New chairman - saving Leeds 'not impossible'

New Leeds chairman Professor John McKenzie surveyed the “serious but not impossible” task of turning the club’s finances around and insisted that the sale of more players in the summer would be “a last resort”.

McKenzie told an Elland Road press conference that there was “no time for lengthy post-mortems” following the announcement to the Stock Exchange that Peter Ridsdale’s reign as chairman had ended with the club £77.9m (€113m) in debt.

And McKenzie, who was appointed as a non-executive director in February, said he had a “background dealing with institutions requiring turnaround situations” and played down fears that the club might be forced into administration.

“You don’t have to be a great financial expert to say that you can’t go on haemorrhaging money at the rate we have been and survive – but we won’t go on haemorrhaging money at that rate,” he vowed.

“Everyone can see the situation needs to be balanced but I’m not contemplating administration. The situation is serious but not impossible.

“My task is to turn this business round and build a structure that can support a fine football team. It’s going to be a difficult trick to pull off but if everyone stands together we can succeed.

“Our first priority is to avoid relegation. Then we need to review our strategy as a plc and look at ways of increasing our finance and bringing our debt down – but hopefully not at the cost of damaging our football team.

“You can’t just cut away at a business and lose the quality of that business or you lose everything.

“I’ll be looking at the financial situation but I would say any breaking up of the squad would be a final resort.

“I’d like to see ways we can increase income and control costs, but you can’t build a fine football club without a fine squad of players.

“We have to get the books to balance on an operational basis. We have to seek alternative ways of raising revenue and we have to ensure we control our costs very significantly – football and non-football costs – and get our house in order.”

Before that challenge comes the task of staying in the Barclaycard Premiership and McKenzie added: “We have got to get through the next six weeks and we need fans and everyone working behind the team.

“When we move forward we will do everything we can to generate income to restrict to a minimum the sale of players.

“Players come and go for different reasons. Some players chose to go, others go because of the manager’s reasons. I would regard it as a real disappointment if we had to go much beyond losses other than for those two reasons.”

Asked how he had come to succeed Ridsdale as chairman, McKenzie replied: “The sequence of events began three years ago when I bought a few shares in Leeds. I got to know Peter Ridsdale and (deputy plc chairman) Allan Leighton and I was invited to join the football club board.

“I only went on the plc six weeks ago and my background dealing with institutions requiring turnaround situations led to the plc inviting me to do this when Peter decided to have a bit of a rest. The major institutions in the City have strongly endorsed my reputation.”

McKenzie, who revealed there would be a “handover period over the next few weeks” from Ridsdale to him, insisted there was no point in dwelling on the mistakes that have been made in the past when Leeds ran up huge debts by overspending on players in the pursuit of Champions League riches.

“Peter Ridsdale is staying on board as a non-executive director and the past has gone and we don’t have time to have lengthy post-mortems. We will be judged on our achievements.”

McKenzie also admitted that Leeds plc remained committed to bringing in a chief executive to perform the high-profile role which Ridsdale had performed.

“We will look to break the chairmanship and chief executive role so that we are much closer to the situation at Manchester United and Arsenal where the chairman of the plc is not a high-profile person.

“There will clearly be additional executive directors – the plc board has committed itself to having a managing director – but my first position is to balance the books.

“You can work with the debt level you have. It’s a long-term mortgage but obviously it is a debt that can’t continue to grow and it’s got to be brought under control.”

McKenzie, talking about his background and suitability for his new role, said: “I think I have skills which are useful and I care deeply about Leeds United. I’m an economist. I’ve worked as much in the commercial world as the academic world and I’ve advised some of the top-100 companies in the UK.”

Asked how Ridsdale had taken his departure as chairman, McKenzie replied: “Peter and I are close friends and I am sure e will help and support me in every possible way.”