Rio Ferdinand was “flattened” when told ahead of the visit of Burnley to Old Trafford that Leny Yoro hadn’t started a Premier League game in which Manchester United have defeated a current Premier League side.
“What am I hearing?” Ferdinand said. “I’m trying to have a good, positive moment here, trying to get some positivity.
“But that is testament – if I can find a positive angle on this – that is testament to his resilience, you know. You know how difficult it is to play football, not winning, but still putting out performances that are improving week in week out? That’s a big thing that, you know.”
That is an extremely acute positive angle to have found, but having come through an incredibly challenging debut season largely unscathed, Yoro is showing that Ferdinand’s burgeoning “love” of him as a footballer is well founded in his second campaign. He really does look the part.
And credit where it’s due, Ferdinand called it from day dot, hailing him as a talent to be reckoned with in a personal video shown to Yoro during his first interview at the club.
“You’ve got all the potential, you’ve got all the tools, man, you’ve got everything there, ready to rock and roll to go and make a big impact at this club.”
And United have Ferdinand to thank (along with quite significantly superior wages) for luring him to the club amid competition for his signature from Real Madrid.
“It was like two weeks ago [when I first spoke to Rio],” Yoro explained last summer. “He called me. First of all, I was really impressed to speak with him and, yeah, we spoke like 10 minutes about Man United, so he helped me a lot to make my choice. It was really an honour to speak with him.”
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Say what you want about Ferdinand, his YouTuber schtick on commentary and whatever else, but he is a proper Manchester United legend with 455 appearances for the club to his name and 12 trophies. It must have been quite the call to receive and Ferdinand continues to sing Yoro’s praises.
“I love him. I don’t know where is ceiling is, but he could be anything,” the former United defender told United We Stand on Monday.
“He just needs the pieces around him as well to help him as a young kid, but I think he has the nucleus of all the right traits to be a top centre half and he will be because he wants to be as well.
“He’s a hard worker and he’s diligent, but he needs time as well.”
And it looks as though he backed and is backing the right horse in Yoro. Having got through last season without being one of the innumerable United problems, he’s now asserting himself as one of the nailed on solutions.
We wouldn’t want him to be tarred by the same brush as Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund or Kobbie Mainoo, but any new list of Manchester United ‘untouchables’ would surely include him, maybe with Matthijs de Ligt and Amad Diallo, but also quite possibly him alone, with the new signings yet to prove themselves and others struggling to meet the requirements of consistent quality and youth for that label.