Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand talks about the constant drive for success, David Moyes and his serious side Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand chats exclusively to Fox Sports. Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand in Sydney. IT's easy to become blase about the visual power of Sydney when you see it all the time, and sometimes it takes fresh eyes to remind you of the brilliance. No one's immune to the beauty, not even a footballer who has travelled the world and won multiple honours in more than a decade of Manchester United's distinctive shade of red. So Rio Ferdinand is twisting his neck to take in the full majesty of the view from the 31st floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, musing on the possibility of acquiring a harbour-front property and exalting in the warmth of the sun. Yet there's a seriousness about Ferdinand that reminds you of the challenges that lie further ahead than tonight's friendly with the A-League All Stars. (l-r) Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, manager David Moyes and Ryan Giggs take in Sydney's sights. The changing of the guard at United, the replacement of Sir Alex Ferguson with David Moyes, plus the drama of Wayne Rooney's apparent fast-track to the Old Trafford exit this week, make this even more of a captivating season in prospect. It comes as Ferdinand's latest book offers a look back over the 11 years since his $45m move from Leeds in 2002 - plenty of trophies have followed, but he argues that has to be the norm. "You have to win things, be successful and play good football - it's in the identity of the club," he said. We've won a few things while I've been here, but that's just representative of the club, and the way the manager ran the club. Ah yes, The Manager - the capital letters almost audible in the term Ferdinand still uses to describe Ferguson, as well as Moyes. It's a strange time for Ferdinand in one sense, for at all his clubs - West Ham, Leeds and United - he has only had a single manager. Surely the changeover must feel strange? "It is, but we're all in the same boat because this manager, when he left the club he was always going to be a big, big, big amount of news for everything he did for the club, how successful he was," he said. So for any manager coming in, it was going to be a tough task. I think we've got a manager (in Moyes) who's very enthusiastic, he's young and got the desire and appetite to be successful. After the manager we had that was very much needed, and he's someone I'd have chosen if I was in a position to, for the passion - there's a lot of similarities in that respect. He's not someone whose looking to come in for three or four years - he'd love to replicate what the manager's done. I think there were people who'd have come in to the job, who maybe wouldn't have wanted to be here for that amount of time. I'm sure the new manager sees this as a job for the long term. That's good for this club. Which is all very laudable - but there will be a voyeuristic pleasure in seeing how United cope immediately with the removal of Ferguson's shadow. Is it really fair to expect Moyes to effect an instantly seamless switch? "You can't get away from the fact that the fans and us as players expect to win," Ferdinand counters. We've been used to it, so to say that the fans won't mind, that we should give the manager a bit of time to bed in, is just lying. We want to win, and I'm sure here's the same - he doesn't want to come in and say give me a three-year bedding in time, I can just dilly dally and be second or third. He wouldn't want that, and he's coming in to a group of players who are used to winning, and want to continue that. Whether that group will include Wayne Rooney seems increasingly doubtful, and Ferdinand looks rueful at the claim and counter claim that has swirled around the United camp in Sydney over his club teammate's future. "I've never been here when there hasn't been any transfer talk and distraction, whether it be one player or another," he said. Playing at a club like Manchester United, that's just part and parcel of what happens in the summer. Since his arrival in Sydney, Ferdinand has been his normal active self on Twitter, the usual mix of banter and utmost seriousness - like questioning the acquittal in the US of George Zimmerman for shooting dead an unarmed black teenager. But then for all his blingish lifestyle the 34-year-old has long felt the need to address societal issues. Born on an estate in the south London suburb of Peckham, an area blighted by violence, Ferdinand has been vocal - and active - in seeking solutions to gang violence and the effects of poverty. In 2000, when schoolboy Damilola Taylor was murdered in Peckham it was the defender who suggested a Trust be established bearing the boy's name - an initiative he remains involved in. Then, in 2009, Ferdinand's own Live The Dream Foundation was established "to raise levels of aspiration and opportunity" for young people, especially in marginalised communities. Together with his uncompromising stances on racism and discrimination, he acknowledges it can make him a target for criticism. Some people are full of scepticism, they say, 'Why do you have to speak up about this or that, or be a part of that?' But I just think you're in a position where you can open people's eyes to something or a subject, and you should use that leverage you've got for good. It's not about me, it's not about improving my image. It's about getting people to become aware of certain situations and certain charities. When I was growing up as a kid, me and my mates always said that if any of us make it, we'll make sure we come back to the estate, and make sure people are looked after. I had that in the back of my mind as a kid, to be true to who I am. You never just walk off into the sunset and say, 'See you later'. You have to try to drag people along with you. That goes on to certain charities, you want people to have an opportunity in life. It's an uncommon awareness when a lot of footballers live a gilded life at the top level, and it's tempting to ask whether that also makes him worry about the world his three children will grow up in. Rio Ferdinand celebrates scoring against Swansea last season. Yes, a little bit, when you see things like that (the Zimmerman acquittal). I don't think the case was as cut and dried as maybe that tweet made out, in 140 characters it's hard to get everything across. But when you put it on paper, you realise what it amounts to and you think, 'Wow, you wouldn't want that to be your baby'. There's a a lot of stuff going on in the world - coming back to football, you ask yourself why aren't there the volumes of great kids at clubs now, is it because parents aren't letting their kids go out and play in the garden or their estate? You go back to the estate I grew up on, as I did recently, there's hardly any kids out on the estate. When I grew up you'd never go out the front door without seeing five, 10, 20 kids out playing football on the estate. Now it's like a ghost town. Why is that?