Red Issue's very own Richard Kurt in The Observer:
Not got a ticket for Manchester United v Liverpool tomorrow night? You poor soul. Apparently it'll be as big as the Second Coming. Or - an even greater event, in Red eyes - as massive as the Cantona Comeback of October 1995. The Return Of Rio, after his eight-month ban, is being hailed in some media quarters as the moment that will transform United's season.
Sir Alex Ferguson himself sacrilegiously made the Cantona comparison explicit last week. He has sounded uncharacteristically desperate to get Ferdinand back, having repeatedly used the ban as an excuse for failure last season. Clearly that excuse is tempting: United's failure becomes the FA's fault, rather than the club's. Or (cough) the manager's.
Intriguingly, Ferdinand instead implied last week that one was entitled to expect other well-paid and talented squad members to fill the gap. Quite: it has been the often dreadful post-winter form of John O'Shea, Mikael Silvestre, Wes Brown and Tim Howard that has cost us - and still does. If you strip out the first few post-ban matches from the equation, United's goals-conceded ratio has hardly changed since Ferdinand disappeared.
Rio as a totemic, season-saving, King of Old Trafford? Hmm.
Still, there's no question that all Reds welcome his return. He's good, potentially great, even if he has not yet delivered. He gave us decent, stylish and sometimes excellent showings against humdrum opposition, pockmarked by bouts of insane incompetence against good teams such as Stuttgart. The previous season? Often poor, sometimes injured, overall underwhelming.
He has not been worth the £30 million he cost. Factor in £2.55m of wages for indolence since the winter - that's 5,368 season tickets - and you could argue he still owes us most of it.
Granted, Rio did at least talk of 'owing' us fans last week, when he gave a stomach-churning interview to his pet dog outlet, The Sun . Not, sadly, in the context of owing what some of us really want, ie a grovelling mea culpa and a proper explanation of what he did that fateful day last September. No, this was one of those generalised debts, to be paid back by displays on the pitch. Fair enough, of course, though I believe that's what his £90,000 a week covers.
Still, how marvellous to read him reminding us of his 'eye-opening' work for 'charidee', which in turn prompted many of us to recall Cantona's year off. How did Eric make the news during his sojourn? Hardly at all: he kept his head down while garnering widespread acclaim for his work with kids, which he didn't feel the need to publicise. Ferdinand by contrast, has been a Sunday tabloid fixture, often in the most tawdry of contexts, and the subject of some sensationally scurrilous internet-circulated rumours, all of which - fairly or unfairly - have tainted his image.
Trying to broker a shortening of the ban so that he might play in Euro 2004 went down badly; the ban-mocking TV ad for his protectors and pals at The Sun simply caused outrage. And many Mancunian Reds find the wannabe-gangsta, faux-rapper, Peckham wideboy lothario shtick that Rio's so good at to be a total turn-off, which only Beckenbauer-standard football could overcome.
In short, we don't feel Ferdinand is One Of Us in the way Cantona was. What does he owe us? For starters, eight months of head-down, commitment. Oh, and no more Godawful Afros, please...
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