Leedsunited.com 23/12/08
SIMON SAYS...
New United manager relishes the challenge....
New Leeds United manager Simon Grayson says he can't wait to get stuck into his new role.
The former Blackpool manager was confirmed as the new United boss on Tuesday and is relishing the challenge.
"When the opportunity came to come here I couldn't wait to be involved in as quickly as possible," he told LUTV.
"It's a massive club and it's close to my heart, having played here and supporting the club. The size and the ambition is obviously an attraction as well.
"I had a great time at Blackpool. I had a great rapport with the fans and the board. I certainly wouldn't have dropped down a division for any other club and I feel this is the next stage of my managerial career."
Grayson arrives at Elland Road on the back of a successful stint as Blackpool boss. He guided the club to their highest league position for over 40 years after leading the Seasiders to League One Play-Off Final success two years ago.
"I'd like to think that what I've achieved has alerted a few people," he said.
"What I want to do is keep working hard and impose my ideas and beliefs onto the team at Leeds and make sure we carry on in a positive manner and get out of this division. That's the aim and that's what we want to do.
"I know there is an expectancy level and it's a challenge I'm looking forward to. There'll be a near full-house here on Friday and the club has that tradition and past history.
"However, it is a League One club at the moment and everyone has to pull together.
"Hopefully the fans will embrace what we are trying to do and we can grasp this opportunity to get the club back where it should be. I know other managers have tried to do that, and I'll be trying my best."
His appointment at Elland Road represents the full circle for a Yorkshireman who started his career as a teenager on schoolboy forms during the first tenure of Eddie Gray.
Grayson made just two senior appearances during his six years with the club, but after leaving in 1992 he embarked on a successful playing career that saw him make over 500 senior appearances before eventually moving into management with Blackpool.
"When I first came as a 14-year-old I never thought I'd get to this stage, but as time goes by you get into the coaching side and this is one club I have always wanted to manage," he added.
"I'd like to thank the chairman for giving me the opportunity to come into the club and hopefully it will be as successful partnership."
Yorkshire Post 23/12/08
Seaside shuffle as Simon Grayson joins Leeds amid legal row
SIMON Grayson's defection from Blackpool to Leeds was shrouded in acrimony today as the Coca-Cola Championship outfit threatened legal action against him and his new employers.
Grayson, 39, was announced as the League One outfit's new manager after Gary McAllister was axed on Sunday following a dismal run of five straight defeats.
Yet Grayson's move across the Pennines to his native Yorkshire and to Elland Road - where he began his playing career - has been met with a furious response from Blackpool.
They refused his resignation and are unwilling to release him from his contract, which has 18 months remaining.
Talks about compensation are believed to be still ongoing but Blackpool said in a statement: "Blackpool FC can confirm that Simon Grayson tendered his resignation at 0830 on Tuesday morning.
"The resignation was not accepted by the board of directors and the club and are now considering legal action against both Simon Grayson and Leeds United."
Nevertheless, Grayson becomes the ninth manager at Elland Road in the last 10 years after he built up an impressive cv and reputation at Blackpool.
He enjoyed a six-year stint at Bloomfield Road, first as a player then as manager, during which he guided the club to promotion to the Championship in May 2007 before staving off the threat of relegation last term.
Grayson's brief at Leeds is to repeat that feat with the fallen Yorkshire giants after their recent slump raised fears of failing to even make the play-offs.
Howard Wilkinson managed Leeds between 1988 and 1996 and believes Grayson, who played for Leeds, Leicester, Aston Villa and Blackburn before joining Blackpool, fits the bill perfectly as the club seek to reignite their promotion bid.
Grayson's first game in charge will be the visit of former club and current League One leaders Leicester - with whom he won the League Cup in 1997 - on Boxing Day.
Wilkinson said: "Simon Grayson is an ideal choice for Leeds - for lots of reasons."I've followed his career closely and he's worked hard at everything he has done.
"He's worked hard to have a career as a player - he was not as gifted as some and would tell you that himself - but he made a good career for himself as a player.
"When he got into management, he applied himself equally diligently.
"He's a student of the game, he's been on a lot of courses and getting Blackpool to where they are is a massive achievement.
"He's had to compete with people with far greater resources than he has but he's got the results for Blackpool. He's shown he has got talent."
