Rio Ferdinand is to spend the next few days considering his future at Leeds United after his new manager Terry Venables emerged from talks with the player optimistic that the England centre-half would remain at Elland Road, writes Dominic Fifield
In the wake of weeks of frenzied speculation and with Manchester United and Arsenal waiting in the wings with £30 million sterling bids, Ferdinand finally met his new club manager face-to-face in a west London hotel yesterday.
The 23-year-old spent an hour listening to Venables - who introduced the defender to the England set-up as a teenager - outline his objectives for the new season.
Ferdinand, who has four years to run on his current contract, is not due back at Leeds's Thorp Arch training centre for pre-season fitness work until Thursday, but was keen to meet with the 59-year-old coach before Venables departs today on a working holiday.
The former England manager will not link up with his newly inherited squad again until he joins them in Melbourne for Leeds's tour of the Far East and Australia later this month, but is believed to be confident that his captain and most influential player will still be at the club.
"Terry Venables had a meeting with Rio and emphasised how highly he rates him as a player," said the Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale.
"He has also outlined to him his vision for the future of the club in which Rio has an important role to play.
"They had a very amicable discussion. Terry shared his thoughts with Rio who has gone away to reflect on what they talked about.
"As far as I'm concerned this was nothing more dramatic than the new manager of Leeds United meeting his captain for a chat before going away on business, which he was committed to before he accepted the job with us."
Should Ferdinand remain at Elland Road, Leeds will revert to Plan A in their attempt to raise the £15m needed to eat into their spiralling debts, which already amounts to £77m after three years of heavy transfer spending.
To that end, Lee Bowyer is due at Liverpool's Melwood training centre this morning to discuss personal terms and undertake a medical prior to completing a £9m move to Anfield, while negotiations over the French midfielder Olivier Dacourt's proposed £11m move to Juventus remain on-going.
The money from those two deals would be enough to ease Leeds's financial plight and generate a small transfer kitty, with Feyenoord's Australian midfielder Bret Emerton, who worked with Venables when he coached the Socceroos, likely to be lured to Yorkshire as a replacement for Bowyer.
More significantly, the injection of cash would ensure there is no immediate need to off-load the England centre-half to either of Leeds's championship rivals, leaving Manchester United - who had hoped to conclude a deal for his signature by the end of this week - in particular back at square one in their search for defensive reinforcements.
Guardian Service
