OVERRATED WANNABE SLEEPS WITH THE ENEMY

From the Mirror:

It looked for all the world like a shadowy head-hunting mission to lure Britain's most expensive player to the nation's richest club.

For one hour, £29million Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand sat at a table in an exclusive Italian restaurant with Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and his agent Pini Zahavi.

Yesterday Zahavi made the astonishing admission that Ferdinand, 26, KNEW before he arrived that Kenyon would be present. But he protested that the gathering of three of the most influential men in the game was "totally, totally innocent, one million per cent". He said:

"Football wasn't even mentioned. Rio spoke the whole evening with Kenyon's girlfriend about his childhood and things like that. Of course he'll sign a new contract with United."

However news that Rio sat down with a club with the spectacular poaching power of Chelsea will stun and concern Old Trafford fans [not RI readers it won’t]. It is certain to enrage United boss Sir Alex Ferguson. It will also fuel controversy following claims that Chelsea had an illegal meeting with Arsenal's Ashley Cole, 24, earlier this year.

Ferdinand's dramatic meeting took place at night at the exclusive Carpaccio restaurant close to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground. He drove there straight after his club's 2-0 defeat at Norwich on Saturday, arriving between 10.30 and 10.45pm. Witnesses said the star left on his own shortly before midnight.

Yesterday Zahavi, one of soccer's most powerful agents, insisted Ferdinand had merely come to the restaurant to pick up some paperwork.

He said: "Yes I was in Carpaccio. I had dinner with Peter Kenyon and, after we finished dinner, Rio came to take some papers from me. He had some pasta." The agent fiercely denied that football, let alone talk of a multi-million transfer, was on the menu.

He said: "If I want to do such a meeting I take him to a full restaurant? I'm telling you with my word of honour that if it was a matter of a really professional transfer, or something like that, I'd do it in my way. I don't even need to arrange a meeting with them. I'm too close to both sides. I'm very close to Peter Kenyon and know Ferdinand like my son. I don't need to talk to them."

Asked if Ferdinand and Kenyon - who know each other from when Kenyon was chief executive of United - were aware they would meet each other, the agent said: "Yes. Rio called me when I was on my way. I said 'Peter is there'. He said 'OK so what?'."

Asked if Ferdinand was concerned at being seen with the Chelsea boss in the wake of the Cole row, Zahavi said: "No, because there is nothing to worry about because it was...it was just...

"So what? It means he's not allowed to see other people? He came to see me. He sees me from time to time. It was in the very last minute he said 'I'm coming to London'. I said 'OK, please do, but I'm with Kenyon'. He said 'So what? I'll join you'. You may believe that I'm not stupid. This was a very nice and simple thing - it was nothing."

Chelsea made the following statement:

"We've made it absolutely clear to United that we have no interest in signing Ferdinand. There is no significance in Peter Kenyon seeing him in a busy London restaurant. This was a chance meeting in a public place. Both the player and United are fully aware of the circumstances of the meeting and Chelsea's position on it."