Patrick Bamford led Leeds fans in an X-rated chant mocking Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder after his side’s promotion to the Premier League. Bamford has been restricted to a bit-part role for the Whites this season but has history with the Blades boss, who once labelled him a “muppet”.
Bamford is yet to score a goal but remains a fan-favourite at Elland Road, having starred in their previous promotion to the top-flight. This season has seen a three-way battle for the top two spots in the Championship.
Leeds and Burnley secured their automatic promotion on Easter Monday after the Clarets beat third-place Sheffield United. There has been little love lost between the Blades and their promotion rivals.
But Chris Wilder’s side will now have to fight their way through the play-offs if they are to go up. The Blades and Leeds are long-standing local rivals as two of the biggest teams in Yorkshire.
Tensions flared back in the 2018/2019 campaign when Wilder hit out at ‘muppets from Leeds’ after the Blades were automatically promoted and Leeds were sent into the play-offs. Now Bamford has delivered a revenge of sorts.
The striker was filmed approaching a crowd of Leeds fans with a finger to his lips. Once they had quietened down, Bamford began shoting ‘Du, du, du…’.
The supporters then responded: ‘Wilder is a w****r!’. The chant mocking the Sheffield United boss was then repeated a number of times, with Bamford seen smiling throughout.
The animosity between Wilder and Leeds stems from 2019 when the Blades put together a brilliant final run to steal automatic promotion from the Whites’ grasp. Wilder then proceeded to hit out at the Leeds players.
“We’ve had one defeat in 13 and I’ve got muppets from Leeds talking about the pressure being on us,” said Wilder at the time. “[Patrick] Bamford and [Adam] Forshaw and a couple of others saying ‘it’s over to you’ and this, that and the other.
“They got beat seven times since Christmas. We’ve been beaten once. We’ve set it up from Christmas to be in the race and we’ve steamrolled it. Listen, don’t mention anything about bottle and b******s or about us dipping out.”
Leeds though now have their eyes on claiming the Championship title, currently sitting ahead of Burnley only on goal difference. They host Bristol City on Monday before travelling to Plymouth Argyle on the final day.
Title rivals Burnley, meanwhile, travel to QPR on Monday before hosting Millwall the following week. Leeds’ promotion party was sparked after they smashed Stoke City 6-0 ahead of Burnley’s win over the Blades.
The squad partied deep into the night, even continuing into Tuesday, with some players spotted at a bar in Wetherby. A social media post from the bar showed a group of stars, including Dan James, Jayden Bogle, Joe Rodon and Joe Rothwell sat at a table.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £192 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
