Woodgate quits Selland Road

IF the footballing equivalent of Hans Blix was assigned to search the Premiership he would only have to stop off at Elland Road to find weapons of sporting destruction.

He would discover a club stockpiled with financial incompetence and so riddled with explosive acrimony and angst that it is on the verge of a conflagration of its own making. In short, he would witness the archetypal example of how not to run a football club.

How else can we view yesterday's events when Robbie Fowler joined Manchester City for £3 million up front with another £3m dependent on appearances £1.5m less than the fee agreed just a fortnight ago Jonathan Woodgate, the club's shining defensive jewel, set to depart for Newcastle for £9m and manager Terry Venables left pondering his future at a club where the tools of his trade have been systematically wrenched from his hands. It was like the last couple of days at a corner shop closing down sale when anything not nailed down has a price and the sign above the door reads Everything Must Go.