Players man lifeboats as Leeds sink

SO the rats have gathered on the deck of the doomed football liner which is Leeds United – and by all accounts they would rather one of them jump than help keep the vessel afloat.

Did anyone really expect any more from the unprincipled, head in the sand, money-worshipping, world of professional football?

Sure, on the rare occasion they actually score a goal these days Leeds players run to the crowd and bang a clenched fist on their heart or kiss the club badge on their shirt.

But ask them to provide assistance to secure the club's immediate future in the form of a wage deferral and suddenly you start to question their loyalty.

Suddenly, you feel they would prefer one of their own to be sacrificed in a depressed transfer market so that they can continue being remunerated in full for performances for which only weeks ago former manager Peter Reid insisted they didn't deserve to be paid.

If anyone was unsure just how deep the Leeds United crisis runs then they know now. No genuine prospective buyer and why would there be with debts of stg£83million?

There is no chance of avoiding administration if £5m is not found before next Monday's deadline.

No chance of avoiding relegation, with an immediate inherent loss of stg£20m, if a senior player is not sold to raise cash.

It doesn't get much more desperate, which is why chief executive Trevor Birch has appealed to the players to take a 30% wage deferral until the end of the season.

It goes without saying that no-one welcomes taking what amounts to an immediate pay cut, nor is it financially prudent to become a willing creditor of an organisation with such crippling debts.

But Premiership footballers are not your average Joe, scrimping to pay the weekly supermarket bill, hoping this month's gas bill doesn't land before the salary cheque clears.

True, they have the bookies bill to consider and Ferrari servicing doesn't come cheap.

But a 30% deferral would still leave Mark Viduka struggling to get by on stg£42,000-a-week, Alan Smith on stg£28,000 and goalkeeper Paul Robinson stg£21,000. It would leave more than stg£20,000 each week in the pockets of Nicky Barmby and David Batty, two players whose increasing injury toll have seen them pick up the best part of a year's salary while giving back diddly-squat.

Do they feel no responsibility, even if the financial plight of the club is primarily down to the financial incompetence of successive boards?

Apparently not, especially when they are receiving advice on the lines of, "Players' contracts are sacrosanct" from players union assistant boss Mick McGuire.

Funny how the legal fine print rears its head when wage deferrals are mentioned but is conveniently forgotten when players and avaricious agents consort to manufacture lucrative transfers to another club.

Just ask Fulham, who would tell you exactly how long Louis Saha considered the two-and-a-half years remaining on his contract as he stomped his angry feet all the way to Old Trafford ie, not at all.

So many modern professional players are driven by those cosy bedfellows, selfishness and ambition.

Which is why, if we are truthful, it was hardly surprising to digest news of Leeds players preferring to be sold than take a pay cut.

In fact, they are probably even now drawing straws in the Elland Road changing room with those receiving the shortest, groaning because they have to stay.

Could we seriously blame any Leeds player, even local boy Smith, with the prospect of travelling up the road to rejuvenated Newcastle or across the Pennines to Manchester United, from grabbing the chance to flee the Elland Road conflagration?

No. But we can blame those putting greed and self-interest before the one scheme which would give the club a fighting chance to regroup.

They should embrace Birch's plan now, rather than their preferred stance of waiting for the end of the month until all other avenues are exhausted, by which they mean one or more of their own might have been sold in the January transfer window.

If nothing else they owe it to the Elland Road supporters whose loyalty has helped pay their wages through thin and even thinner in this past traumatic 12 months.

But don't hold your breath. Footballers, rather like rodents, are not renowned for possessing a conscience.