Sunday Times 11/3/07
Leeds grab lifeline
Leeds 1 Luton 0
Rob Hughes at Elland Road
There remains the faintest, nervous chance of Leeds United clawing their way out of the pit of despair.
Both these clubs remain in peril of the drop to the third tier of English football this morning, but courtesy of a coolly taken goal by Richard
Cresswell and by a penalty save from Casper Ankergren near the end, Leeds were able to claim their first win since February 10 and ignite the first inkling of belief that they will yet survive this nervous end to the season.There remains something remarkable about Leeds, the only club in this Yorkshire city. A hardcore of 27,000 still come on a moody, windswept afternoon to Elland Road, appearing to believe in the miracle of survival. And from all that’s around the club, from its descent from what once was a force in Europe, there remain frighteningly familiar panics.
In the match programme, Ken Bates, now two years in the chair, is still accusing others of betrayal, still making vituperative accusations that the people of Leeds have let their club run to rack and ruin. He names names, we dare not for fear of libel. But imagine the feelings of the Leeds faithful when they open the programme and read that "a man with £100m cash in the bank flew down to see me in Monte Carlo. We had detailed discussions about the way forward, then he rang and apologised and said he would not be proceeding because of ...." and there Bates names the man he claims is ruining Leeds’ chance of attracting new benefactors.
No change, there, from his Chelsea days and none either in the fact that Bates also berates the prime minister, the chancellor of the exchequer and the sports minister for taking millions out of the game in Vat while calling for football to lower its prices.
On and around the field there was scurrying endeavour. We are light years away from looking at the Premiership, but under the pressures that surround these two clubs, perhaps some allowances need to be made.
For an hour Leeds went at their opponents as if life itself depended on it. Their captain Jonathan Douglas managed twice to head against the crossbar in the same movement. Rob-bie Blake also struck that bar with a 25-yard free kick, but the luck was capricious, and the skill to convert chances into goals almost bereft. However, five minutes into the second half Leeds finally got their just deserts. Cresswell was the scorer, producing a nifty turn to elude Markus Heikkinen just outside the six-yard box and then almost gently rolling the ball beyond the reach of Marlon Beresford.
In the stands, Peter Lorimer, once a wonderful winger on this field, had suggested that it was time the current crop of Leeds forwards delivered. It is not, he reasoned, as if they are nervous beginners. Finally one of them, Cresswell, had done his duty. But now, strangely, Leeds began to drop back, to protect a lead that, frankly, could have been five goals but for the agility and bravery of Beresford.
Once they were entrenched, we even had the contrived petulance of Dennis Wise, the Leeds manager, dastardly trying to waste time. He gathered the ball, offered it to a Luton player to take a throw-in, and then deliberately tossed in the opposite direction. Such skulduggery, reminiscent, some may think, of the days of Don Revie. Well, the gods almost exacted a mighty revenge. In the last 10 minutes Luton, clad from head to toe in tangerine, began to peel away the resistance of the home defence.
They had the chance to equal-ise and blew it. Four minutes from the end, when Leon Barnett was tripped as he was clean through on the goal, the raucous crowd of Leeds fell deadly silent. Up strode Dean Morgan, a Luton substitute, to take the penalty. He was delayed, the hostility of the crowd got to him, and when he shot it was feeble and straight at the grateful Ankergren.
Almighty relief in Elland Road. "Marching on together" rang out the familiar song. And yes there is a chance, now that Leeds have dragged Luton into their mire, but it will take more class than yesterday to complete the escape.
Guardian 10/3/07
Cresswell keeps hope alive
Amy Lawrence at Elland RdSunday March 11, 2007
The Observer
If you closed your eyes just for a moment and forgot all about the reality of the league table, the financial meltdown, the off-field bickering, life at Elland Road did not look as crummy as all that. An angelic looking blonde girl with pig tails played tag with her Leeds-shirted brother around Billy Bremner's statue. The queue to get into the club shop that has a sale on was healthy. A couple merrily scoffed their pre-match chips underneath the bronze plaque commemorating Bremner, Don Revie, and the FA Cup won by the old team of legend. There was, believe it or not, a buzz around the place.
