Yorkshire Evening Post 13/4/10
Whites reveal financial results
By Phil Hay
Leeds United have announced an operating loss of £1.6m for the last financial year, with player sales allowing the club to post a slim overall profit of £15,000.
United's accounts for the 12 months to June 30, 2009 reveal a huge drop in overall profit from the £4.5m made by the League One side in the previous financial year.
Leeds' results for the 14 months prior to July 2008 suggested their finances were in rude health after their exit from administration in the summer of 2007, but the latest set of accounts from Elland Road – published by Companies House yesterday – make for more worrying reading.
The club's operating loss of £1.6m compares with an operating profit of £902,000 in the 14 months prior to July 2008, and their overall profit has also fallen dramatically.
Player trading generating income of more than £1.6m wiped out the operating loss and ensured the club recorded a minimal bottom-line gain.
But the results raise the concern that Leeds' future profitability will depend on player sales unless the club can secure a return to the Championship and increase their cash-flow.
The figures for the 2008-09 financial year do not include the sale of midfielder Fabian Delph to Aston Villa in August, the earnings from this season's Carling Cup tie against Liverpool or revenue generated by Leeds' FA Cup clashes with Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
United's turnover for the 2008-09 financial year stood at £23.5m, a slight increase on the previous 14 months.
Merchandising income grew by 43 percent to £4.9million but commercial revenue and broadcast earnings showed marginal falls.
Gate receipts at Elland Road dropped by over £1million during a campaign in which Leeds lost to Millwall in the League One play-off semi-finals. Their receipts for the previous term, however, were strengthened significantly by an appearance in the 2008 play-off final at Wembley.
The board at Leeds have consistently budgeted for home crowds of 22,000 in League One, a figure which they estimated would allow United to break even.
The average attendance at Elland Road during the 2008-09 term exceeded that target by falling narrowly short of 24,000.
Director and chief executive Shaun Harvey said greater investment in the playing squad at Elland Road ahead of the 2008-09 term was partially responsible for the fall in profit.
Harvey said: "The accounts may not reveal the same financial success of the previous 14 months but they are still positive in so much as the profits shown.
"The club's decision to invest more heavily in the playing squad was down to us utilising some of the profits from the previous year. Unfortunately, we fell just short by losing to Millwall in the play-offs.
"The board of directors remain committed to achieving success on the field and achieving the growth off the field required to support that success.
"Accounts are only ever a snapshot of a financial position at any one time."
Leeds' current accounts reveal a total wage bill for playing, management and administrative staff of just under £12.3million.
Harvey received a salary of £150,000 while almost £130,000 was paid in legal fees to a company controlled by fellow director Mark Taylor. Chairman Ken Bates did not receive any wages or benefits.
United's accounts value their playing squad at £8,760,000, while the buy-back option held by the club on Elland Road stood at £14.138m on June 30, 2009. The stadium itself is valued at £49million.
Leeds pay around £2million a year to rent the stadium and their training ground at Thorp Arch near Wetherby, a huge financial burden for a club in League One.
Among United's other liabilities is a possible future payment of £5million to creditors owed money as a result of the club's insolvency, due in the event that Leeds win promotion to the Premier League before the 2017-18 campaign.
United could also pay up to £2million in seasons to come depending on player appearances and success on the pitch.
Yorkshire Evening Post 15/4/10
Much more drama to come – Grayson
By Phil Hay
The strain of grasping and retaining second place in League One has been amply demonstrated in the past fortnight, a spell which Simon Grayson sees as a warning of inevitable drama ahead.
His Leeds United squad were the division's incumbents for many weeks until a 3-0 defeat to Swindon Town at Elland Road on April 3 passed the baton to Danny Wilson's squad and forced Leeds down to fourth.
Swindon's momentum was compelling but their retention of the last automatic promotion place lasted for little more than a week before their loss at Colchester United on Saturday made way for Millwall. Some 72 hours later, another shift in power saw Leeds return to second with the aid of an impressive win over Carlisle United.
Grayson predicted long ago that numerous "twists and turns" would occur as League One's clubs attacked the final straight, and nowhere has changing fortune been more apparent than at Elland Road. For a time, Leeds were incapable of buying a win; since their demotion from the top two, they have delivered three in succession, their finest form since December.
The reward for Grayson is the assurance that automatic promotion will be United's provided his squad successfully navigate their final four matches. Twelve points from those fixtures would put second place beyond any of the three clubs beneath them, but Grayson has seen too much movement in recent weeks to make presumptions about his team's league position.
"We've been up at the top of the division before and we've had the pressure of being first and second," he said. "It's a different type of pressure being in those positions, especially when you're not expected to be there.
