Gary Neville awkwardly told Rio Ferdinand he reminds him of player he called 'waste of money'

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Ordinarily, a comparison with a title-winning centre-back might be a compliment for Rio Ferdinand . However, there was an awkward moment for the former Manchester United star as former team-mate Gary Neville reminded him of his past comments about the player in question.

Arsenal centre-back William Saliba is now a Premier League winner, having starred for the Gunners as they ended a 22-year wait for the title . Early in the Frenchman's career, however, Ferdinand was less than complimentary.

Saliba joined Arsenal as a teenager but spent three years out on loan before finally making his Premier League debut at the start of the 2022/23 season. He was so impressive in that game - a win at Crystal Palace - that Neville outlined parallels with his one-time club and international colleague.

"I was massively impressed by him. He reminded me of a young Rio Ferdinand. He’s such a young defender at 21," Neville told Sky Sports after that opening day win. "Getting through that second half, when Arsenal weren’t at their best, would have been the most pleasing thing for Mikel Arteta ."

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At the time, Ferdinand was keen to give £27million man Saliba space to carve his own reputation rather than rushing into lofty comparisons. "How old is he? How many Premier League games has he played? How many Premier League games had I played at that point?" he said on his YouTube channel .

"I broke the British transfer record at that time and people are drawing comparisons? It’s a madness! Give the boy time, give him some time!"

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Ferdinand's qualms about the money spent on Saliba when Arsenal loaned him to Nice in January 2021. The Frenchman had spent the first half of the 2020/21 campaign in North London but had no first-team involvement beyond a spot on the bench in the Community Shield.

"You’ve got a great nucleus of young players, there’s seven or eight young players there who everyone is talking about," Ferdinand said at the time . "But you’ve got to put the pieces around them and that’s the big problem. That’s been the big problem with recruitment at Arsenal for so long.

"Saliba, what’s happened with him? It’s a waste of money it seems at the minute. I don’t know what’s happened."

In the years since, though, Arsenal's patience with Saliba has paid dividends. He has racked up 50 or more appearances in each of the last three seasons, helping transform Mikel Arteta's team from also-rans into title contenders and, finally, champions.

The former Saint-Etienne man signed a new contract in September, keeping him in North London until 2030. If another club wants to tempt him away now, it would cost substantially more than the £27m they paid when he was a teenager.

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