Sunday Times 6/8/06
Leeds 1 Norwich 0: Healy gives Leeds stuttering start
Rob Hughes at Elland Road
UNDER grey Yorkshire clouds, Leeds United began their campaign to overcome the bitter disappointment of having to spend at least another season out of the top level. They eked out a victory through a David Healy penalty, scarcely deserved, just before half-time. They won a match of high work rate, total organisation, keen intensity . . . maybe you have the picture already. Perhaps you can spot the missing words such as “entertainment”, “skill levels” and “adventure”.
Make no mistake, there is a gulf so painful now between the Premiership and the rest of English football that even here, among teams such as Leeds and Norwich who so short a time ago belonged to the elite, there is an enforced economy that once was reminiscent of clubs far lower in the professional pyramid. The difference between Premiership football and the Championship is personified in Robbie Earnshaw, a little bundle of energy, pace and ambition, not always coordinated with his capacity to think and deliver. So swift and mobile is the Welshman, so elusive for tall and cumbersome defenders such as Paul Butler, that Leeds could seek him here, seek him there, but never quite track him or subdue him.
Alas, Earnshaw was squandering chances. He might well have had a hat-trick inside the first half-hour. Darren Huckerby, using his thrust down the left, intercepted a poor pass from Shaun Derry and gave Earnshaw ample opportunity to beat the goalkeeper. But Tony Warner, there in emergency and on a month’s loan because of Leeds’s parlous state, read the mind of Earnshaw and was equal to the diffident shot.
Earnshaw’s second chance was scooped wide with the outside of his foot, again with the goal gaping. His third shot was brilliant, curled around the advancing Warner and deserving a better fate than to caress the inside of the post and roll excruciatingly across the face of the goalmouth. In that movement, Butler’s attempt to bring down Earnshaw rightly earned a yellow card.
But Leeds came back into it. Their own elusive forward, Healy, was beginning to find space, not least when the wingers Steve Stone and Eddie Lewis, and the overlapping right-back Gary Kelly, were willing to feed him. But for Paul Gallacher in the Norwich goal, Healy might have scored twice. He did so five minutes before half-time with a perfectly executed penalty. Tracking back into the penalty area and committing a woeful attempt at a tackle, Lee Croft left his leg dangling in front of Stone. The crafty winger took full advantage; it was a soft penalty but a true one, and it was struck with unforgiving finality by Healy.
Blackwell was first to readjust after the interval and his team began to command midfield. Stone created a chance, Gallacher was hesitant, Horsfield should not have been, but the centre-forward contrived to miss from six yards. The final chance came at the death, Paul McVeigh setting it up only for Earnshaw to hit over the bar.
Star Man: Tony Warner (Leeds United)
Player Ratings: Leeds United: Warner 8, Kelly 7, Butler 5, Kilgannon 5, Crainey 5 (Moore 86min, 4), Stone 6, Bakke 6 (Westlake 78min, 6), Derry 5, Lewis 7, Healy 7 (Carole 69min, 6), Horsfield 5 Norwich: Gallacher 6, Colin 5 (Thorn 82min, 4), Shackell 6, Doherty 6, Drury 7, Croft 5 (McKenzie 56min 6), Safri 6, Etuhu 6, Robinson 6 (McVeigh 71min, 6), Huckerby 7, Earnshaw 6
News of the World 6/8/06
Tap up scandal overshadows season
ACCUSED
By Rob Shepherd
THE Leeds tap-up scandal has taken a sensational new twist amid allegations the players' union helped Chelsea lure two youngsters from Elland Road.
And in an exclusive interview, Bristol Rovers chairman Geoff Dunsford accused the Blues of nicking one of his young players.
He also urged the FA to back Leeds supremo Ken Bates in his battle to have Chelsea severely punished.
As the new Coca-Cola League season kicked off yesterday, the game's smaller clubs united against the Premier League champions.
Dunsford stormed: "Chelsea have to be stopped one way or another.
"We lost highly-promising youngster Scott Sinclair, 17, after he had joined this club at the age of nine.
"We got just £160,000 up front at arbitration. That's absurd but Chelsea really play the system and aren't like other Premiership clubs who negotiate properly.
Poached
"What they are doing is wrong and the rules have to be overhauled to bring this to an end."
Leeds, who won 1-0 against Norwich yesterday, lifted the lid in January when they complained two of their rising stars had been poached by the Blues — contravening strict guidelines about how under-age players can be approached.
We can now reveal the players' union actually acted as agents for the two Leeds kids.