"I'll be more than satisfied when we're in second place and no other team can catch us. Until then, all we can do is approach our games with the same attitude.
"In a few weeks' time, I'll hopefully be talking about what we have achieved and not about what we might achieve."
More encouraging for Grayson than United's presence in second place is the resurgence which has carried them up the league and halted the wayward form which threatened to define their season.
Their defence of League One's final automatic promotion place was nervous and unconvincing during the weeks of February and March, and their loss at home to Swindon earlier this month relegated Leeds from the top two for the first time since the end of August.
Their descent seemed symbolic and the manner of their collapse against Swindon – conceding three goals in the space of 12 minutes either side of half-time – spoke of a crisis of confidence in Grayson's dressing room.
Talk in Leeds centred around the safety of his own position as manager when Leeds travelled to Yeovil Town on Easter Monday, desperate to avoid a fifth successive defeat, but a 2-1 win at Huish Park was the catalyst for a swift revival, bringing further victories over Southend United and Carlisle.
United's performance at Brunton Park was as complete a display as Grayson's players have produced in a league fixture in 2010, allowing them to profit easily from what was in theory a difficult game. Two goals from Luciano Becchio and one from Max Gradel settled it inside an hour.
Grayson said: "We're winning games in a different manner now. In the early part of the season we played fluid football but at this stage, as much as you'd love to be winning by getting the ball down and knocking it around, you'll take any victory however it comes.
"That's what we needed after Swindon – a victory to stop the rot. You can see the confidence coming back into the players. There's a strong mental approach from them and they wanted to respond to the criticism they've had over the last few weeks.
"I said that we could win seven out of our last seven games and we've won three so far. It would be a great achievement to win all seven but what we've done is to turn around a minor blip and give ourselves an opportunity again."
It is an opportunity which still exists for three clubs beneath Leeds, led by Millwall who are unbeaten in 11 matches after they snatched a 1-1 draw at Yeovil Town with an injury-time goal on Tuesday night.
Swindon's backward steps have come through a 3-0 defeat at Colchester United and a scrambled draw at home to Exeter City but Wilson showed no sign of conceding automatic promotion.
The Swindon manager said: "The one thing we don't want to do is to let this chance just drift away.
"We don't want it to peter out, to be satisfied with being in the play-offs and give ourselves a pat on the back. We want to give second place a good go and if we don't manage it and don't get there, then fine. But I don't want to be regretting it in four games' time, saying 'we wish we had done this, that or the other'."
Grayson adopted much the same attitude when he reacted to Leeds' defeat against Swindon by asking his players to return a maximum haul of 21 points from their remaining games.
Scepticism about United's season was rife but Grayson cut through the negativity by promising that he would reverse a trend of costly form before it damaged United irreparably. He was least surprised of all to see Leeds back in second place on Tuesday night, 10 days after the club's term reached a worryingly low ebb.
Grayson said: "I expected my players to stand up and be counted – to go out and prove people wrong. People started writing us off and that was up to them but we genuinely thought that we could still do it. You can sense the confidence in the players now and that plays a big part in any team in any sport."
Bradford Telegraph and Argus 15/4/10
United hoping Terriers can do them a favour
By John Wray »
Leeds United and their fans will be backing West Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town tomorrow night when third-placed Millwall visit the Galpharm Stadium in Coca-Cola League One.
Leeds’ victory at Carlisle on Tuesday night lifted them above Millwall into the second automatic promotion place, and the hope is that Town can do their neighbours a favour by taming the Lions.
Huddersfield have enough incentive as they look to secure their place in the end-of-season play-offs, but victory over Millwall would be a huge boost for Leeds as well.
Elland Road manager Simon Grayson knows his players’ destiny is back in their own hands and he wants maximum points from the remaining four games against Gillingham, MK Dons, Charlton and Bristol Rovers.
Although Leeds have won their last three, Grayson is taking nothing for granted as he prepares his squad for Saturday’s trip to Gillingham.
He said: “We have won three on the trot but you are only as good as your last game. You can’t get too down or too carried away because anything can happen. I am sure there will be a few more twists and turns before the season is over.
“If other results happen for us, all well and good. If they don’t, we just have to keep going and try to finish the job we set ourselves at the season’s start.”
Grayson admitted the decision to drop Jermaine Beckford to the bench at Carlisle wasn’t easy, but it was justified.
He said: “Of course it was a big decision to leave out our leading scorer, who has got so many goals for us over the last two or three seasons, but we felt he was going through a barren time.
“Luciano Becchio and Max Gradel did ever so well at the weekend (against Southend) and they carried that on at Carlisle on Monday night. "Jermaine accepted the decision. He knew it was about the team and that strikers exist on goals. It just hasn’t been happening for him so we decided the best option was to leave him out. He understood that and it paid dividends.”
