The Demise and Rise of Leeds United

[Huddersfield_White]

The Demise and Rise of Leeds United
By Adrian Burke

Leeds United was less than 48 hours from being no more in mid January 2005, Gerald Krasner who despite working a miracle to save the Yorkshire side was criticised for blowing off Sebastian Sainsbury’s attempt to save the club. This is something the fans will not forgive nor forget.

The fact of the matter was he had defied the laws of finances and reduced a crippling £85million debt to £35million, £50 million wiped off the slate without the lucrative Sky TV deal. Staving off administration was a financial miracle that only god could have done. However Kranser and co. could have possibly been the administrators in disguise. They sold the assets and left the club with only their name brand and Yorkshire crest on the shirts and Ken Bates with his Swiss consortium of investors re-planted the Yorkshire flag and rebuilt the foundations and repaired the damage with little or no financial problems.

But how on earth did this happen? Many different stories have been told about this shenanigan which enclosed total darkness around Leeds United and only now there is light visible on the horizon but sadly nobody will ever know the truth. We can only piece together what facts we do know of this tale that has plagued the fans for the last 3 and a half years.

Towards the end of the 1999 – 2000 season Leeds United were flying high in the UEFA Cup with a handful of home grown talent. There performance in the latter half of the campaign was enough to warrant the term ‘Champions’. The horrendous night in Istanbul scarred the club as it will forever but in a way it brought Leeds fans closer together, something which you hadn’t seen since Howard Wilkinson’s title winning season. With Champions League football, Leeds splashed out on Mark Viduka and Olivier Dacourt. For a total of around £12 million this was a hefty sum for the club but when proceeding to the second stage of the Champions League the club bought Rio Ferdinand for £18 million, something which shocked the whole footballing nation. With also Robbie Keane acquired from Inter Milan for £7 million, Leeds United were a force to be reckoned with. Also with Woodgate and Bowyer battling and performing with the court case hanging over them it was a monumental achievement to get to the Semi-Finals of the lucrative rewarding tournament. With just missing out on winning the tournament and re-qualifying alarm bells must surely of been starting to ring with the club. With corporate jets, company cars and rather expensive tropical gold fish, Leeds United PLC must have been blind to see what most people would have seen. Sadly none of this was known to the fans as everyone involved with the club bar from the directors knew of nothing.

Chairman Peter Ridsdale surely must have realised something was not right when he guaranteed David O’Leary the funds by bringing in a ridiculous payback scheme for his £100 million bond. Whereby the Season ticket revenue went to pay it back and the only way to keep up on those payments as well as the rest of the higher purchases for the players was either filling a 55,000 capacity stadium week in, week out or getting to the Champions League semi – final each season for the next 25 years. Purchases such as Seth Johnson and Robbie Fowler for a combined fee of £19 million raised a few eyebrows within the supporters, however come Christmas, Fowler was scoring for fun and Leeds are top of the league things couldn’t be more brilliant for the now new United.

There was little or no knowledge of wages until the season after. Your average Championship Manager game saw Mark Viduka the highest paid player at Leeds on £20,000 unbelievably that was clearly not the case. Viduka, Kewell, Ferdinand. Fowler, Keane Smith and Johnson were on around £35,000 a week each. Other players such as Gary Kelly, Michael Dueberry, Lucas Radebe, David Batty, Eirik Bakke, Danny Mills, Jonothan Woodgate, Ian Harte, Olivier Dacourt, Lee Bowyer, Nigel Martyn, Jason Wilcox, Michael Bridges and Paul Robinson were in between £20,000 and £30,000 a week. If that wasn’t bad, youngsters were given extravagant wages of in between £500 and £2,000 a week. Justin Bowler now at Halifax Town claimed to be on £500 a week at the age of just 16. How this could not have been detected is beyond me or anyone. The weekly wages from those main players alone is over half a million and over £2 million month. Something short of shocking is what I can say. Even with Semi – Finals of the Champions League and a full crowd for every game, no way could Leeds United survive on those margins of £55 million in wages alone for the year. How could any club survive on that without a strong financial base and investment, the now Chelsea Chairman Roman Abramovich would raise eyebrows on that figure when all you have is a £100 million bond.

With the defeat to Cardiff in the F.A Cup things started to go terribly wrong, with just missing out on the Champions League the previous season and failure to win in 10 games brought the curtain down on David O’Leary’s reign at the club. Despite having brought back some positive results towards the end of the season the excuse was that with the amount of money spent on players and the poor New Year’s performance it was time for a change. Something which was seen as legitimate by the fans and with O’Leary’s book and the rumours of losing the dressing room the fans could probably thought it was the best decision, but was it?

