“I love what Patrick Vieira stands for and what he is doing there,” Ferdinand told cpfc.co.uk. “The style of football – he has changed it.
“You see the profile of players here and you go: 'I enjoy watching these'. There’s style and substance, a blending of youth and experience. He had quite a lot to do when he came here in terms of the profile of players, players leaving and so that’s great work by him and his recruitment team.
“Palace is always a game where if they came up on Match of the Day, you wouldn’t turn it off.”
Ferdinand has fond memories of playing at Selhurst Park – and playing against Patrick Vieira, whose fighting characteristics he is beginning to see reflected in this Palace side.
“I used to love playing there,” he remembers. “Obviously it was south London so it was like coming home. I used to get loads of tickets. We used to have quite a big space for the Man Utd fans.
“It was always loud but our away fans used to travel really well, so it was always a good game. Tough games – we always expected a tough game there.
“The only thing that is different [in this Palace team] is that they don’t have the consistency Patrick Vieira had. Patrick Vieira was elite in terms of consistency and performance.
“That never switched on and off, he was on always. I'm sure he will want that to be reflected in his team, but the project here is in the very early stages. You can see there are snippets of his characteristics in this team.”
For a side full of young players, Ferdinand has the same advice that he stuck to during his early years in the Premier League.
“Expect the unexpected – it is unpredictable,” he says. “But also work hard. You can’t recreate the wheel with this kind of thing, you can’t come with some new advice that is really groundbreaking.
“Stick to old school stuff. Roll your sleeves up, keeping working hard, be honest with what you do and if you keep working hard on the training field you will get your luck on the pitch.”
We ask Ferdinand a final question: how many will Palace win by at Old Trafford?
He smiles.
“Interview over.”