Rio Ferdinand used to run his mouth and tell people what to do - I gave it back to him

Dimitar Berbatov claims his former Manchester United team-mate Rio Ferdinand "always used to run his mouth" during training sessions and matches.

Berbatov was snapped up by Sir Alex Ferguson from Tottenham Hotspur on the final day of the summer transfer window in 2008, joining for a fee of £30.75million. The Bulgarian forward netted nine league goals in his debut season as he helped United claim a third consecutive Premier League title.

Yet the same high standards and drive to win that yielded such success also occasionally led to tension between Berbatov and his fellow Red Devils stars. One such player he frequently clashed with was centre-back Ferdinand.

Ferdinand, who now works as a pundit for TNT Sports, was not shy about voicing his criticisms of Berbatov, who would respond by targeting Ferdinand's passing skills. Speaking to Betfair, the laid-back striker, now 43, said: "I had it a lot in my career, arguing and screaming with team-mates, and I'm fine with it. It's all for the purpose of helping the team to win games.

"Rio (Ferdinand) used to always run his mouth and tell everyone what to do, I used to give it back to him by telling him how to defend and to pass it to me, to my feet, instead of clearing the ball high. It's always good to put a bit of fire in your team-mates, it's a two way street and when you play on that to help you win it's a good thing."

Berbatov, however, went on to add that arguments were not only beneficial but vital to United's success. Giving his own take on the pair’s regular training ground clashes, Ferdinand said on Jake Humphrey's High Performance podcast: "There are players out there, I know there will be, who will say, 'Rio used to drill me all the time, he used to pick on me a little