Now most fans believe that O’Leary had lost the dressing room but he sucked in his pride and won it back by admitting that his columns in the Sunday People and the book were a mistake. With the positive results towards the end and that he was a proven consistent manager with Leeds; possibly he should have been given up till Christmas. However would he have been in the same situation that Terry Venables was in?

Leeds United’s replacement raised even more eyebrows, selling Rio Ferdinand for £30 million to Manchester United sparked anger when Ridsdale spoke live on Sky Sports after O’Leary had been dismissed and said he wasn’t for sale. Reports although being sketchy suggested Leeds were £25 million in the red, fans assumed that the debt would be at least cleared and money would be available for a replacement. Venalbles was given £3million to spend to buy Nick Barmby from Liverpool who were also after Lee Bowyer. Leeds turned down £8 million for him, something which they would regret. Venables also brought in Paul Okon and he and Barmby both were on extravagant wages of £30,000 per week each, with the Wage Bill increased despite the cash from Manchester United things were still looking bleak. Ridsdale approached Venables for the sale of Keane by asking him if he was actually needed by the club considering they had Smith, Viduka and Fowler there with Harry Kewell if need be. Venables did not agree to sell Keane but suggested that Leeds could have adequate cover if any striker was sold. It was all that was needed for Ridsdale to sell Keane to Spurs for £8million, something which the fans were again not happy about. It was clearly obvious that something was seriously wrong at Elland Road but nobody took any notice until later.

The return of Rio Ferdinand brought the last scenes of Jubilee at Elland Road for their remaining stay in the Premiership. A Harry Kewell goal was enough to give them the points and put them top of the league. After that is was one long tumble down to the lower end of the table.

Come January there were rumours about players being sold for silly prices? Ridsdale under pressure and with mounting debt was now being held to ransom by other clubs. They either paid a low amount and take on the extravagant wages of the player or they paid an average amount and do a deal with Leeds to pay half or in some cases all of the player’s wages.

Nothing was done until the end of the January transfer window, Lee Bowyer who promised to sign a new contract with the club, hence the club not selling him to Liverpool in the summer, decided to change his mind and see his contract out. Leeds sold him to West Ham for £100,000 just to get him off the clubs wage bill. Robbie Fowler was sold for £6million, £3 million now and £3 million depending on appearances. Leeds also had to pay for his wages but the £3million was heavily needed. Olivier Dacourt was out on loan with AS Roma and would never play for Leeds again.

Ridsdale then broke the trust big time with Terry Venables. Struggling and wondering what the hell was going on and already having to deal with the wrath of the Leeds fans especially after the defeat to Malaga. Ridsdale already selling 2 key players then came out and said that Jonathan Woodgate was going nowhere but 24 hours later he was sold to Newcastle for £8million. Fans were in anger and Terry Venables was furious. In a press conference Ridsdale claimed that when clubs like your assets it’s a good thing, Venables sticked to his guns as the pair didn’t even look at each other at the press conference and it was clear that either of them wouldn’t be at the club for long.

Later on Peter Ridsdale was relieved of his position and Proffesor John McKenzie was installed. Venebles was sacked after the defeat to Middlesbrough and F.A Cup exit. Peter Reid was installed and immediately brought back David Batty who was not in Venables favour something which the fans couldn’t understand. Leeds were back in business with a massive victory over Charlton away. But the end of the season despite stopping in the division, there were still problems. Staying up was something which if not McKenzie said that both Thorpe Arch and the Ground would have to be sold and Administration would loom.

The following season did not start well, Leeds had little money to spend and £500,000 couldn’t be spared to sign Julian Gray from Crystal Palace. This mainly due to Harry Kewell’s Liverpool saga in which an agreed fee with Liverpool was £7million but Leeds having to pay £2 million in agent fees. Chelsea and Manchester United offered slightly more but Kewell insisted to go to Merseyside. Liverpool then offered £5million instead of the £7million figure which was agreed, Kewell persisted on going to Liverpool and told McKenzie via his agent Mandic that he did not wish to play for Leeds anymore and if he did not go to Liverpool this season he would walk away for free. Leeds had no option but to let him go and receive £3 million. Fifa however have left the F.A to deal with the matter as it was transfer fraud. Although nothing has been done, both clubs could receive fines up to £2 million.

