Dacourt fined for outburst

Olivier Dacourt has been fined by Leeds following his verbal assault on the club last week.

Boss Terry Venables reacted furiously to Dacourt’s branding of the club’s form as “a disgrace”, accusing the Frenchman of deliberately attempting to secure a move away from Elland Road.

Dacourt, who is recovering from a hip injury and will play no part in tomorrow’s crucial UEFA Cup third round, second leg clash with Malaga, insisted this week he had been misquoted and called for clear-the-air talks with chairman Peter Ridsdale.

Venables said: “Olivier has been fined and as far as I am concerned it has all been dealt with and it is finished.

“Olivier says the English press were exaggerating and took it all out of context. Well I’ve seen the transcript... if that’s the case he should be thinking about suing the English newspapers.”

Dacourt has four years left on his Elland Road contract but Venables accused him last week of “engineering to find a way out for the last 12 months”. However today the former England boss said he would “wait and see” about the midfielder’s Elland Road future.

Leeds were held to a goalless draw in the first leg in Spain two weeks ago and Venables approaches tomorrow night’s game with his future still on a knife-edge after four successive Premiership defeats.

But he insisted he has not lost faith in the ability of his beleaguered players despite their plummet towards the Premiership relegation zone.

He believes a chronic lack of confidence remains the major factor behind the club’s current plight and believes the decreased pressure of their European campaign could be the ideal spark to reignite the season.

“The players have been under pressure for so long and they really haven’t had any respite.

“I don’t think there is any lack of ability but it is a confidence thing. Some of the young lads have not been through anything like this before and it is a different kind of pressure to what they are used to.

“The UEFA Cup is very important to everyone but maybe it does take the pressure off a little bit.

“Our games in the UEFA Cup have been better than the league. I thought our desire and the way we played in the first leg was just what I am looking for and if we had got the away goal it would have been perfect.”

Leeds are all too aware that having failed to find the net in the first leg an away goal for Malaga would leave them with a real battle to qualify.

But the threat is unlikely to curb Venables’ attacking instincts. He added: “I like the idea of the away goal counting double.

“We’ve done that in previous rounds and I think it’s important because you used to have teams just looking for a goalless draw all the time. The away-goals rule makes teams try to attack.”

Venables is able to recall midfielder Lee Bowyer after he missed Saturday’s defeat at Fulham after aggravating an ankle injury in training.

Robbie Fowler will start on the bench again after playing the second half at Loftus Road, but Australian pair Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka are both ruled out again.