Yorkshire Evening Post 23/12/08
Grayson appointed as Leeds boss
Leeds United have named Simon Grayson as their new manager.
The 39-year-old left his job with Blackpool this morning to take up the vacant manager's position at Elland Road.
But both Leeds and Grayson appear to be facing legal action following his appointment.
Blackpool have revealed that Grayson tendered his resignation to the board at Bloomfield Road this morning, and confirmed that his resignation was refused.
A statement from the Championship club read: "Blackpool FC can confirm that Simon Grayson tendered his resignation at 0830 on Tuesday morning.
"The resignation was not accepted by the board of directors and the club are now considering legal action against both Simon Grayson and Leeds United."
United had been locked in negotiations with Blackpool over compensation for Grayson, whose contract at Bloomfield Road was due to run until 2010.
He was identified as Leeds' preferred option for the vacancy at Elland Road after McAllister was sacked on Sunday following his 50th game in charge. Grayson began his playing career with United and has been Blackpool's manager for three years, leading the club to promotion from League One in 2007 and firmly establishing them inside the Championship.
Leeds are still to confirm the length of Grayson contract and the make-up of his backroom team.
Yorkshire Evening Post 22/12/08
Nightmare end to dream return
Never go back, as the wise and cynical are bound to say whenever the return of a local legend ends in tears.
Gary McAllister may have shed a few when word reached him yesterday that Leeds United's board had lost faith in his management, but his tears of regret will not relate to his original decision to accept such an emotive position.
Eleven months ago, McAllister wore the honoured look of a man who had returned to two of his spiritual homes – to Leeds United and to professional football. At no point then or since did he reveal any suspicion that reacquainting himself with Elland Road might have been the wrong decision.
It was his second job in management and his first since leaving Coventry City to care for his wife, Denise, who died in 2006 after developing breast cancer. After such difficulty in his personal life, it was arguably the perfect, idealist offer to convince him that his career was ready to start afresh.
McAllister brought to Elland Road a previous association with Leeds which guaranteed him favour. As a member of the squad which won the Division One title in 1992, the Scot did not have to worry about support from the terraces nor wonder whether, like Dennis Wise before him, sections of United's fans would be willing him to fail.
What his prior career could not guarantee him was a successful tenure, or immunity to the consequences of poor results. The same rule applied to Billy Bremner, the iconic captain of United who was sacked as Leeds boss without a second thought in 1988. In neither instance could the outcome be described as a cause for celebration.McAllister's exit will seem like a sensible, inevitable decision to many – not least the 4,000-plus fans who watched Leeds capitulate to MK Dons on Saturday, the 43-year-old's day of reckoning – but it is deeply regrettable that a man who gave so much to United as a player could not reach his first anniversary as their manager.
What Leeds have lost is a decent, diligent character who adored his job and was desperate to fulfil the potential it offered him. He was clean-cut, polite and extremely professional, the last man to pick a fight in an industry which encourages conflict. McAllister, to his credit, has not left Elland Road with many enemies.
Those are reasons to sympathise with him, but not reasons to dispute his sacking. As Paul Ince discovered last week, and another manager will discover soon enough, there is no greater currency in football than results and no greater danger to a boss than the sense among his employers that his magic touch has worn off.Ken Bates, United's chairman, was one of the 17,073 spectators at Stadium:mk on Saturday, and he could not ignore what his eyes were telling him.
The fragility of McAllister's team was exposed by their concession of two goals inside the first 17 minutes, and the issues confronting the manager were displayed in full.
His team did not often look like scoring yet were liable to concede whenever MK Dons turned the screw. It was telling that within six minutes of Robert Snodgrass swinging the momentum towards Leeds, Aaron Wilbraham's 54th-minute header put the game to bed. In that moment, Bates may have asked himself where United's backbone had gone.In time, and on the evidence of the more positive periods of his reign, I still maintain that McAllister had the qualities and the vision to carry Leeds forward, but Bates was entitled to push for change. The League One table on Saturday night made damning reading.
United are 15 points behind leaders Leicester, and 11 behind MK Dons who lie second. Probability says that Leeds will not overturn those margins, especially if the decline which set in under McAllister continues into next month.
More troubling still for Bates should be the five-point margin between Leeds and the play-offs, a deficit which brings home the reality that United are dicing with a third season in League One. The Elland Road club cannot afford that, and Bates knows it. So, too, does McAllister.
