Richard Sutcliffe: Quizzical looks from Viduka but Leeds troubles continue to drag on - Yorkshire Post 3/4/13
By Richard Sutcliffe
AS a jobbing freelance journalist at the start of the Millennium, I was part of the editorial team that used to put together the Leeds United matchday programme.
It was back in the days when Elland Road hosted Premier League football, so meant I had a ringside seat as the club slid from the Champions League to the Championship inside the space of three often chaotic years.
Part of my duties during what turned out to be United’s final two seasons before relegation was to compile a quiz for all the players and staff to take part in across the nine months of the campaign.
The winners in what became a keenly-fought contest were Nick Barmby and Dominic Matteo. It isn’t, however, the prowess of either man when it came to answering questions about the club’s history, their team-mates and the Premier League that is my outstanding memory of that period.
Instead, it is the week when Mark Viduka took part.
The Australian international was, I’ll admit, one of my favourite characters in that squad. Always willing to stop for a chat even when no request had been made for an interview, ‘Vidukes’ was a genial, friendly guy.
So, when it came to his turn to take part in the quiz challenge, he was afforded a degree of leniency. Never was this more the case than when I asked the last of his 15 questions: “How many years did Leeds spend in Division Two before winning promotion under Howard Wilkinson?”
Viduka’s reply of ‘one season’ had come before I’d even finished saying the name of the man the fans christened ‘Sergeant Wilko’. So, I gave him another go. And then another....
By the time he’d raised his initial answer by another 12 months to four years, even I’d had enough so called a halt to inform the striker that the answer was, in fact, eight years.
“No way, mate,” came the suddenly serious reply. “You better check your facts as there is no way a club of this size spent eight whole years outside the top division. No way at all.”
With that, Viduka turned on his heels and headed towards the Thorp Arch dressing room. Half an hour later, I was still there when he re-emerged and headed my way. “I’m sorry, mate. I’ve just checked with Smudger (Alan Smith) and he says you’re right. I can’t believe it. Leeds are just too big a club to struggle for that long.”
Almost exactly a decade on from when Viduka’s answers appeared in the Leeds programme (April 12, 2003, in the Spurs issue for those interested), the one-time striker’s words have taken on an even greater resonance.
Not only are United about to complete a ninth season outside the top flight, but, that exile will next term become the joint longest in the club’s history.
Neil Warnock became a casualty of that desire to return to the Premier League on Monday night when the plug was pulled on his 62-game reign in the wake of Derby County’s 2-1 triumph at Elland Road.
Considering the 64-year-old had made clear as long ago as the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City in mid-February that he would be off if the season didn’t end in promotion, the development didn’t necessarily come as a big surprise.
Nevertheless, it did again throw the spotlight on United and just where the club is at right now.
There is, as ever when it comes to Leeds, no simple answer. Not with so much uncertainty over just who is going to be making the big decisions in the future amid businessman Steve Parkin’s on-going attempts to secure a 51 per cent shareholding.
As it stands, chief executive Shaun Harvey and GFH Capital’s directors are leading the search for Warnock’s successor.
It is a vital appointment, not least because the continuing absence of United from the top flight together with the riches coming the way of their Premier League brethren via next season’s television deal means the Yorkshire club are falling further and further behind with each passing season.
As to who becomes the sixth manager to be handed the task of attempting to take United back up since the club’s relegation in 2004, much will depend on the job description.
How much money, for instance, will be handed to the new man? A budget similar to what the recent incumbents in the Elland Road dugout have had to work within will surely make talk of Mark Hughes, Martin O’Neill and even Gus Poyet fanciful.
Poyet, a former assistant manager at Elland Road, would not have been welcomed back on Ken Bates’s watch. Not after the manner of his departure to Tottenham Hotspur in 2008 when the first the United chairman heard about Poyet’s planned exit was via the breaking news ticker on Sky Sports.
Following last December’s sale of Leeds, of course, that obstacle has been removed. Nevertheless, the chances of seeing the Uruguayan back at Elland Road seem remote with his recent dalliance with Reading revealing that Brighton have a seven-figure buyout clause in their manager’s contract.
Of course, no one but GFH Capital – or, if he gets his way, Parkin – knows what money is going to be available next season.
But considering Warnock’s attempt to bring in Chris Burke from Birmingham City in January was thwarted by the club being unable to raise the £300,000 balance to match the asking price, chances are the 2013-14 budget is going to be more competitive than blockbusting.
With that in mind, Brian McDermott seems a more plausible candidate. Having started life at Reading in 2000 as chief scout, he has a clear eye for a bargain in the transfer market.
The £350,000 capture of Rotherham United’s Adam Le Fondre in 2011, at a time when no one from the higher divisions seemed willing to take a punt on a striker scoring for fun in League Two, is one of several deals to prove that.
McDermott, judging by his recent appearance on Sky’s Goals on Sunday when he described the Leeds fans as “phenomenal”, is also interested in the job, while another believed to be in the frame is Owen Coyle.
However, until the current uncertainty over the club’s ownership is cleared up, surely any hopes of getting the right candidate are weakened.
The Elland Road faithful must hope that clarity is soon brought to LS11 as, otherwise, United will surely remain a club in limbo. And that can only lead to United’s exile from the elite of English football continuing, no doubt much to the puzzlement of a Melbourne-born former striker who just a decade ago found it impossible to believe that the Yorkshire club’s star was capable of falling so far.
