'If I come across Kevin Blackwell, I might end up giving him a right hook. He was a c**k. How on earth one of us didn't actually knock him out is beyond me, given the way he treated us' Lee Hendrie still fuming over Sheffield United experience

“He infuriates me. Even when I see him, I honestly would just, I've laid him out in my head.

“Graham Stack does those boxing fights, so if Stack ever wants to get Kevin Blackwell in the ring, Stack's already asked me to go on that. And I'm thinking, if I start to hench up a little bit and I do come across him, I might end up giving him a right hook."

Do we reckon Lee Hendrie likes Kevin Blackwell or not, then?

The former Aston Villa midfielder did not hold back in his criticism of his former gaffer at Sheffield United.

Speaking to SkyBet, Hendrie explained that he felt he had been unfairly maligned by Blackwell following his arrival at Bramall Lane in February 2008, just a few months after Hendrie himself had made the switch from Villa Park.

Hendrie said: “He was a cock – I'll just say it – and I don't know what possessed him to be the way he was with the players that he did it to. Not just me: there was Keith Gillespie, David Cotterill… how on earth one of us didn't actually knock him out is beyond me, given the way he treated us.

“It was a big reflection on the Sheffield United fans too because they thought I'd gone there on a free transfer for the money. It wasn't.

“I took a pay cut to go there because I saw the potential of getting back into the Premier League, which would take me back to my Premier League wages.

“Obviously [Bryan Robson] got the sack and Blackwell came in. Sam Ellis I'd worked with at Stoke - I thought, not too bad, I know Sam. He ended up being just as bad. I've got two cocks in the dressing room at the same time. It was like, what the..."

Hendrie believes that Blackwell was not targeting him individually, but rather trying to impose himself on the dressing room

He said: "I really do think … he was trying to make a statement that he was the gaffer, and I don't think he needed to do that. It wasn't because we'd come in with a bad attitude. I'd come in and train every day and I'd be the best in training - all the lads would say that.

“Gary Speed was there - God rest his soul - and he had so many conversations with me. He just said, ‘keep doing what you're doing. He's sending you to train with the kids, fine, just get on with it .. when he's gone, I'm going to take over and you're playing in the team … how he's not picking you is just beyond me’.

“I really felt Blackwell had something personal against me and I never ever found out what it was.

“I came back one pre-season and I got fit - I mean, fit as anything. I made sure I came back right. We'd all train together in pre-season, getting fit. And I p***ed all the running, everything. I felt like I was back to my best - I was good. Playing in all the pre-season friendlies, the Sheffield fans are like, look what we've got here.

“He's been bombing me off all pre-season, Blackwell has, singling me out. Then QPR away, starting eleven comes out. I'm not on the team sheet. I'm not even on the subs bench. I've travelled as well."

We're not entirely sure which game Hendrie is talking about here, as Sheffield United didn't play QPR away early on in any of the seasons they were at the club together - but they did play them at home in the second game of the 2008/09 season. It's also possible he is talking about a trip to QPR in March 2009, having had a loan spell at Blackpool earlier in the season.

Whatever the case, Hendrie continued: “I looked up at him and he couldn't even look at me. I looked at him and I remember Keith Gillespie was there. I just got up and I said, ‘this is a f***ing joke’. I picked my bag up, walked out of there. It was packed outside with fans and everything. I got far away and just got a taxi back to Birmingham.

"I was so, so angry, because I thought that was the time I probably could have really lost it with him. But I don't know - I wonder whether he was prompting me to do exactly that.”

Hendrie revealed that he still has no time for Blackwell, adding: “I was doing a Middlesbrough game as a media pundit and he was obviously Warnock's assistant. I'd told all the gang beforehand, ‘if Blackwell comes near me, don't let him come close’.

“So I'm stood speaking to someone and in the corner of my eye I can see Blackwell walking over to me. I'm thinking, ‘please, please don't come say hello to me’. He comes over and says, ‘can I have a word with you?’, and we stepped away.

“He said, ‘mate, can we just put all this to bed?’. I said, ‘put what to bed?’. He said, ‘you just slag me off on every platform you go on. I went, you're a cock’. And he went, ‘no, we don't have to be like that’.

“I said, 'listen, I work in media now ... I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face, I'm not going to do anything bad to you – [but] I don't like you, so I'm not going to shake your hand’.

“He went, ‘remember I played you in the [2009 Championship] playoff final?’. I said, ‘you played me for two minutes" - actually five, plus added time - "and I got sent off in the tunnel because I was so frustrated with everything’.

“He went, ‘I left Billy Sharp out for you’. I said, ‘is that all you've got to say to me? Are you forgetting that you sent me to train with the kids? Are you forgetting that I came into training every single day wanting to get in your plans?’

“He just couldn't say anything. He had nothing. That was as close as I got to giving him a clip. But I've got to be professional in what I'm doing and where I'm working.”