Rio Ferdinand completely ignores Leeds United in live BT Sport error
Rio Ferdinand appears not to pay a great deal of attention to former club Leeds United any more based on his punditry on BT Sport this week.
The former Elland Road defender was covering the Chelsea vs AC Milan Champions League game on Wednesday night (5 October), with the visitors fielding a certain Charles De Ketelaere.
Speaking ahead of the kick-off on the live match coverage on BT the ex-England captain took the time to point out his admiration for the young Belgian international before stating, as picked up by The Boot Room: “I’m surprised no English club came in for him.”
Not as surprised as Whites fans would have been to hear that, seeing as the club spent a large chunk of the summer chasing the 21-year-old forward before he left Club Brugge.
Leeds were even ready to break their transfer record to sign him, with an offer of £33.5million ready to go if the now-Milan player had decided to take it up.
But with his heart set on the San Siro he held out for a move to the Italian champions and eventually got it. The drawn out pursuit from Elland Road in this context seemed a waste of time and attention, and makes it all the harder to understand how Ferdinand missed it.
He may not be the most popular figure in West Yorkshire these days after pushing through a British-record deal to move to Manchester United but he should still be aware of a potential club record signing at a Premier League club he used to play for.
Whites chairman Andrea Radrizzani even came out afterwards and openly discussed De Ketelaere as “the one that got away” in an interview with David Ornstein and Phil Hay at The Athletic (5 August).
It may be big club bias or a general ignorance of the goings on at Elland Road but Ferdinand was clearly unaware that an English club had indeed been in for the player, and he had himself in fact once been a record signing for that very same club.
So far from the finest moment of football punditry ever seen.
In other Leeds United news, Jeff Stelling has predicted the result of the Whites’ trip to Crystal Palace on Sunday (9 October).