‘The same Leeds fans who crowed about prising Ferdinand away from lowly West Ham with the promise of silverware and pots of cash, are now preparing to give the same player all kinds of hell when he returns to Elland Road on Saturday. Why? Because he was prised away from Leeds with the promise of silverware and pots of cash, of course.
Ferdinand has said ‘it’s not war – just football’ but he should know Leeds fans well enough that he should probably prefer a 90-minute posting to Iraq than 90 minutes at Elland Road this weekend. It will be deafening, it will be nasty and it will be unforgiving. But above all else it will be daft and childish.
Any Leeds fan preparing to hurl abuse at Ferdinand this Saturday – either in person or at the TV – should remember the righteous indignation they felt towards Hammers supporters preparing to do the same two seasons ago. And no, it's not excused because he left for 'the Manyoo scum' - you can't pretend you would have been gracious had it been Arsenal or Liverpool who came knocking.’
The cacophony of grunts and ughs that have flowed into the 365 mailbox since the above piece was posted confirms that there is little intelligent life beyond Birch services.