PFA deputy chief executive Mick McGuire last night confirmed he represented England Under-16 midfielders Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo when they opted to sign pro forms with Chelsea.
McGuire insists he was asked to act for the two kids at Leeds' request after it became clear Chelsea wanted to sign the academy trainees when they were free to listen to offers.
But Leeds claim another players' union official, Phil Sprowson, actively helped to lure the pair from Elland Road BEFORE they were officially allowed to.
McGuire vowed: "We would strongly contest there has been any conflict of interest on our part. We have nothing to hide."
Chelsea and the PFA now face allegations that Woods, Taiwo and a third youngster Danny Rose — who opted to stay with Leeds — were invited to tour Chelsea's Cobham training ground last October.
The players, along with their parents, were then put up at an hotel and were guests at Chelsea's Carling Cup match against Charlton at Stamford Bridge on October 26.
Leeds believe they have evidence to prove they were accompanied by Sprowson — even though all three players were on the books of Leeds Academy at the time. Under strict regulations, they would have had to wait until March 2006 before they could talk with any other clubs.
The FA last night confirmed a disciplinary hearing is pending over accusations Chelsea have breached rules. The governing body also said they will investigate the conduct and activities of any agents involved. An FA spokesman said: "We will look into this matter to establish whether any agent regulations or league rules have been breached.
"The Premier League will also be involved in the inquiry."
A Premier League spokesman confirmed: "If any agent is involved in a situation like this then clearly that particular element falls under the FA because they regulate agents. And that would include an agent working for the PFA."
But McGuire insisted: "We conducted ourselves in a totally professional manner. I did the contracts at Chelsea and I did the negotiations at Leeds.
"I don't want to talk about what went on but it was me who represented the two lads. It was the parents who came to us asking us to represent them.
Docked
"Once Leeds had released them properly we then, with their permission, went to Chelsea."
Leeds believe the players had been tapped up long before formal negotiations were held.
And chairman Bates (left), who spent 28 years as Chelsea supremo, is enraged at what he regards as an ‘insulting' compensation offer of £200,000 for each of the players.
He wants Chelsea to be docked points or kicked out of Europe.
Dunsford added: "I am lobbying the league to get the rules changed. Other clubs go through a proper negotiating process but Chelsea pay lip-service to it. "Ken Bates has done the game a favour as other clubs may now be ready to speak up."
Leeds 1 Norwich 0: Healy gives Leeds stuttering start
Rob Hughes at Elland Road
UNDER grey Yorkshire clouds, Leeds United began their campaign to overcome the bitter disappointment of having to spend at least another season out of the top level. They eked out a victory through a David Healy penalty, scarcely deserved, just before half-time. They won a match of high work rate, total organisation, keen intensity . . . maybe you have the picture already. Perhaps you can spot the missing words such as “entertainment”, “skill levels” and “adventure”.
Make no mistake, there is a gulf so painful now between the Premiership and the rest of English football that even here, among teams such as Leeds and Norwich who so short a time ago belonged to the elite, there is an enforced economy that once was reminiscent of clubs far lower in the professional pyramid. The difference between Premiership football and the Championship is personified in Robbie Earnshaw, a little bundle of energy, pace and ambition, not always coordinated with his capacity to think and deliver. So swift and mobile is the Welshman, so elusive for tall and cumbersome defenders such as Paul Butler, that Leeds could seek him here, seek him there, but never quite track him or subdue him.
Alas, Earnshaw was squandering chances. He might well have had a hat-trick inside the first half-hour. Darren Huckerby, using his thrust down the left, intercepted a poor pass from Shaun Derry and gave Earnshaw ample opportunity to beat the goalkeeper. But Tony Warner, there in emergency and on a month’s loan because of Leeds’s parlous state, read the mind of Earnshaw and was equal to the diffident shot.
Earnshaw’s second chance was scooped wide with the outside of his foot, again with the goal gaping. His third shot was brilliant, curled around the advancing Warner and deserving a better fate than to caress the inside of the post and roll excruciatingly across the face of the goalmouth. In that movement, Butler’s attempt to bring down Earnshaw rightly earned a yellow card.
But Leeds came back into it. Their own elusive forward, Healy, was beginning to find space, not least when the wingers Steve Stone and Eddie Lewis, and the overlapping right-back Gary Kelly, were willing to feed him. But for Paul Gallacher in the Norwich goal, Healy might have scored twice. He did so five minutes before half-time with a perfectly executed penalty. Tracking back into the penalty area and committing a woeful attempt at a tackle, Lee Croft left his leg dangling in front of Stone. The crafty winger took full advantage; it was a soft penalty but a true one, and it was struck with unforgiving finality by Healy.
