Premier League: Blackburn Rovers v West Ham United - Peter White's big match preview

EVEN if Roy Hodgson was in a position to field his top two strikers against West Ham United at Ewood tomorrow, Blackburn Rovers still might struggle to find a way past a defender nicknamed by his manager -- Rolls Royce.

Rio Ferdinand has made such outstanding progress in the last couple of years -- the 19-year-old centre back was a member of England's World Cup party -- that Hammers boss Harry Redknapp has no doubt the not-too-distant future will see his starlet emerge as "the best defender in Europe."

That is praise indeed for a player only just too old for the youth team.

But West Ham's defensive record this season, five clean sheets in seven games, suggests they have got it right at the back.

And the calm, assured way in which the teenager has shrugged off all the hype and pressures that stardom brings also adds weight to Redknapp's prophecy.

Ferdinand will prove a formidable opponent but he will approach the game in the same matter-of-fact manner he adopts with his career.

He has a subtle change of pace that is a huge asset when players try to go past him and he disarms interviewers with a similarly deceptive approach.

But don't mistake an apparently laid-back attitude as a weakness. That's his public image -- on the pitch he is 100 per cent concentrated on the West Ham cause. Just like his close friend Michael Owen, Ferdinand comes across as a nice lad but he's also a thorough professional when the action starts.

"I think I have always been quite mature for my age," he said. "I've always hung around with people older than me.

"All my friends from where I grew up in Peckham were between two and five years older than me and I had to mature quickly.

"I've still got the same mates from when I was growing up there as they are your real friends in life.

"You can't be big headed if you come from Peckham as someone will always come and slap you down.

"Obviously I like to have a laugh and mess round like everyone else.

"But when it's time to be serious, I am.

"Michael is like that. When he's with the boys he lets his hair down and messes about but, in front of the cameras, he carries himself very well."

Ferdinand has been described as the next Bobby Moore but he dismisses such suggestions.

"There's only ever going to be one Bobby Moore and he's an absolute legend," he added. "Obviously it's nice to be comparted to him but I've only been in the game two minutes and I've a long way to go to even be halfway good enough to lace his boots."

That may be fact but Rovers will not underestimate the barrier that Ferdinand poses to their hopes tomorrow.

And, unlike those other Peckham people the Trotters, this time next year Rio Ferdinand probably will be a millionaire.

In football terms, he already has riches in abundance.

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