With the saga eventually over, Peter Reid Instead opted for loan deals as his funds were virtually nothing, however it would still cost to pay there wages. Leeds acquired Lamine Sakho, Zoumana Camara, Salomen Olembe, Didier Domi, Cyril Chapuis, Jermaine Pennant and finally Roque Junior. All costing in the long run and bar Pennant and Domi, none of them could settle and be consistant. Roque Junior being probably the worst purchase in Leeds United’s history being involved in two 4-0 defeats in as many games. Peter Reid was sacked and Eddie Gray who was released along with Brian Kidd was asked to manage the club as he was still on the clubs extravagant pay roll. He and Kevin Blackwell the new number one at Leeds battled hard and put the club back to the basics.

The season saw Aaron Lennon and James Milner make an impact although it was too little too late to save Leeds. Despite a mini revival and an in form Michael Dueberry defeat to Wolves after Christmas brought the end for sure for Yorkshires number one club. Talks of the saviour known as the Sheikh was quickly rubbished by the now head of the PLC, Trevor Birch. McKenzie who had sacked Peter Reid after the howler at Portsmouth had also decided to call it quits. Leeds were in serious trouble with the 19th January 2004 being the biggest date in the clubs history where Leeds would either have to do a deal with the creditors or face Administration.

Leeds were now in over £100 million in debt. Still losing money the players were asked earlier to take a pay cut. This added to the woes when a few players headed by David Batty refused. The squad was thus… torn into two and Leeds had virtually little or no hope. Despite a monumental final push for survival with the daylight robbery at Old Trafford where Leeds got a point and a 4-1 hammering of Wolves.

Gerald Krasner then came to the rescue with his consortium, however it wasn’t a good start with a Geoffrey Richmond famous for ruining close neighbours Bradford City being involved and saying the most stupid thing on T.V. But with the debt being around £85 million after Trevor Birch’s dealings including doing a deal with Manchester United over the remaining Ferdinand fees. Krasner and his team acquired the club with a much more manageable debt. With two plans to be engaged for either survival or relegation, morale was restored as there was no more PLC. Something which was a huge relief for the fans, and more hope had arrived in the form of a victory against Manchester City at Elland Road and a draw at home to Liverpool. Despite a late, late winner against Leicester late on in the season and a fantastic victory over Blackburn at Ewood park, Leeds went down when failing to beat Bolton. And a new era had begun.

Kevin Blackwell was told that he would be the manager of the club and was offered a 2 year contract. The new Leeds United would be without key players. Mills was sold to Manchester City, Paul Robinson was sold to Spurs, Mark Viduka eventually went to Middlesbrough. Leeds captain Dominic Matteo was sold to Blackburn for nothing as was Ian Harte to Levante. The wage bill was being slashed big time and it kept on falling with Alan Smith being sold to Manchester United for a reasonable fee and then an unforeseen impending bill brought on the sale of James Milner to Newcastle. This was something that upset the fans as they had been told that the club was aiming to build a squad around him.

Kevin Blackwell was not in a position to rebuild Leeds until Leeds had got rid of as many players as they could. Only Gary Kelly, Lucas Radebe, Michael Dueberry, Eirik Bakke and Seth Johnson remained from the first team, Bakke and Johnson both injured for the long term. Simon Walton and Aaron Lennon were drafted up to the squad as too were Matthew Kilgallon, Jamie McMaster, Frazer Richardson and Scott Carson. 11 recognised players, Blackwell had to recruit the old war horses to make up numbers, these included Steve Guppy, Craig Hignett and Brian Deane. Leeds also received Michael Ricketts as part of the Mark Viduka deal and Danny Pugh as part of Alan Smith’s transfer to Manchester United.

Julian Joachim and Neil Sullivan arrived on free transfers as did Paul Butler and Leeds had the basis for a good squad but with Bakke and Johnson out, Leeds had very little to offer for their first season and would do well to stay in the division. Stephan Crainey was signed for £100,000 from Southampton and Clarke Carlisle was signed on a free. Jermaine Wright was also added.

Off the field, things were not going well with the club still heamouridging money left, right and centre. The only option was to sell first of all, Thorpe Arch and then the Ground. And acquire them both back on a Leaseback deal. A small amount of cash was used to acquire David Healy and Sean Gregan to strengthen the squad.Selling the land adjacent to Elland Road to a casino added a few more coffers to the books, but with the decision to not build the casino from the government, Leeds are still awaiting more cash on the deal. The moneythey got was to buy Sean Gregan and David Healy as Leeds needed to stay in the Championship if they had any chance of staying afloat.

Come January however there were more problems facing the club. Simon Walton, Aaron Lennon and Scott Carson were attracting the attention of the big premiership clubs. Carson was the one to be let go and as such was the dire situation, his transfer fee paid the players wages for January a fee of around £1 million being the wages for a month.