AS a jobbing freelance journalist at the start of the Millennium, I was part of the editorial team that used to put together the Leeds United matchday programme.
It was back in the days when Elland Road hosted Premier League football, so meant I had a ringside seat as the club slid from the Champions League to the Championship inside the space of three often chaotic years.
Part of my duties during what turned out to be United’s final two seasons before relegation was to compile a quiz for all the players and staff to take part in across the nine months of the campaign.
The winners in what became a keenly-fought contest were Nick Barmby and Dominic Matteo. It isn’t, however, the prowess of either man when it came to answering questions about the club’s history, their team-mates and the Premier League that is my outstanding memory of that period.
Instead, it is the week when Mark Viduka took part.
The Australian international was, I’ll admit, one of my favourite characters in that squad. Always willing to stop for a chat even when no request had been made for an interview, ‘Vidukes’ was a genial, friendly guy.
So, when it came to his turn to take part in the quiz challenge, he was afforded a degree of leniency. Never was this more the case than when I asked the last of his 15 questions: “How many years did Leeds spend in Division Two before winning promotion under Howard Wilkinson?”
Viduka’s reply of ‘one season’ had come before I’d even finished saying the name of the man the fans christened ‘Sergeant Wilko’. So, I gave him another go. And then another....
By the time he’d raised his initial answer by another 12 months to four years, even I’d had enough so called a halt to inform the striker that the answer was, in fact, eight years.
“No way, mate,” came the suddenly serious reply. “You better check your facts as there is no way a club of this size spent eight whole years outside the top division. No way at all.”
With that, Viduka turned on his heels and headed towards the Thorp Arch dressing room. Half an hour later, I was still there when he re-emerged and headed my way. “I’m sorry, mate. I’ve just checked with Smudger (Alan Smith) and he says you’re right. I can’t believe it. Leeds are just too big a club to struggle for that long.”
Almost exactly a decade on from when Viduka’s answers appeared in the Leeds programme (April 12, 2003, in the Spurs issue for those interested), the one-time striker’s words have taken on an even greater resonance.
Not only are United about to complete a ninth season outside the top flight, but, that exile will next term become the joint longest in the club’s history.
Neil Warnock became a casualty of that desire to return to the Premier League on Monday night when the plug was pulled on his 62-game reign in the wake of Derby County’s 2-1 triumph at Elland Road.
Considering the 64-year-old had made clear as long ago as the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City in mid-February that he would be off if the season didn’t end in promotion, the development didn’t necessarily come as a big surprise.
Nevertheless, it did again throw the spotlight on United and just where the club is at right now.
There is, as ever when it comes to Leeds, no simple answer. Not with so much uncertainty over just who is going to be making the big decisions in the future amid businessman Steve Parkin’s on-going attempts to secure a 51 per cent shareholding.
As it stands, chief executive Shaun Harvey and GFH Capital’s directors are leading the search for Warnock’s successor.
It is a vital appointment, not least because the continuing absence of United from the top flight together with the riches coming the way of their Premier League brethren via next season’s television deal means the Yorkshire club are falling further and further behind with each passing season.
As to who becomes the sixth manager to be handed the task of attempting to take United back up since the club’s relegation in 2004, much will depend on the job description.
How much money, for instance, will be handed to the new man? A budget similar to what the recent incumbents in the Elland Road dugout have had to work within will surely make talk of Mark Hughes, Martin O’Neill and even Gus Poyet fanciful.
Poyet, a former assistant manager at Elland Road, would not have been welcomed back on Ken Bates’s watch. Not after the manner of his departure to Tottenham Hotspur in 2008 when the first the United chairman heard about Poyet’s planned exit was via the breaking news ticker on Sky Sports.
Following last December’s sale of Leeds, of course, that obstacle has been removed. Nevertheless, the chances of seeing the Uruguayan back at Elland Road seem remote with his recent dalliance with Reading revealing that Brighton have a seven-figure buyout clause in their manager’s contract.
Of course, no one but GFH Capital – or, if he gets his way, Parkin – knows what money is going to be available next season.
But considering Warnock’s attempt to bring in Chris Burke from Birmingham City in January was thwarted by the club being unable to raise the £300,000 balance to match the asking price, chances are the 2013-14 budget is going to be more competitive than blockbusting.
With that in mind, Brian McDermott seems a more plausible candidate. Having started life at Reading in 2000 as chief scout, he has a clear eye for a bargain in the transfer market.
The £350,000 capture of Rotherham United’s Adam Le Fondre in 2011, at a time when no one from the higher divisions seemed willing to take a punt on a striker scoring for fun in League Two, is one of several deals to prove that.
McDermott, judging by his recent appearance on Sky’s Goals on Sunday when he described the Leeds fans as “phenomenal”, is also interested in the job, while another believed to be in the frame is Owen Coyle.
However, until the current uncertainty over the club’s ownership is cleared up, surely any hopes of getting the right candidate are weakened.
The Elland Road faithful must hope that clarity is soon brought to LS11 as, otherwise, United will surely remain a club in limbo. And that can only lead to United’s exile from the elite of English football continuing, no doubt much to the puzzlement of a Melbourne-born former striker who just a decade ago found it impossible to believe that the Yorkshire club’s star was capable of falling so far.
