Leeds United would’ve raked in a whopping £132.5m in today’s money, according to The Athletic.

This has been revealed in a new study conducted by football finance experts Kieran Maguire and Jason Laws, who have developed an inflation calculator which adjusts based on revenue increases in the English game over time.

In 2002, a pint of beer would’ve set you back around £2, but in 2022, you’d be lucky to spend less than £4. Similarly, a loaf of white bread cost around 50p two decades ago – now it exceeds the £1 mark.

But calculating football fees based on the country’s inflation (2.8% per year) isn’t enough as it doesn’t account for TV deals and other revenue streams – for example, the Premier League signed a new deal for 2022-25 worth £5.1bn for their domestic rights alone.

Ferdinand departed Elland Road for a world-record fee for a defender of £30m in July 2002, joining Manchester United, where he would go onto win six league titles and one Champions League, amongst other feats.

Using Maguire and Laws’ metrics, if the BT Sport pundit were sold in the modern day, the Yorkshire giants would’ve earned a whopping £132.5m, which would eclipse the current records for English and defensive transfers.

In the summer, Manchester City splashed a British-record £100m on Jack Grealish, whilst no defender across the globe has cost more than the £80m that the Red Devils paid for Harry Maguire in 2019.

Ferdinand’s departure was met with quite an uproar at the time, understandably so given that he joined one of the Whites’ biggest rivals at the time, following in the footsteps of Eric Cantona, about whom many at the Yorkshire club were still very bitter.

When the former England centre-back knew of interest from Sir Alex Ferguson – who would go onto laud him as “phenomenal” – and co, he sat in then-Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale’s office for six hours to thrash out an exit.

“At Leeds I went and sat in Mr. Ridsdale’s office and just sat there and waited for about five, six hours and said I’m not going until you sort out the deal for me to go to Man Utd,” he revealed to BT Sport (via The Mirror.

“I didn’t go public, I didn’t need to go. We got to a compromise, we got to a situation where he felt he was getting the right part of the deal and I got my opportunity to go to Man Utd.

“But I was adamant I wanted to go because that was the right time and the right move for me.”

United’s initial offer started at £22m for the towering colossus before Ridsdale managed to eke out a further £8m, which in the eyes of some around Elland Road was still not enough for such a crucial player.

There’s no doubt that his transfer to the red side of Manchester contributed to the undeniable furore which exits between the two bitter rivals but, upon reflection, it’s a deal which turned out to be worth its weight in gold.

AND in other news, Forget Raphinha: Marsch heading for big Leeds nightmare over £42m-rated “rare talent”…