Everybody knew this match had the feel of do or die. To the immense elation of the locals, Leeds found it in them to do enough. This win did not come without its moment of high anxiety, as Luton were awarded a penalty with four minutes to go.
The noise that cascaded around the place when Casper Ankergren plunged to parry Dean Morgan's spot kick was raw and wild. It ensured that Richard Cresswell's 50th-minute goal, scored through sheer will as much as skill, gives them glimmer of light.
But only a glimmer. They remain bottom. Now there are nine games to go. Nine games to somehow avoid the drop and prevent the worst nightmare in the history of Leeds United. They have never before sunk as low as English football's third tier. It starts for them at Leicester on Tuesday, followed by a trip on Saturday to Southend, who are one place and one point above them.
How dearly they needed this boost. The last few weeks have been a tale of Leeds disunited as the captain Kevin Nicholls has asked to leave - he was absent here, but not forgotten in understandably rude terrace chants; an unnamed player was accused of leaking details of the team to the opposition and the chairman Ken Bates through a splurge of fighting talk has exacerbated behind-the-scenes problems.
At last weekend's match Bates, in a not untypical show of belligerence, used his programme notes to publish the address of a former club director Melvyn Levi. The two men are entangled in a legal dispute and Bates saw fit to describe Levi as 'the enemy within'.
Levi duly served an injunction on this weekend's programme that was lifted only on the morning of the match. But Bates's latest missive was so abrasive somebody at the club thought it prudent to cross out a paragraph with marker pen in all 8,500 programmes. Not that it was not a doddle to read another of the many jibes about Levi through the hastily applied ink anyway.
Many supporters have a different view about quite who is the enemy within. A worrying number are staying away, unable to bring themselves to come to the games while Bates is running the club. These range from individuals, such as Mark, a former home-and-away season-ticket holder, who won't return to Elland Road under the current regime, to groups, such as the East Anglia supporters club that, not so long ago, would bring three coaches to matches and now struggle to fill a minibus.
The club seldom bother to open the upper tier of the East stand any more. Marching on together? For some it is more akin to trudging off alone and wallowing in disillusionment.
Bates has alienated the official supporters club, preferring to set up a new members' club that costs £47 to join and includes such privileges as the right to buy tickets and gain entry to a smart members' bar on matchday. There is also a 10 per cent discount on purchases in the shop, some free magazines and a Christmas card. Forgive me if my sense of economics is not hugely refined, but that does not seem an awful lot for £47.
The attendance was a respectable 27,138, helped by the reduction in ticket prices to £15. Generally, though, figures suggest that around 10,000 have drifted away since the club dropped out of the Premiership in 2004. The crowds held up quite well at first, averaging 30,000 in their first year of exile. That has fallen to an average of 20,000 in this season of radical decline.
Rank performances on the pitch, a lack of players for supporters to identify with and hiked-up ticket prices have contributed to the number of punters who have drifted away.
Considering this season has been the story of 42 players, three managers, one volatile chairman, thousands of lost supporters and endless tales of woe, is it any wonder the club sit bottom of the table?
Think about it for a moment. Some 42 players have pulled on the shirt for Leeds this season. That is almost enough for four separate teams. There has been a constant stream of loaned journeymen, the latest being yesterday's debutant, Lubomir Michalik, the Slovak who joined from Bolton. It is hardly the blueprint for success. Leeds haven't won successive league games all season.
The financial problems are, according to Bates, coming to an end. He has stated that by the end of this season, the club will be debt-free and no longer paying off ex-employees. It beggars belief that they are still funding salaries for players such as Robbie Fowler and Danny Mills. Up until last year they were still paying three ex-managers in David O'Leary, Terry Venables and Peter Reid.
How far back do we need to go to trace the moment the club's descent became inexorable? Is it when Peter Ridsdale got so out of his depth following the dream? Is it when the debts were reformed into bonds that required the fire sale of a promising team? Is it when Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were implicated in a protracted court case? Is it when Gerald Krasner's consortium did their bit for the debts by selling the stadium and the Thorp Arch training ground? Or is it when Bates took over and started doing things in his own inimitable style?
