Leeds face darkest hour

Leeds United have known some dark times.

In the early Seventies they were branded the dirtiest club in Britain. They had a reputation for cheating and utter ruthlessness, emanating largely from the fact that no opponent’s Achilles tendon was safe when such as Johnny Giles and Norman Hunter were on the prowl.

They danced to the tune of an arch-pragmatist in Don Revie and lived by the motto which gave rise to the title of Billy Bremner’s autobiography ‘You Get Nowt For Coming Second’. They went through the 44 days of Brian Clough, relegation in 1982, the traumas of Istanbul and the shame and embarrassment of the Bowyer-Woodgate trial – but always you felt the fierce pride which went with the wearing and supporting of those famous white shirts could overcome any obstacle. Until now.

If Manchester City beat Newcastle at home on Saturday and Leeds lose at Bolton on Sunday then the Yorkshire club will be relegated from the Barclaycard Premiership – and it would be a brave man who would predict when, or if, they might return.

Football’s wilderness, the place to which Sheffield Wednesday were banished after their own incompetent dallying with Premiership finances, beckons.

Listen to Allan Clarke, former striker and manager and blunt Yorkshireman not given to exaggeration. “It could get worse before it gets better,” he says.

He’s right. Because if they go down, even with the parachute payments in the first season, they will forfeit millions of television money. Gone will go any realistic means of financing the crippling debt which still hangs around the neck of the club, even after its Gerald Krasner-led takeover.

Gone will go Alan Smith and Mark Viduka and Paul Robinson and James Milner - the club’s star players and the reason Krasner has brought in an agent to act for the club in the shape of Philip Morrison.

That move has brought criticism from players and supporters alike this past week. Given Leeds United’s track record, however, it would seem one of the smartest moves they’ve made in the last three tormented years.

The vultures are already circling, the players’ inflated wages cannot be met whether or not they stay in the Premiership, already it appears Birmingham have tabled a bid for Smith.

If the stars are to leave, the best possible price must be realised. There must be no repeat of the disastrous business which saw Harry Kewell join Liverpool for a £5m (€7.4m) pittance – though if the Nationwide League is the destination then it is difficult to see any of them fetching their true market value.

But then it is just as difficult to believe that Leeds find themselves in such an unholy mess just three years to the weekend since they played Valencia in a Champions League semi-final first leg tie.

The reasons are well documented and, while not wanting to rake over the Yorkshire club’s grief they should never be forgotten. Indeed there is a case for mounting a statue of former chairman Peter Ridsdale outside Elland Road, lest we ever forget that he and his fellow incompetent dreamers should never again be allowed within 10 miles of a Premiership football club.

It was Ridsdale who handed £100m (€148m)of borrowed money to an inexperienced manager in David O’Leary in a desperate gamble to win a Champions League place, following the intoxication of that tie against Valencia.

It was Ridsdale who sacked O’Leary and employed Terry Venables with the promise of great times ahead, only to sell him short with a job description which bore no resemblance to the brochure.

It was Ridsdale who agreed a staggering £1.75m (€2.6m) payment to discredited Norwegian agent Rune Hauge to secure the signing of Rio Ferdinand from West Ham. It was Ridsdale whose hand was on some of the naïve financial dealing football in this country has ever witnessed.

In truth, during the last three years, Leeds has been a shambolic, risible, unloved club run by incompetent directors and players too quick to wallow in self-pity and too slow to roll up their sleeves and adopt the Yorkshire work ethic which was the only way to alter their fate.

No wonder a flawed dream turned into a crisis and prompted an inexorable slide.

You have to feel sympathy for fans who have in large part supported the team through thin and even thinner. You have to feel for Eddie Gray, a faithful servant to Leeds for 30 years but who as manager has been promoted beyond his talents.

And you also have to wonder precisely how more desperate is their financial plight considering the present board of only weeks standing appears already to be in talks with potential new owners.

But mostly you wonder whether Leeds United, a club of such rich history and battling spirit, will ever again be a genuine force in British football.

If not they only have themselves to blame.