Watching Rio Ferdinand in the David Beckham documentary on Netflix over the weekend, I was reminded of my own meeting with a very young looking Rio back in 1999. Unusually, I was late arriving at West Ham’s training ground, somewhere off the A12 near Romford, as I’d got lost and when I got there the writer, Scott, had already started the interview. Ferdinand strode over towards me, and ignoring my outstretched hand, looked me straight in the eye and completely deadpan said ‘turn up on time next time, alright?’, waiting a beat before creasing up with mirth and introducing himself, shaking my hand and adding ‘I had you there, didn’t I?’ My other abiding memory is of the PR person from whatever boot company had sponsored him desperately trying to arrange the boot room wall so that none of the competitors logos were in the background - god knows how the players found their own boots again the next day…….