Surveying the wreckage of this ailing club, it pays to look at the bigger picture and remind yourself not just that it is six years since they were in the semi-finals of the Champions League with a team of internationals. But also, Leeds have won the English title more recently than Liverpool. Leeds were the team to last conquer the game in this country with an English manager in Howard Wilkinson.
In the cutting words of the travelling Luton fans squeezed into one corner: 'You're not famous any more.' Actually that's not strictly true. The club are still famous. But the team are barely recognisable from the heights of yesteryear.
If you closed your eyes just for a moment and forgot all about the reality of the league table, the financial meltdown, the off-field bickering, life at Elland Road did not look as crummy as all that. An angelic looking blonde girl with pig tails played tag with her Leeds-shirted brother around Billy Bremner's statue. The queue to get into the club shop that has a sale on was healthy. A couple merrily scoffed their pre-match chips underneath the bronze plaque commemorating Bremner, Don Revie, and the FA Cup won by the old team of legend. There was, believe it or not, a buzz around the place.
Everybody knew this match had the feel of do or die. To the immense elation of the locals, Leeds found it in them to do enough. This win did not come without its moment of high anxiety, as Luton were awarded a penalty with four minutes to go.
The noise that cascaded around the place when Casper Ankergren plunged to parry Dean Morgan's spot kick was raw and wild. It ensured that Richard Cresswell's 50th-minute goal, scored through sheer will as much as skill, gives them glimmer of light.
But only a glimmer. They remain bottom. Now there are nine games to go. Nine games to somehow avoid the drop and prevent the worst nightmare in the history of Leeds United. They have never before sunk as low as English football's third tier. It starts for them at Leicester on Tuesday, followed by a trip on Saturday to Southend, who are one place and one point above them.
How dearly they needed this boost. The last few weeks have been a tale of Leeds disunited as the captain Kevin Nicholls has asked to leave - he was absent here, but not forgotten in understandably rude terrace chants; an unnamed player was accused of leaking details of the team to the opposition and the chairman Ken Bates through a splurge of fighting talk has exacerbated behind-the-scenes problems.
At last weekend's match Bates, in a not untypical show of belligerence, used his programme notes to publish the address of a former club director Melvyn Levi. The two men are entangled in a legal dispute and Bates saw fit to describe Levi as 'the enemy within'.
Levi duly served an injunction on this weekend's programme that was lifted only on the morning of the match. But Bates's latest missive was so abrasive somebody at the club thought it prudent to cross out a paragraph with marker pen in all 8,500 programmes. Not that it was not a doddle to read another of the many jibes about Levi through the hastily applied ink anyway.
Many supporters have a different view about quite who is the enemy within. A worrying number are staying away, unable to bring themselves to come to the games while Bates is running the club. These range from individuals, such as Mark, a former home-and-away season-ticket holder, who won't return to Elland Road under the current regime, to groups, such as the East Anglia supporters club that, not so long ago, would bring three coaches to matches and now struggle to fill a minibus.
The club seldom bother to open the upper tier of the East stand any more. Marching on together? For some it is more akin to trudging off alone and wallowing in disillusionment.
Bates has alienated the official supporters club, preferring to set up a new members' club that costs £47 to join and includes such privileges as the right to buy tickets and gain entry to a smart members' bar on matchday. There is also a 10 per cent discount on purchases in the shop, some free magazines and a Christmas card. Forgive me if my sense of economics is not hugely refined, but that does not seem an awful lot for £47.
The attendance was a respectable 27,138, helped by the reduction in ticket prices to £15. Generally, though, figures suggest that around 10,000 have drifted away since the club dropped out of the Premiership in 2004. The crowds held up quite well at first, averaging 30,000 in their first year of exile. That has fallen to an average of 20,000 in this season of radical decline.
Rank performances on the pitch, a lack of players for supporters to identify with and hiked-up ticket prices have contributed to the number of punters who have drifted away.
Considering this season has been the story of 42 players, three managers, one volatile chairman, thousands of lost supporters and endless tales of woe, is it any wonder the club sit bottom of the table?
