Sunday Times
Talk is cheap for under-pressure Blackwell
RICHARD RAE
The Leeds manager faces another year with little cash to spend, but he knows fans and the board demand success after last season’s near miss
SOMEHOW it came as no surprise to Kevin Blackwell that a few days after seeing his Leeds team ignominiously beaten by Watford in the Championship playoff final last May, he should find himself in a courtroom. More than ready for a break, Blackwell was called up for jury service. He carried out his civic duty with characteristic application. “It did feel faintly surreal at first, especially when fellow jurors brought in United shirts for me to sign, but the bottom line is you’re taking a decision that changes lives,” he said. “It was a difficult case, a sexual assault. It put football into context, which is no bad thing”
Context is a word Blackwell uses regularly in relation to United’s performance last season, usually in the same sentence as debt. To get within 90 minutes of promotion at a time when the priority was to continue reducing the club’s liabilities has, he knows, raised expectations in the stands and — judging by chairman Ken Bates’s comments — the boardroom to such an extent that few bookies expect Blackwell to keep his job if Leeds do not gain promotion this season.
Talking the day after buying midfielder Kevin Nicholls from Luton for £700,000, and two days after selling striker Rob Hulse to Sheffield United for an initial £2.1m, Blackwell was prepared to admit that this could be a difficult season for Leeds. “Financially, we have this season to get over. Then we will be in good shape, because all the big contracts will be paid up and off our backs. Everybody wants to see continued success on the field and that’s what we will try and bring,” he said. “As far as the squad is concerned, we’re about 75% of the way to having what we want. It means we still need to spend.”
Whether he will be able to do so is far from clear. Last summer Blackwell invested almost £4m in Hulse, Robbie Blake, Richard Cresswell and Dan Harding, but the club’s spending power this time around is restricted because it no longer receives the £7m parachute payment for clubs relegated from the Premiership.
“That means I have to generate more if I want to spend, but we’ve also got £9m to pay in wages to players who aren’t here any more. To keep the club going forward on no money, I have to wheel and deal. I didn’t want Rob to go, but he deserved his chance in the Premiership and at least we doubled our money.”
Another to leave Elland Road is goalkeeper Ian Bennett, who has followed Hulse to Sheffield United for an undisclosed fee after making five appearances as understudy to Neil Sullivan last season. The 34-year-old was in the final year of his contract. “We paid nothing for him and got money back, so we’ve got a return,” said Blackwell.
It is significant that two of United’s most important midfielders last season, Jonathan Douglas and Liam Miller, were at the club on loan deals. Hence the arrival of Nicholls to join other recent recruits, winger Seb Carole from Brighton and left-sided midfielder David Livermore.
Carole, a 23-year-old Frenchman who can play on either wing, could be important, because pace, or the lack of it, was a feature of many of United’s performances, and Blackwell knows it. “The Watford game didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know, in terms of the team’s capabilities and deficiencies. What nobody seemed to remember was that 18 months previously the club was on its knees, hours from going out of existence.
“The distance we’ve come is amazing, and I understand people thinking that if we continue to improve, which is always your aim, then we should go up. But you look at how the three teams who’ve come down from the Premiership have pretty much kept their squads together, and what the clubs around us are spending, and the fact is it’s going to be even harder.”
One positive is that Blackwell’s coaching staff remain in place after assistant and head coach John Carver turned down an approach to manage Carlisle United.
“John is a very important part of our plans, so that was a big boost,” said Blackwell. “I am hoping to spend even more time on training. It wasn’t always possible last year because there was so much happening off the field. When you’ve got support like ours, it drives you on, because the fans deserve success.”
Positive though Blackwell is, the consensus round the city is that Leeds need at least two more big-name signings to compete for automatic promotion. A year of treading water may await.
Talk is cheap for under-pressure Blackwell
RICHARD RAE
The Leeds manager faces another year with little cash to spend, but he knows fans and the board demand success after last season’s near miss
SOMEHOW it came as no surprise to Kevin Blackwell that a few days after seeing his Leeds team ignominiously beaten by Watford in the Championship playoff final last May, he should find himself in a courtroom. More than ready for a break, Blackwell was called up for jury service. He carried out his civic duty with characteristic application. “It did feel faintly surreal at first, especially when fellow jurors brought in United shirts for me to sign, but the bottom line is you’re taking a decision that changes lives,” he said. “It was a difficult case, a sexual assault. It put football into context, which is no bad thing”
Context is a word Blackwell uses regularly in relation to United’s performance last season, usually in the same sentence as debt. To get within 90 minutes of promotion at a time when the priority was to continue reducing the club’s liabilities has, he knows, raised expectations in the stands and — judging by chairman Ken Bates’s comments — the boardroom to such an extent that few bookies expect Blackwell to keep his job if Leeds do not gain promotion this season.
Talking the day after buying midfielder Kevin Nicholls from Luton for £700,000, and two days after selling striker Rob Hulse to Sheffield United for an initial £2.1m, Blackwell was prepared to admit that this could be a difficult season for Leeds. “Financially, we have this season to get over. Then we will be in good shape, because all the big contracts will be paid up and off our backs. Everybody wants to see continued success on the field and that’s what we will try and bring,” he said. “As far as the squad is concerned, we’re about 75% of the way to having what we want. It means we still need to spend.”
Whether he will be able to do so is far from clear. Last summer Blackwell invested almost £4m in Hulse, Robbie Blake, Richard Cresswell and Dan Harding, but the club’s spending power this time around is restricted because it no longer receives the £7m parachute payment for clubs relegated from the Premiership.
“That means I have to generate more if I want to spend, but we’ve also got £9m to pay in wages to players who aren’t here any more. To keep the club going forward on no money, I have to wheel and deal. I didn’t want Rob to go, but he deserved his chance in the Premiership and at least we doubled our money.”
Another to leave Elland Road is goalkeeper Ian Bennett, who has followed Hulse to Sheffield United for an undisclosed fee after making five appearances as understudy to Neil Sullivan last season. The 34-year-old was in the final year of his contract. “We paid nothing for him and got money back, so we’ve got a return,” said Blackwell.
It is significant that two of United’s most important midfielders last season, Jonathan Douglas and Liam Miller, were at the club on loan deals. Hence the arrival of Nicholls to join other recent recruits, winger Seb Carole from Brighton and left-sided midfielder David Livermore.
Carole, a 23-year-old Frenchman who can play on either wing, could be important, because pace, or the lack of it, was a feature of many of United’s performances, and Blackwell knows it. “The Watford game didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know, in terms of the team’s capabilities and deficiencies. What nobody seemed to remember was that 18 months previously the club was on its knees, hours from going out of existence.
“The distance we’ve come is amazing, and I understand people thinking that if we continue to improve, which is always your aim, then we should go up. But you look at how the three teams who’ve come down from the Premiership have pretty much kept their squads together, and what the clubs around us are spending, and the fact is it’s going to be even harder.”
One positive is that Blackwell’s coaching staff remain in place after assistant and head coach John Carver turned down an approach to manage Carlisle United.
“John is a very important part of our plans, so that was a big boost,” said Blackwell. “I am hoping to spend even more time on training. It wasn’t always possible last year because there was so much happening off the field. When you’ve got support like ours, it drives you on, because the fans deserve success.”
Positive though Blackwell is, the consensus round the city is that Leeds need at least two more big-name signings to compete for automatic promotion. A year of treading water may await.