The uncomfortable reality is that United have not moved forward from their defeat in last season's play-off final. Their squad is better man for man but, in terms of their standing in the league, the club have gone backwards, falling to a position which is only one place higher than the lowest ranking held under McAllister last term.
Blessed with one of the largest pools of players in the division and, quite possibly, the highest wage bill, it has been clear for several weeks that Leeds are punching below their weight. Bates and Shaun Harvey, United's chief executive, offered meaningful statements of support, but McAllister was unable to feed positively from them.
Bates' musings were followed by defeats to Tranmere Rovers and Colchester United, and Harvey's by the loss to MK Dons. No result was more damaging than the 2-1 win collected by a mediocre Colchester at Elland Road on a day when Leeds were expected to steady their ship in time for a difficult run over Christmas.
It was that game more than any other which pushed McAllister to the edge of the cliff, creating considerable and understandable doubt about his capabilities.
United's muddy defeat at Histon and narrow losses away to Northampton Town and Tranmere were poor results, but their performance against Colchester was devoid of confidence and riddled with nerves. It was clear that the players were beginning to doubt themselves, if not their manager.
In the end, McAllister's fate was intrinsically linked to the shortcomings of his squad, and the failure of his defence to grasp the advice that he and assistant manager Steve Staunton were offering them.
United's production of clean sheets has been appalling, and it was the failing from which McAllister was most likely to hang. Dissecting the root of their defensive problems has been almost impossible, for him and the fans.
Prior to the campaign starting, he gave no indication that his squad was weaker than he would have liked. In fact, McAllister stated openly that only one of his intended summer signings – thought to be Jay Bothroyd – had said no to an approach from Elland Road and gone elsewhere. The ineptitude of his defenders must therefore have staggered him.United do not lack quality in defence – the point has been made before that four of the players in his squad provided an excellent back line towards the end of last season – but there is no explaining the endemic loss of form.
Professionals who performed impressively and consistently in 2007-08 have visibly regressed.
On Saturday, Lubomir Michalik's half-time substitution was a fair reflection of a player whose confidence and reading of the game has deserted him. Michalik looked shell-shocked during the first half, and he was not alone. It is fair to ask whether McAllister's future was on their minds, and hardly surprising if it was.
On reflection, the Scot might agree that it was a mistake not to add to his squad before the end of the emergency loan market. Financial issues appeared to hinder him and he also implied that persuading players to drop into League One was extremely difficult (without question, the move for Hull City's Wayne Brown met both obstacles).
But I wondered in November whether the extent of the defensive problems on McAllister's hands dawned properly after Leeds' defeat at Northampton, a result which came 48 hours before the emergency loan deadline and too late for decisive action.
The lack of fresh blood left him to work with his existing squad and players who were struggling to make first-team shirts their own. In no position has the absence of a definite first-choice been more unsettling than that of United's goalkeeper, something which McAllister may well have looked to address next month. It was symptomatic of a defence built on sand rather than rock.
To balance the criticism, it should also be said that McAllister was unfortunate – unfortunate to see Leeds stumble into poor form before a passage of pivotal and difficult fixtures; unfortunate to see Jermaine Beckford and Andy Robinson tear hamstrings at the very moment when he needed a full squad; unfortunate that the pressure and expectation on him was hiked up from the start.
This month was always likely to be decisive for McAllister, containing the fixtures it did, and Bates saw enough on Saturday to make up his mind.
The sacking will not please United's chairman – if anything, it will probably astonish him that McAllister's tenure has come to this – but it would have been difficult for him to hand a transfer budget to a manager in whom he lacks confidence. January could be the last chance saloon for United's season.
In a sense, Leeds are back where they started when Wise departed Elland Road at the start of 2008 – without a manager and with their term in the balance. The only difference is that McAllister's replacement will have a window to play with and a little more time. Yet to describe it as a difficult job is a crass understatement.
As for McAllister, I hope we will see him in management again. I watched him closely at full-time on Saturday as he applauded United's supporters and listened as he paid an honest tribute to them, remarking painfully that the city of Leeds "deserves better".
McAllister loves his sport and he loves Leeds United. His failure will wound him gravely.
But that is football and that is management, a game where sentiment holds no real value when results have run dry.
