said worse to peoples’ faces if I’m being honest. It wasn’t anything you didn’t expect from Keane.

“At the end of the day, the club and him and the manager fell out over it so it became a huge story. Obviously now, the way they are talking about it, for Alex Ferguson and Keanie it didn’t finish too well.

“I always thought that things like that, it was best to do it in the changing room. I think the manager’s problem was that he was the manager and if anyone was to be dug out individually it would be him that would be doing it. I think you can understand that.

“Keanie is an emotional guy and it was quite impulsive and he made his decision to do that. He wasn’t doing it for the wrong reasons. He was doing it for the betterment of the squad. You can start thinking is someone doing it for their own purposes but Keanie isn’t that type of person,” added the QPR defender.

Ferdinand also spoke of his own disappointment at the way his career ended at Old Trafford.

The former England defender was told his contract would not be renewed by Ed Woodward in the dressing room following their final game of the season last year, a 1-1 draw away to Southampton.

“You want your career to end in the right way, the way you dream about it and I am like any other person in that sense but it wasn’t to be.

“I was disappointed I was told in the changing room straight after a game when I was still worried about the result and what was going on.

“Obviously I spoke to Giggsy who was interim manager at the time and he said ‘Rio, if I keep the job which I am hoping to do, I want you to sign on for another year’.

“Before that it was David Moyes and I knew at the time if he stayed on I wasn’t going to be staying so it was a bit of a rollercoaster and to come in straight after that game and to hit you with it. After 12 years!

“I was sat on the plane going home from Southampton to Manchester and it just kind of hit me, ‘whoa, I ain’t going to be here with these lads next year and they are talking about going on tour’. So it all kind of came to a head at that point and it was not the way I had dreamt about it.

“Since then to be fair the club have been fantastic to me and have invited me to games and the stadium.”