Cottee: “I can’t remember swearing at Rio”

Tony Cottee cannot remembering swearing at Rio Ferdinand in his life despite his former ‘boot boy’s” recollections in his autobiography.

TC has had a personal invitation from Rio to attend the book’s launch next month and is looking forward to it.

The former Hammers central defender claims in the tome #twoSides that he heard someone shouting:  “Where’s that f***ing Ferdinand?” and emerged to see Tony Cottee.

He writes that TC said: “Where’s my f***ing boots? – You’re my boot boy. Where’s my boots?”

Ferdinand told him they were hanging on his peg in the boot room where he’d been told to put them.”

He claims Cottee said: “I want my boots with my training kit and tracksuit in my place every morning.”

When I said that wasn’t my job, he got angry declaring: “You’re my boot boy and you’ll do what I f***ing say.

“Then he walked off. So every day that year, Tony Cottee had everything exactly how he wanted it.”

But speaking to ClaretandHugh, Cottee laughed: “I don’t remember swearing at him. I am pretty sure I wouldn’t say that – it’s  not my style.

“There was a culture back then. I grew up under Frank Lampard Snr and that was a hard school – the boot boy had his responsibilities just like everybody else but I can’t recall using bad language.”