As the Premier League season approaches its climax, there has already been talk about players leaving. One of the names that regularly gets into the headline over the last few weeks has been Rio Ferdinand. The Manchester United defender has been linked with an exit from Old Trafford after falling down the pecking order at United. Once a regular first-team player and a captain at the club, he has now been reduced to a bit part player under David Moyes. At 35 years of age, he also does not have a long time left in football.

Rio Ferdinand’s season as well as the majority of his teammates of Manchester United is one to forget for the veteran defender who is reaching the end of his career at least with the Premier League club as his age and legs have been showing signs of slowing down and just not being able to keep up with the rest of his team and his opponents.

Manchester United’s latest Premier League match was a great example of why there are so many reports and rumors being spread around concerning the future of Rio Ferdinand and many other players in Old Trafford.

David Moyes (manager of Manchester United) has dismissed all speculations regarding Rio Ferdinand’s future association with the club and his retirement plans. There were rumors reported in newspapers that Rio Ferdinand is not going to be a part of the training camp in Dubai and that he will probably retire after this football season comes to an end.

At a press meeting, Moyes made it very clear that all these rumors are not true and complete nonsense. Rubbish facts in relation to Rio Ferdinand and Manchester United were reported by the newspapers.

Manchester United have made a poor start to 2014 after failing to win all of the matches right now. As a result, they are losing ground in the Premier league table, while they have also been knocked out of the FA Cup by Swansea.

Swansea will be the opponents in the league this weekend and defender Rio Ferdinand says that nothing less than three points would be the order of the day for United players. Ferdinand is not expected to be in the starting line-up for this encounter, as he has rarely featured for David Moyes since the start of the season.

A lot has been speculated about the future of Rio Ferdinand at Old Trafford after the defender has not been seen in action for almost a month. His contract expires in the summer and there has been no talk about a new deal as well. His last appearance in a United shirt came against Shakhtar Donetsk back in December. However, David Moyes has reiterated that the former Leeds United man remains part of his plans. Ferdinand recently announced his retirement from international football in order to concentrate on his club career.

Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has claimed that he is extremely anxious towards sealing the place in the knockout stages. United will be able to progress past the group stages with a win over Bayer Leverkusen, but it is easier said than done since the German team will be playing at home.

Further, they will also be coming into the encounter on a good run of form, which has seen them move into the second place in the Bundesliga table. They are undefeated in the last 13 matches at home, which will prove a major test for United.

Despite a tough start in the new era under David Moyes, defender Rio Ferdinand has said that Manchester United will be capable of winning all the trophies on offer this season. United have had just one victory in three matches this season.

They have also failing to land many of the transfer targets. They ended up settling for Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini, for whom they paid £ 27.5 million even though they could have got him for £ 23 million only a month ago. Cesc Fabregas, Juan Mata, Thiago Alcantara were all heavily linked with a move to United.

Manchester United defensive stalwart Rio Ferdinand has claimed that he lost a staggering 4 kilograms in the Premier League champions 2-2 draw against Cerezo Osaka in a pre-season friendly in Japan on Friday. The Red Devils needed a last gasp equalizer from new signing Wilfried Zaha against the J-League outfit as they barely managed to avoid their third defeat in four outings of their pre-season tour of Asia.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who said a few days ago that he cannot see Rio Ferdinand playing for the England national team at the moment, has said that the decision taken by the England defender to not be part of the squad against San Marino as the correct one.

At 35 years of age, the international career of the former West Ham and Leeds United defender may well be over. He was not taken by the England manager, Roy Hodgson, for the Euro 2012. In fact, his last international tournament was back in 2006 when he played at the World Cup.

The football season is drawing towards what Sir Alex Ferguson once bafflingly described as: “squeaky bum time”, but this season Sir Alex’s nether regions would seem to be pretty secure – given the fifteen point advantage he has over Manchester City going into the final period of the season.