Blackwell was first to readjust after the interval and his team began to command midfield. Stone created a chance, Gallacher was hesitant, Horsfield should not have been, but the centre-forward contrived to miss from six yards. The final chance came at the death, Paul McVeigh setting it up only for Earnshaw to hit over the bar.
Star Man: Tony Warner (Leeds United)
Player Ratings: Leeds United: Warner 8, Kelly 7, Butler 5, Kilgannon 5, Crainey 5 (Moore 86min, 4), Stone 6, Bakke 6 (Westlake 78min, 6), Derry 5, Lewis 7, Healy 7 (Carole 69min, 6), Horsfield 5 Norwich: Gallacher 6, Colin 5 (Thorn 82min, 4), Shackell 6, Doherty 6, Drury 7, Croft 5 (McKenzie 56min 6), Safri 6, Etuhu 6, Robinson 6 (McVeigh 71min, 6), Huckerby 7, Earnshaw 6
News of the World 6/8/06
Tap up scandal overshadows season
ACCUSED
By Rob Shepherd
THE Leeds tap-up scandal has taken a sensational new twist amid allegations the players' union helped Chelsea lure two youngsters from Elland Road.
And in an exclusive interview, Bristol Rovers chairman Geoff Dunsford accused the Blues of nicking one of his young players.
He also urged the FA to back Leeds supremo Ken Bates in his battle to have Chelsea severely punished.
As the new Coca-Cola League season kicked off yesterday, the game's smaller clubs united against the Premier League champions.
Dunsford stormed: "Chelsea have to be stopped one way or another.
"We lost highly-promising youngster Scott Sinclair, 17, after he had joined this club at the age of nine.
"We got just £160,000 up front at arbitration. That's absurd but Chelsea really play the system and aren't like other Premiership clubs who negotiate properly.
Poached
"What they are doing is wrong and the rules have to be overhauled to bring this to an end."
Leeds, who won 1-0 against Norwich yesterday, lifted the lid in January when they complained two of their rising stars had been poached by the Blues — contravening strict guidelines about how under-age players can be approached.
We can now reveal the players' union actually acted as agents for the two Leeds kids.
PFA deputy chief executive Mick McGuire last night confirmed he represented England Under-16 midfielders Michael Woods and Tom Taiwo when they opted to sign pro forms with Chelsea.
McGuire insists he was asked to act for the two kids at Leeds' request after it became clear Chelsea wanted to sign the academy trainees when they were free to listen to offers.
But Leeds claim another players' union official, Phil Sprowson, actively helped to lure the pair from Elland Road BEFORE they were officially allowed to.
McGuire vowed: "We would strongly contest there has been any conflict of interest on our part. We have nothing to hide."
Chelsea and the PFA now face allegations that Woods, Taiwo and a third youngster Danny Rose — who opted to stay with Leeds — were invited to tour Chelsea's Cobham training ground last October.
The players, along with their parents, were then put up at an hotel and were guests at Chelsea's Carling Cup match against Charlton at Stamford Bridge on October 26.
Leeds believe they have evidence to prove they were accompanied by Sprowson — even though all three players were on the books of Leeds Academy at the time. Under strict regulations, they would have had to wait until March 2006 before they could talk with any other clubs.
The FA last night confirmed a disciplinary hearing is pending over accusations Chelsea have breached rules. The governing body also said they will investigate the conduct and activities of any agents involved. An FA spokesman said: "We will look into this matter to establish whether any agent regulations or league rules have been breached.
"The Premier League will also be involved in the inquiry."
A Premier League spokesman confirmed: "If any agent is involved in a situation like this then clearly that particular element falls under the FA because they regulate agents. And that would include an agent working for the PFA."
But McGuire insisted: "We conducted ourselves in a totally professional manner. I did the contracts at Chelsea and I did the negotiations at Leeds.
"I don't want to talk about what went on but it was me who represented the two lads. It was the parents who came to us asking us to represent them.
Docked
"Once Leeds had released them properly we then, with their permission, went to Chelsea."
Leeds believe the players had been tapped up long before formal negotiations were held.
And chairman Bates (left), who spent 28 years as Chelsea supremo, is enraged at what he regards as an ‘insulting' compensation offer of £200,000 for each of the players.
He wants Chelsea to be docked points or kicked out of Europe.
Dunsford added: "I am lobbying the league to get the rules changed. Other clubs go through a proper negotiating process but Chelsea pay lip-service to it. "Ken Bates has done the game a favour as other clubs may now be ready to speak up."