SIMON SAYS...
New United manager relishes the challenge....
New Leeds United manager Simon Grayson says he can't wait to get stuck into his new role.
The former Blackpool manager was confirmed as the new United boss on Tuesday and is relishing the challenge.
"When the opportunity came to come here I couldn't wait to be involved in as quickly as possible," he told LUTV.
"It's a massive club and it's close to my heart, having played here and supporting the club. The size and the ambition is obviously an attraction as well.
"I had a great time at Blackpool. I had a great rapport with the fans and the board. I certainly wouldn't have dropped down a division for any other club and I feel this is the next stage of my managerial career."
Grayson arrives at Elland Road on the back of a successful stint as Blackpool boss. He guided the club to their highest league position for over 40 years after leading the Seasiders to League One Play-Off Final success two years ago.
"I'd like to think that what I've achieved has alerted a few people," he said.
"What I want to do is keep working hard and impose my ideas and beliefs onto the team at Leeds and make sure we carry on in a positive manner and get out of this division. That's the aim and that's what we want to do.
"I know there is an expectancy level and it's a challenge I'm looking forward to. There'll be a near full-house here on Friday and the club has that tradition and past history.
"However, it is a League One club at the moment and everyone has to pull together.
"Hopefully the fans will embrace what we are trying to do and we can grasp this opportunity to get the club back where it should be. I know other managers have tried to do that, and I'll be trying my best."
His appointment at Elland Road represents the full circle for a Yorkshireman who started his career as a teenager on schoolboy forms during the first tenure of Eddie Gray.
Grayson made just two senior appearances during his six years with the club, but after leaving in 1992 he embarked on a successful playing career that saw him make over 500 senior appearances before eventually moving into management with Blackpool.
"When I first came as a 14-year-old I never thought I'd get to this stage, but as time goes by you get into the coaching side and this is one club I have always wanted to manage," he added.
"I'd like to thank the chairman for giving me the opportunity to come into the club and hopefully it will be as successful partnership."
Yorkshire Post 23/12/08
Seaside shuffle as Simon Grayson joins Leeds amid legal row
SIMON Grayson's defection from Blackpool to Leeds was shrouded in acrimony today as the Coca-Cola Championship outfit threatened legal action against him and his new employers.
Grayson, 39, was announced as the League One outfit's new manager after Gary McAllister was axed on Sunday following a dismal run of five straight defeats.
Yet Grayson's move across the Pennines to his native Yorkshire and to Elland Road - where he began his playing career - has been met with a furious response from Blackpool.
They refused his resignation and are unwilling to release him from his contract, which has 18 months remaining.
Talks about compensation are believed to be still ongoing but Blackpool said in a statement: "Blackpool FC can confirm that Simon Grayson tendered his resignation at 0830 on Tuesday morning.
"The resignation was not accepted by the board of directors and the club and are now considering legal action against both Simon Grayson and Leeds United."
Nevertheless, Grayson becomes the ninth manager at Elland Road in the last 10 years after he built up an impressive cv and reputation at Blackpool.
He enjoyed a six-year stint at Bloomfield Road, first as a player then as manager, during which he guided the club to promotion to the Championship in May 2007 before staving off the threat of relegation last term.
Grayson's brief at Leeds is to repeat that feat with the fallen Yorkshire giants after their recent slump raised fears of failing to even make the play-offs.
Howard Wilkinson managed Leeds between 1988 and 1996 and believes Grayson, who played for Leeds, Leicester, Aston Villa and Blackburn before joining Blackpool, fits the bill perfectly as the club seek to reignite their promotion bid.
Grayson's first game in charge will be the visit of former club and current League One leaders Leicester - with whom he won the League Cup in 1997 - on Boxing Day.
Wilkinson said: "Simon Grayson is an ideal choice for Leeds - for lots of reasons."I've followed his career closely and he's worked hard at everything he has done.
"He's worked hard to have a career as a player - he was not as gifted as some and would tell you that himself - but he made a good career for himself as a player.
"When he got into management, he applied himself equally diligently.
"He's a student of the game, he's been on a lot of courses and getting Blackpool to where they are is a massive achievement.
"He's had to compete with people with far greater resources than he has but he's got the results for Blackpool. He's shown he has got talent."