Think about it for a moment. Some 42 players have pulled on the shirt for Leeds this season. That is almost enough for four separate teams. There has been a constant stream of loaned journeymen, the latest being yesterday's debutant, Lubomir Michalik, the Slovak who joined from Bolton. It is hardly the blueprint for success. Leeds haven't won successive league games all season.
The financial problems are, according to Bates, coming to an end. He has stated that by the end of this season, the club will be debt-free and no longer paying off ex-employees. It beggars belief that they are still funding salaries for players such as Robbie Fowler and Danny Mills. Up until last year they were still paying three ex-managers in David O'Leary, Terry Venables and Peter Reid.
How far back do we need to go to trace the moment the club's descent became inexorable? Is it when Peter Ridsdale got so out of his depth following the dream? Is it when the debts were reformed into bonds that required the fire sale of a promising team? Is it when Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were implicated in a protracted court case? Is it when Gerald Krasner's consortium did their bit for the debts by selling the stadium and the Thorp Arch training ground? Or is it when Bates took over and started doing things in his own inimitable style?
Surveying the wreckage of this ailing club, it pays to look at the bigger picture and remind yourself not just that it is six years since they were in the semi-finals of the Champions League with a team of internationals. But also, Leeds have won the English title more recently than Liverpool. Leeds were the team to last conquer the game in this country with an English manager in Howard Wilkinson.
In the cutting words of the travelling Luton fans squeezed into one corner: 'You're not famous any more.' Actually that's not strictly true. The club are still famous. But the team are barely recognisable from the heights of yesteryear.
Yorkshire Evening Post 9/3/07
The happy wanderer
By Phil Hay
LEEDS UNITED today completed their 13th loan signing of the season by capturing centre-back Lubomir Michalik from Bolton Wanderers.
The Slovakian international has signed for Leeds for a month and will be included in their squad for tomorrow's Championship game against Luton Town at Elland Road. The 23-year-old was signed by Bolton from FC Senec during the January transfer window, but he is seen as a long-term prospect by Sam Allardyce and will be given the opportunity of first-team football with United. Meanwhile, the confusion surrounding Kevin Nicholls deepened today after Luton manager Mike Newell accused Leeds of offering to loan the midfielder to QPR. The Kenilworth Road boss has claimed United were willing to lend their former captain to John Gregory's side – despite refusing an identical offer for Nicholls from Luton last week. Nicholls was stripped of the captaincy at Elland Road eight days ago after confirming to Dennis Wise that he wished to return to Kenilworth Road on loan, seven months after leaving Luton for Leeds in a £700,000 deal.
Wise rejected Newell's request to loan Nicholls until the end of the season, saying: "Is he seriously crazy, or what?" But Newell added intrigue to tomorrow's crucial meeting between the clubs at Elland Road by claiming United were ready to release the midfielder to another of their relegation rivals. Leeds issued a statement denying his allegation this morning. Asked whether he appreciated Wise's reluctance to aid Luton's cause, Newell said: "My understanding is that they've offered to loan him to QPR, and as far as I know they're down in the same area as us. "It's never finished. The lad wants to come back to Luton which is great news. "I was only made aware of the situation a week or two ago. As soon as I was made aware of it I made the phone call directly to Dennis Wise, as I would always do. "But if someone says 'no, you can't have him' we just have to bide our time." A United spokesman stressed today: "The club have had no contact with QPR regarding Kevin Nicholls." Nicholls is unlikely to be involved against his former club tomorrow after being dropped for last weekend's game with Sheffield Wednesday, but he will still be considered for selection by United's management team, according to assistant boss Gus Poyet. The Uruguayan insisted the "door was open" for Nicholls to resolve the situation with Wise, but claimed he could not shed further light on the midfielder's reasons for asking to leave Elland Road. Poyet said: "It's up to Nicko to talk. He made a decision so it's up to him to clarify. He's not banned from speaking. "He didn't say anything about any problems with us, or the way we train. "It's up to him. Everyone here can come and talk to the manager, his door is open all the time. If he changes his mind, or if he made a mistake, he can say. "He's available. He's still at the club and he's under contract."It's about picking the right team to play Luton. He wanted to go to Luton and now we might need him to play against Luton.