Rocky road for Leeds

THERE was a time when even the Leeds United crest had a smile on its face.

Back in the 1970s, when Don Revie's side were in their pomp, the Yorkshire club stole a march on their rivals in the marketing stakes by putting players' names on the backs of their tracksuits, numbered sock tags and pre-match warm-up routines on the pitch.

And in a clever twist on the ubiquitous smiley badge of the day they adopted a new badge turning the letters LU on their sides in design to fit the age of bell-bottomed trousers, spangles and Chopper bikes.

It is a crest which can still be seen wherever Leeds play, kept alive by a group of Yorkshire supporters adorning the flag of their own independent supporters club, the Maverick Whites.

Unfortunately, their is little to smile about these days as far as Leeds United is concerned. Their loyal and vocal fans are bewildered by their club's rapid fall from grace, colossal debt and desperate selling of the family jewels.

and the Maverick Whites are speaking for the majority when they voice their genuinely fears for the Premiership season ahead.

"You keep looking back two years when we were playing Valencia (in a Champions League semi-final) and La Coruna," says Phil Woodhouse of the Maverick Whites, a devoted Leeds fan for the past 30 years.

"We absolutely played La Coruna off the park at Elland Road (in the quarter-final) and where are we now?

"My thoughts this season are that if we finish 17th I'll be happy."

Anyone watching Peter Reid's side in pre-season this summer would find little to argue about with that statement. In Dublin at the weekend, Leeds completed their miserable build-up to next Sunday's opener at home to Newcastle United with a penalty shootout defeat to top-flight rivals Aston Villa and a previously unthinkable 2-0 defeat to Shelbourne.

Striker Ger Rowe headed home their first goal after just seven minutes when he latched onto an in-swinging Richie Baker free kick. Baker was also involved in the second just before the break, running freely at the Leeds defence before playing midfielder Stuart Byrne, who slotted the ball home from ten yards.

It has left the Yorkshire club at its most vulnerable since being promoted back to the old First Division in 1990.

Even insiders at the club are worried that with the imminent departure of Mark Viduka and the summer sales of Harry Kewell and Olivier Dacourt adding to the exodus of quality players started with the sale of Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United following the 2002 World Cup, Leeds are facing an extremely uncomfortable campaign.

"I think, privately, Reidy thinks it's going to be a real struggle this season," a source close to the first team squad said at the weekend.

"At the moment he has too many players that don't want to be there and too many that aren't good enough.

"Only (Alan) Smith, Robbo (Paul Robinson), (Michale (Bridges) and (new signing) Jody Morris have any real future at the club. There are a lot of others like Lucas Radebe and Jason Wilcox who are out contract at the end of the season and I think Reidy will say bye bye to them.

"He has to be given the season but he will rebuild them. It's going to be a long season, though."

That's the feeling among the Elland Road faithful as well. As the weekend's performances proved, a central defence without Ferdinand and Jonathan Woodgate lacks mobility and speed. A midfield stripped of Kewell, Dacourt and Lee Bowyer leaves them bereft of creativity, short on variation and lacking in penetration. Even with the proposed arrival of Irishman Colin Healy this week the Reid masterplan looks as if it is focused on survival rather than progression.

And with Viduka about to follow Robbies, Fowler and Keane, out the door, the onus rests on Smith and a still not fully fit Bridges to score the goals to keep them in the Premiership.

Maverick Whites' spokesman Phil Woodhouse is not about to criticise the manager for that, but he is fearful.

"You wonder, if Viduka goes as I'm sure he will in the next few days, just where the goals are going to come from," he said. "I can't see anyone else scoring for Leeds. I love Smithy, he's good at what he does, but he's never going to get more than seven or eight goals a season.

"I'm just hoping one or two other clubs fall into the same rut as Leeds. I know there are other clubs in financial difficulty but it's going to take a few more to be pulled down with us.

"So we're looking at the other teams: Wolves, Portsmouth, Leicester - the players they've signed are all average; we're looking at Fulham, even Charlton and Middlesbrough as sides that could get sucked into it as well.

"Even just 12 months ago we knew finances were a bit iffy but we were still the only team in the Premiership to beat Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U and Newcastle. So the fact we're thinking this way now is worrying."

And very difficult to look for positives, although Woodhouse tries his best.

"I like Peter Reid, and the good thing is he's come into the job and he knows the score, whereas Terry Venables, I think, was lied to when he came in, totally misled.

"They haven't spent a bean this summer and we've got to pin our hopes on younger players to a certain degree. We've got to hope James Milner comes through although I think the best one will be Frazer Richardson; he's a right back, probably our weakest position, but he's the type of guy who maybe has it at this level.

"I think it's a case of writing off the next two or three seasons, but we have to stay in the Premiership. Ten years ago, if you went down it was fairly easy to come back up. Not these days. We've just got to stick in there."