Heroes and villains

Like most clubs, we've had our heroes. There are several players who have been revered at Bramall Lane, even after they've left. Some have come back - Brian Deane did twice - and some have never returned. Some have come back after they finished playing, and the living legend that is Tony Currie has served United longer running our Football In The Community project and as a Club Ambassador than he did as a player. We even forgave him going to Leeds.
There are also villains, players we hate, both ex-Blades and others, especially those who played for Wendy.

The biggest villains though for most fans will be the players who have badly injured one of our players.

No professional footballer, with the obvious exception of Roy Keane, deliberately sets out to injure an opponent, but the vitriol towards those who have hurt our lads can seem, at least to any neutrals watching, to be massively over the top.
Stephen Hunt will get grief from Chelsea fans from now until the end of time for injuring Petr Cech, and Martin Taylor will get it from Arsenal fans for the leg break suffered by Eduardo.

But for us the injury suffered by Dane Whitehouse  as a result of a tackle-cum-murder attempt by Gareth Ainsworth, then of Port Vale, will always be different. Because Dane wasn't like Eduardo or Cech. He hadn't been signed at a cost of several millions of pounds. He wasn't some foreign mercenary playing for silly money. He was one of us. He was us. He was born in Sheffield, and he lived the dream of playing for the club he supported and still supports.
And that's why it still hurts. Cech isn't a Chelsea fan. Eduardo isn't a Gooner. Dane is a Blade, and that's why when he was injured and eventually had to retire, we all died a little. He had a chance to leave, and didn't. He didn't retire with millions in the bank, he works for a living, as he worked so hard when wearing the red and white stripes of his team. And he did what we all wanted to do. He played for his team, Sheffield United.

So when QPR come to the Lane, if Gareth Ainsworth plays, he will get booed. A lot.
And it will mean more to us, because it wasn't just any United player who got injured that day so long ago.
Dane Whitehouse is a Blade. And that's the difference.