Yorkshire Evening Post 23/12/08
Grayson appointed as Leeds boss
Leeds United have named Simon Grayson as their new manager.
The 39-year-old left his job with Blackpool this morning to take up the vacant manager's position at Elland Road.
But both Leeds and Grayson appear to be facing legal action following his appointment.
Blackpool have revealed that Grayson tendered his resignation to the board at Bloomfield Road this morning, and confirmed that his resignation was refused.
A statement from the Championship club read: "Blackpool FC can confirm that Simon Grayson tendered his resignation at 0830 on Tuesday morning.
"The resignation was not accepted by the board of directors and the club are now considering legal action against both Simon Grayson and Leeds United."
United had been locked in negotiations with Blackpool over compensation for Grayson, whose contract at Bloomfield Road was due to run until 2010.
He was identified as Leeds' preferred option for the vacancy at Elland Road after McAllister was sacked on Sunday following his 50th game in charge. Grayson began his playing career with United and has been Blackpool's manager for three years, leading the club to promotion from League One in 2007 and firmly establishing them inside the Championship.
Leeds are still to confirm the length of Grayson contract and the make-up of his backroom team.
Yorkshire Evening Post 22/12/08
Nightmare end to dream return
Never go back, as the wise and cynical are bound to say whenever the return of a local legend ends in tears.
Gary McAllister may have shed a few when word reached him yesterday that Leeds United's board had lost faith in his management, but his tears of regret will not relate to his original decision to accept such an emotive position.
Eleven months ago, McAllister wore the honoured look of a man who had returned to two of his spiritual homes – to Leeds United and to professional football. At no point then or since did he reveal any suspicion that reacquainting himself with Elland Road might have been the wrong decision.
It was his second job in management and his first since leaving Coventry City to care for his wife, Denise, who died in 2006 after developing breast cancer. After such difficulty in his personal life, it was arguably the perfect, idealist offer to convince him that his career was ready to start afresh.
McAllister brought to Elland Road a previous association with Leeds which guaranteed him favour. As a member of the squad which won the Division One title in 1992, the Scot did not have to worry about support from the terraces nor wonder whether, like Dennis Wise before him, sections of United's fans would be willing him to fail.
What his prior career could not guarantee him was a successful tenure, or immunity to the consequences of poor results. The same rule applied to Billy Bremner, the iconic captain of United who was sacked as Leeds boss without a second thought in 1988. In neither instance could the outcome be described as a cause for celebration.McAllister's exit will seem like a sensible, inevitable decision to many – not least the 4,000-plus fans who watched Leeds capitulate to MK Dons on Saturday, the 43-year-old's day of reckoning – but it is deeply regrettable that a man who gave so much to United as a player could not reach his first anniversary as their manager.
What Leeds have lost is a decent, diligent character who adored his job and was desperate to fulfil the potential it offered him. He was clean-cut, polite and extremely professional, the last man to pick a fight in an industry which encourages conflict. McAllister, to his credit, has not left Elland Road with many enemies.
Those are reasons to sympathise with him, but not reasons to dispute his sacking. As Paul Ince discovered last week, and another manager will discover soon enough, there is no greater currency in football than results and no greater danger to a boss than the sense among his employers that his magic touch has worn off.Ken Bates, United's chairman, was one of the 17,073 spectators at Stadium:mk on Saturday, and he could not ignore what his eyes were telling him.
The fragility of McAllister's team was exposed by their concession of two goals inside the first 17 minutes, and the issues confronting the manager were displayed in full.
His team did not often look like scoring yet were liable to concede whenever MK Dons turned the screw. It was telling that within six minutes of Robert Snodgrass swinging the momentum towards Leeds, Aaron Wilbraham's 54th-minute header put the game to bed. In that moment, Bates may have asked himself where United's backbone had gone.In time, and on the evidence of the more positive periods of his reign, I still maintain that McAllister had the qualities and the vision to carry Leeds forward, but Bates was entitled to push for change. The League One table on Saturday night made damning reading.
United are 15 points behind leaders Leicester, and 11 behind MK Dons who lie second. Probability says that Leeds will not overturn those margins, especially if the decline which set in under McAllister continues into next month.
More troubling still for Bates should be the five-point margin between Leeds and the play-offs, a deficit which brings home the reality that United are dicing with a third season in League One. The Elland Road club cannot afford that, and Bates knows it. So, too, does McAllister.
