Michael Walker talks to the full back about the slow but steady progress in winning doubters over

Whatever the events at Elland Road this lunchtime, the conclusions reached afterwards are likely to be identical to the views held prior to kick-off.

Leeds United versus Manchester United does that to people. It is a rivalry which eliminates perspective. Everything is red or white; no colour runs.

So, from the stands at one end Rio Ferdinand will be excoriated as a Judas, while at the other he will be lauded as Alex Ferguson's defensive saviour.

Alan Smith was misquoted this week saying he hoped Leeds fans would "hammer" Ferdinand today.

Smith was joking and a conversation with his England and Leeds team-mate Danny Mills confirmed that Ferdinand's summer transfer was primarily a financial transaction as far as Leeds players are concerned.

"Thirty million is an awful lot of money, a £12 million profit over two years," Mills said pragmatically. "You cannot refuse that sort of money."

So much for controversy.

But then Mills knows what it is like to be the centre of conflicting attention. In his case, this was frequently derogatory, a concoction of negative press about his ability as a footballer and his temperament as a person.

Throw in an appearance that looked vaguely skinhead and Mills was ready to be caricatured.

Booting Craig Bellamy in the air at St James' Park in January and getting a red card for it hardly dulled that portrait; in fact, it served as an illustration of Leeds's implosion last season.

But Mills is at least becoming aware that his image is doing him no favours. "I'm changing, but people's perceptions of me are also changing. It's too simple just to say: 'Oh, I've changed.'

"Going into the World Cup there was a lot of anticipation about me being booked or getting sent off. I was being labelled as a liability, that was the perception.

"I was paying for two silly mistakes [Mills was also sent off at Highbury last August] and for becoming involved with referees on a verbal scale.

"I did think there was a chance I might miss the World Cup because of it all. I went out to prove that perception wrong and to prove to myself that I could handle that situation."

Mills did that. Having never started an England game before the pre-tournament friendly with South Korea, and having never lasted 90 minutes, Mills played every minute of England's five matches in Japan.

Bizarrely, David O'Leary was one who questioned Mills's international credibility publicly.

But events turned to such an extent that, in the second half against Brazil, it was Mills further forward than David Beckham, and Mills who was praised for having England's one spirited shot.

Mills also recalled that, when Ronaldinho was dismissed, it was for a foul on him. "No one had that in the script," he said wryly.

As Bobby Robson said on Tuesday of the 25-year-old: "He's an emerging player, he's a calmer player, he's much more settled at that higher level."

The following evening, back at St James', Robson was able to watch Mills even closer, as was Bellamy when he came on.

"It was just one of those things," said Mills of the January kick at his former Norwich City colleague. "I immediately regretted it. But these hot-headed moments come out in all of us."

Mills is not pretending his are at an end, though he said he was pleased on Wednesday that he was "prepared to walk away when Bellamy tried a little bit of gamesmanship".

The heat of Premiership action is a difficult place to gain perspective, but Mills's yellow card on Wednesday was his first of the season, and he is trying not to talk back to referees.

He admits it is not easy; while Mills's status as an England player has meant "a different level of respect from people, from the media," since he returned, he still thinks referees consider him pre-Japan.

When, at some stage this afternoon, he gets close to Ryan Giggs, Mills will learn if perceptions really are changing.

"It was a thousandth of a second out," Mills said of the tackle on Olivier Bernard at Newcastle. But Dermot Gallagher's book had been opened and closed just as quickly.

At the end of the game, though, Mills was punching the air.

"Newcastle was a massive result for us. It wasn't just the result, it was the performance. We knew that against Birmingham and Sunderland we hadn't played well.

"We looked at the fixtures coming - Newcastle away, Man United, Blackburn away, Arsenal, Aston Villa away, then Liverpool.

"One win doesn't get us out of that, but, if we'd had another disastrous performance at Newcastle, then today would have become a must-win.

"The pressure would grow and, these days, you can see managers getting sacked after 10 games.

"That's how scary the thought of failure is to chairmen, plcs and fans. They always think, 'something has to be done'.

"David O'Leary's record was very good, but not getting into the Champions League is seen as failure these days."

How Ferdinand will be seen today is obvious; how Mills will be seen, as Leeds travel around the country, less so.