Still it wasn’t going to be enough with more bills looming. Administrators were looming but there was nothing to sell. Krasner had already done the Administrators job. Sebastian Sainsbury and his consortium with businessman Steve Parkin and Nova had failed yet again. Something which the club could do without, there was one consortium in the fray but they two were having problems with finances and there was little or no hope but Christmas came 11 months too early or it could be called a late Christmas present as Santa Claus look-a-like Ken Bates headed a Swiss consortium to do the quickest takeover in football.

Due diligence which was a timely task was avoided due to Bates’ relationship with Trevor Birch and Bates had arrived and was taking charge. The creditors had received there cash and the debt was now £35 million and was re-structured to benefit a championship club.

Bates straight away stated that Blackwell would be in charge and despite finishing mid table the foundations were laid for a promotion charge. Elland Road went multi-million pound makeover and Money was made available to the club on saved player’s wages. Aaron Lennon was sadly sold to Spurs for around £1million; his fee brought Dan Harding to the club and left a little to spare on other things. Seth Johnson had his contract terminated with mutual consent and left the club. Lucas Radebe retired leaving more money to spare.

Steve Stone, Ian Bennett, Ian Moore and Rob Hulse were brought in to strengthen the club along with Rui Marques, Richard Cresswell and a few more faces. Leeds United had the squad and the finances to bounce back.

Reports of a debt of £19 million but down to £8 million by the beginning of the 2006-07 campaign providing the club are still in the Championship warrants the light on the horizon. And a bright future to hope for, for the plagued loyal white fans!

[Guest]

WOOF!!! :D Adi lad, if I didn't know better (and for all the spellys! ), I would have said Oz White wrote that!
EXCELLENT, our Adrian! :D
VERY well written and 10/10 for composition.
A very scarey tale and one to ponder on...I'm still not happy that Bates took us over without due diligence, much as I applaud Birch's efforts pre kwathner...his advice to uncle ken wasn't that clever IMO?...

YOU, young man, just need to get a proof reader (you have my email address ) and you will go far...and I'm not just saying that cos we go back a long way Adi...that is a great article...keep it up lad! :D

Twiggs

What say the rest of you MOT readers? One James in Melbourne, for example? You're getting paid for writing articles...how do you rate Adi's chances mate?
But I'm also hoping for comment from everyone on this please...? TA!

[melbournewhite]

Adi, well done mate. Very good read, and a good summation of the last couple of years.

Hate to be picky but as Twiggs said... little errors could easily be fixed, and add something to the article.

Stephan Crainey is Stephen Crainey

I'm pretty sure he was sold for 200,000 quid, not 100, not 100% sure but im pretty sure.

Michael Dueberry is Michael Duberry

Sorry to be picky lad, but if you want to get paid and have it as a job, you can't make those errors.

Having said that, very good mate, I don't mean to sound like an arsehole, but you'll improve each time.

I thought the format was very good mate, and all in all was a good read.

You know my plans regarding a possible radio show concerning LUFC over the net, and how I would like to get you involved - keep at it mate, and you never know what could happen.

Cheers,

James

[Huddersfield_White]

just been in a radio studio today doing a 10 minute show talking about newcastle uniteds problems and the upcoming champions league clashes tonight... also played Alkaline Trio - Stupid Kid, inbetween!

Cheers for the support!

[Leeds-Portugal]

Simply... SUPERB!!! Loved the article... tells you everything since the last Champions League season.

There were a few things i didn't know about such as the salary of the kids... Leeds is for sure one of a kind!! Can't think of any other club in the world that such things would happen... THAT'S WHAT MAKES ME LIKE THIS CLUB EVEN MORE!!!

One day there will be a movie about this...!!! If i had the money I'd make one... THE RISE AND FALL OF LEEDS UNITED!

Great article... :D

[ArmleyWhite]

Well done Adi!! Keep it up one day you will be presenting MOTD!!

[Huddersfield_White]

i wrote that ages ago....

[Gelderdender]

Well done Adi!! Keep it up one day you will be presenting MOTD!!

I'm with Simon there Mate well done you appear to be a young man with a big future...

Marching on together :D

[ArmleyWhite]

Adi, is this what you are doing at Uni? You have a talent for it I'll give you that!!

[Huddersfield_White]

i'm doing Media & Sports Journalism Armley! :D

[ArmleyWhite]

i'm doing Media & Sports Journalism Armley! :D

Well, knuckiling down and keep up the good work, you should go far...

[GlennLUFC]

Brung a tearto my eye reading this. This should never happen again, Ridsdale will die a horrible death.