The fall of Leeds Utd-a fans view part 1

By Andy Baggott
May 17 2004

During the close season, I’m going to look in detail at some of the reasons why we find ourselves relegated, including the overspending of the previous board, the infamous trial, O’Learys book, and the players performances.

I’m going to start this with a decision that, I believe, was a fatal mistake by the previous board – the sacking of O’Leary, and the subsequent managers.

The decision to sack O’Leary was, in itself, not such a terrible idea. Many didn’t agree with it, many thought the Irishman had pushed his luck too far with the book. Whatever your opinion on it, it came as a shock to everyone, including O’Leary. The media wasn’t rife with speculation that he was to go, whilst there hadn’t been any kind of calls for his head from the fans. Indeed, a few weeks previously he had been cheered around Elland Road at the final game of the season.

Let’s look at O’Leary’s final season. Although we were around the top of the table at Christmas, our performances didn’t warrant that position. We were scraping wins by the odd goal, and didn’t seem to be producing the freeflowing football that we’d witnessed in the previous two years. In fact, it was hard to pick a game that we’d dominated, a 3-0 win over West Ham if memory serves my right was a rare occurance. At the time though, we didn’t mind. Everyone was talking about where we’d be once we got going – top and not playing well – that’s perfect. A sign of a good team is to win when under performing the ‘experts’ said. We though, went the other way. Our performances didn’t pick up, and the results dried up. O’Learys book came out around the beginning of the year, and this caused splits in the camp. We also suffered a shocking defeat at Cardiff in the FA cup, which saw Alan Smith sent off. That result seemed to be a hammer blow, and with confidence thin on the ground, we slipped down the table. Our early points tally though still meant we had a chance to qualify for the Champions League, but we missed out on the final day. It was so close – a linesmans flag wrongly ruled out Wes Browns own goal against Man Utd a few weeks earlier. Gary Mcallister scoring a 30 yard free kick in the dying minutes of a Liverpool game against Everton around the same time. If either of those events were different, the future of Leeds could have been entirely changed. If’s and and’s though don’t make a football team. Peter Ridsdale and his board made the decision to sack O’ Leary, and this is where it all went wrong. IF they were to sack him, that decision should have been made straight after the last game of the season. Instead they dragged their heels for weeks. WHY? Once O’Leary was gone, everyone assumed a new manager was lined up – O’Neil was mentioned again, and we held our breath for a top name appointment within days. Days went by, then weeks, as different targets moved to distance themselves from the job. Eventually Ridsdale appointed Terry Venables – a good manager in his day, but he hadn’t managed at the top level for years, and wasn’t the name the fans were looking for. Venables himself also got dumped on – he arrived with Ferdinand about to depart, and practically no money to bring in new players. This was something else the board crucially got wrong. Let me explain. DOL had a style of playing – it was fast, attacking football, with attacking midfielders (Kewell and Bowyer) bombing forward, with Batty sitting deep, and Dacourt in front of him. Over the years he was here, he bought in players that suited his system. Venables, however, had a completely different game plan. His style was a passing game (as he employed a Spurs), although he used the diamond formation with England. If TV had some money to spend, he would have brought in the players that were suited to his system. He got Barmby, but would also have bought some good long range passers – something we didn’t have. Therefore TV was trying to get players specifically bought for one style, trying to play another one, and due to the incredibly late appointment (just before the start of the season), he had no time in the pre season to get his tactics across.

So what should the board have done? Well, it’s clear they had no money, so they couldn’t let Venables buy the players he wanted. The first thing they should have done is get the sacking right. There was no point sacking O’Leary if they didn’t have a better manager lined up – and they didn’t. To replace DOL, they should have found someone who played a similar style, so could best use the players at the club. We should have been sounding these men out the day after the season ended, and seen if we could get them. If not, keep O’Leary until a better option was available. Possibly unethical, but compared to some of the stuff that’s gone on… The board then went on to show they hadn’t learnt their lesson, eventually replacing TV with Peter Reid – so they’d hired a man who was notorious for playing long ball football (at Sunderland, long ball up to Quinn, and a knockdown to Phillips), to replace the passing style of Venables. The players were being asked to perform another u-turn. Now I know the players are professional, and should be able to adapt, but would you ask Beckham to kick and run, get Henry to play 40 yard passes, or Michael Owen to win headers? That’s what managers were asking our players to do – and I don’t blame the managers for this, it was the result of some shocking decisions by the board….

So looking forward, what do we need? In my opinion we need a manager appointed was soon as possible. Someone who can get the best out of the players we have. Someone who is good with youth players, and/or picking up bargains. Someone who can work in the lower leagues, and knows what it takes to get out og there. Dowie, Paul Hart, Blackwell, and Strachan all fit the bill in part. Is that the direction we will go???

I’ll be looking at other events over the next few weeks….

What do you think of my summary? Any opinions? Go to the message board or email me….unofficiallufc@hotmail.com