Where's the money - figures that don't add up...

By Andy Baggott
January 22 2004

I’ve been wondering something for a while now. Just how have we got in such a mess and other teams haven’t. I won’t get any answers, but I’d love to know.

I’ve been wondering something for a while now. Just how have we got in such a mess and other teams haven’t. I won’t get any answers, but I’d love to know. We are £83 million in debt. Most of this is put down to our dealings in the transfer market, and the fact we spent way too high. So I’ve got some figures of the transfer dealings since the day David O’Leary took over. (a big thankyou to the guys at leedsunitedfaclub.com and woccoe,com for their help)

In Viduka £6 m, Matteo £4.5 Ferdinand £18 Keane £11 Johnson £7 Fowler £11 Duberry £4.5 Bridges £4.5 Wilcox £3 Dacourt £7.5 Batty £4.5 Bakke £1.75 Mills £4.5 Barmby £2.75 Huckerby £5.5 TOTAL - £96 million

Out Hasselbaink £12, Hopkin 2.5 Jones £3.25 Huckerby £3.4 Wetherall £1.4 Ferdinand £29 Woodgate £9 Keane £7 Fowler £6 Kewell £5 Dacourt £3.5, Martyn £0.5 Haaland £2.8 Riberio £0.5, Granville £1, Wijnhard £0.75, Melenaar £0.4, Hiden £0.5, Total £88.5 million

This means, we are down around £7.5 million So, basically, the huge debt hasn’t been run up through transfers. We have lost close to £10 million on compensation to the likes of DOL, Venables and Reid, but still the figures do not add up. Compare us to clubs like Middlesbro or Man City. Keegan has spent close to £50 million on players, yet they are not teetering on the brink of administration. We are around £43 better off than City in transfers. We have been in the Premier League all the time, whilst they have been in the lower divisions for some time. We have had European runs, including a semi final, yet WE are the club on the edge of admin. Look at these figures. I use Man City as an example, but could pick any one of around half a dozen clubs to compare A lot of these are estimates Transfers – Leeds Man City -£43 million European Run Leeds £30 million Man City £2 million Been in Premier division £20 million advantage for Leeds Sponsor deals, SKY investment etc £25 million Man City £10 million Compensation for managers/directors etc – Man City £10 million better off.

These rough figures leave Leeds supposedly around £130 million pounds better off than city – yet WE have debts of £83 million. Based on these figures, Man City should have debts of over £200 million – but they don’t. The only big figures not taken into account are wages. Our wages are not £120 million more than Citys. They were around £15 million more, but that has closed with a lot of our high earners leaving.

So, and back to my point – why are we in such a mess? What the hell has happened to this great club of ours. How can it possibly have got into such a state, without someone realising what was going on? I don’t buy this rubbish about not qualifying for the Champions League costing us. By Ridsdales own words, winning the CL gains you around £20 million a season. We haven’t qualified for 3 years, so we’ve lost £60 million – fair enough, but we have sold £60 million worth of players in the last 2 years, and are saving over £5 million in wages. So, if we’d WON the CL for the last 3 years, and sold no players, we would STILL be on the edge of admin.. The whole thing stinks. The club that we love, and plough money into week in, week out is falling apart in front of our very eyes. Business men are running, and ruining it. I don’t want a PLC, sitting in London in charge of my club. I didn’t want to ‘live the dream’ if it meant inevitable meltdown of my club. What choice have we, the fans had in all this? We’ve been lied to, ridiculed and made to look stupid. The press and opposition fans love it, but it’s us who have to endure it every day, desperate that a Sheik, or Oil magnate might come in and rescue us. The one thing that will always stay with this club though, is the fans. We’ll still be there in the first division, second division, hell, even the conference if it came to it. These are dark, dark days at Elland Road, but we’ll be back – maybe without the players, the board, maybe not even the ground - in this whole mess, that is the only certainty…

Anyone got any ideas? post on the message board - have I missed something? What haven't I taken into account - WHERE THE HELL IS OUR MONEY!!!