The uncomfortable reality is that United have not moved forward from their defeat in last season's play-off final. Their squad is better man for man but, in terms of their standing in the league, the club have gone backwards, falling to a position which is only one place higher than the lowest ranking held under McAllister last term.
Blessed with one of the largest pools of players in the division and, quite possibly, the highest wage bill, it has been clear for several weeks that Leeds are punching below their weight. Bates and Shaun Harvey, United's chief executive, offered meaningful statements of support, but McAllister was unable to feed positively from them.
Bates' musings were followed by defeats to Tranmere Rovers and Colchester United, and Harvey's by the loss to MK Dons. No result was more damaging than the 2-1 win collected by a mediocre Colchester at Elland Road on a day when Leeds were expected to steady their ship in time for a difficult run over Christmas.
It was that game more than any other which pushed McAllister to the edge of the cliff, creating considerable and understandable doubt about his capabilities.
United's muddy defeat at Histon and narrow losses away to Northampton Town and Tranmere were poor results, but their performance against Colchester was devoid of confidence and riddled with nerves. It was clear that the players were beginning to doubt themselves, if not their manager.
In the end, McAllister's fate was intrinsically linked to the shortcomings of his squad, and the failure of his defence to grasp the advice that he and assistant manager Steve Staunton were offering them.
United's production of clean sheets has been appalling, and it was the failing from which McAllister was most likely to hang. Dissecting the root of their defensive problems has been almost impossible, for him and the fans.
Prior to the campaign starting, he gave no indication that his squad was weaker than he would have liked. In fact, McAllister stated openly that only one of his intended summer signings – thought to be Jay Bothroyd – had said no to an approach from Elland Road and gone elsewhere. The ineptitude of his defenders must therefore have staggered him.United do not lack quality in defence – the point has been made before that four of the players in his squad provided an excellent back line towards the end of last season – but there is no explaining the endemic loss of form.
Professionals who performed impressively and consistently in 2007-08 have visibly regressed.
On Saturday, Lubomir Michalik's half-time substitution was a fair reflection of a player whose confidence and reading of the game has deserted him. Michalik looked shell-shocked during the first half, and he was not alone. It is fair to ask whether McAllister's future was on their minds, and hardly surprising if it was.
On reflection, the Scot might agree that it was a mistake not to add to his squad before the end of the emergency loan market. Financial issues appeared to hinder him and he also implied that persuading players to drop into League One was extremely difficult (without question, the move for Hull City's Wayne Brown met both obstacles).
But I wondered in November whether the extent of the defensive problems on McAllister's hands dawned properly after Leeds' defeat at Northampton, a result which came 48 hours before the emergency loan deadline and too late for decisive action.
The lack of fresh blood left him to work with his existing squad and players who were struggling to make first-team shirts their own. In no position has the absence of a definite first-choice been more unsettling than that of United's goalkeeper, something which McAllister may well have looked to address next month. It was symptomatic of a defence built on sand rather than rock.
To balance the criticism, it should also be said that McAllister was unfortunate – unfortunate to see Leeds stumble into poor form before a passage of pivotal and difficult fixtures; unfortunate to see Jermaine Beckford and Andy Robinson tear hamstrings at the very moment when he needed a full squad; unfortunate that the pressure and expectation on him was hiked up from the start.
This month was always likely to be decisive for McAllister, containing the fixtures it did, and Bates saw enough on Saturday to make up his mind.
The sacking will not please United's chairman – if anything, it will probably astonish him that McAllister's tenure has come to this – but it would have been difficult for him to hand a transfer budget to a manager in whom he lacks confidence. January could be the last chance saloon for United's season.
In a sense, Leeds are back where they started when Wise departed Elland Road at the start of 2008 – without a manager and with their term in the balance. The only difference is that McAllister's replacement will have a window to play with and a little more time. Yet to describe it as a difficult job is a crass understatement.
As for McAllister, I hope we will see him in management again. I watched him closely at full-time on Saturday as he applauded United's supporters and listened as he paid an honest tribute to them, remarking painfully that the city of Leeds "deserves better".
McAllister loves his sport and he loves Leeds United. His failure will wound him gravely.
But that is football and that is management, a game where sentiment holds no real value when results have run dry.