Telegraph 14/4/10
Ken Bates blasts reports of Australian takeover at Leeds United
Ken Bates, the Leeds United chairman, has poured scorn on suggestions that Australian billionaire Frank Lowy is weighing up a takeover bid for the club.
By Rob Stewart
Bates went on the offensive after reports in Australia claimed Lowy, the chairman of the Football Federation of Australia, had commissioned a review into the state of the Elland Road club’s finances.
Leeds chief executive Shaun Harvey insisted the League One club had had no contact with the property tycoon and then Bates hit out after it was claimed in the Australian press that Lowy was plotting a buy-out.
Bates also took a swipe at former Leeds chairman Gerald Krasner, who is now an insolvency specialist, as he vented his spleen over the takeover rumours as the club’s race for promotion to the Championship hots up.
“I had never heard of [Lowy],” Bates said in an interview with the Yorkshire Radio station. “I know of this story now because someone sent me a printout of an Australian newspaper the report was in but it is the usual rubbish – a source said, somebody claimed, and nobody was available for comment.
“This Lowy, I think he runs Westfield, the property company. Aren’t they the one that has completely buggered up the town centre of Bradford? Hardly the best reference for someone who wants to buy a football club 12,000 miles from home. Interestingly he [reportedly] has a Leeds-based agent examining Leeds United – let’s hope it’s not Gerald Krasner.
“It is no secret we would welcome further investment. But we are quite blunt – name and money. The moment you say that they all disappear.”
Leeds’ promotion challenge appears to be back on track and Bates is convinced the club are heading in the right direction off the field as well following the release of the 2008-09 financial results. He said: “The results demonstrate ... that it is a very expensive club to run and it is significant that on £23 million turnover we made £15,000 profit.”
Whites reveal financial results
By Phil Hay
Leeds United have announced an operating loss of £1.6m for the last financial year, with player sales allowing the club to post a slim overall profit of £15,000.
United's accounts for the 12 months to June 30, 2009 reveal a huge drop in overall profit from the £4.5m made by the League One side in the previous financial year.
Leeds' results for the 14 months prior to July 2008 suggested their finances were in rude health after their exit from administration in the summer of 2007, but the latest set of accounts from Elland Road – published by Companies House yesterday – make for more worrying reading.
The club's operating loss of £1.6m compares with an operating profit of £902,000 in the 14 months prior to July 2008, and their overall profit has also fallen dramatically.
Player trading generating income of more than £1.6m wiped out the operating loss and ensured the club recorded a minimal bottom-line gain.
But the results raise the concern that Leeds' future profitability will depend on player sales unless the club can secure a return to the Championship and increase their cash-flow.
The figures for the 2008-09 financial year do not include the sale of midfielder Fabian Delph to Aston Villa in August, the earnings from this season's Carling Cup tie against Liverpool or revenue generated by Leeds' FA Cup clashes with Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
United's turnover for the 2008-09 financial year stood at £23.5m, a slight increase on the previous 14 months.
Merchandising income grew by 43 percent to £4.9million but commercial revenue and broadcast earnings showed marginal falls.
Gate receipts at Elland Road dropped by over £1million during a campaign in which Leeds lost to Millwall in the League One play-off semi-finals. Their receipts for the previous term, however, were strengthened significantly by an appearance in the 2008 play-off final at Wembley.
The board at Leeds have consistently budgeted for home crowds of 22,000 in League One, a figure which they estimated would allow United to break even.
The average attendance at Elland Road during the 2008-09 term exceeded that target by falling narrowly short of 24,000.
Director and chief executive Shaun Harvey said greater investment in the playing squad at Elland Road ahead of the 2008-09 term was partially responsible for the fall in profit.
Harvey said: "The accounts may not reveal the same financial success of the previous 14 months but they are still positive in so much as the profits shown.
"The club's decision to invest more heavily in the playing squad was down to us utilising some of the profits from the previous year. Unfortunately, we fell just short by losing to Millwall in the play-offs.
"The board of directors remain committed to achieving success on the field and achieving the growth off the field required to support that success.
"Accounts are only ever a snapshot of a financial position at any one time."
Leeds' current accounts reveal a total wage bill for playing, management and administrative staff of just under £12.3million.
Harvey received a salary of £150,000 while almost £130,000 was paid in legal fees to a company controlled by fellow director Mark Taylor. Chairman Ken Bates did not receive any wages or benefits.
United's accounts value their playing squad at £8,760,000, while the buy-back option held by the club on Elland Road stood at £14.138m on June 30, 2009. The stadium itself is valued at £49million.
Leeds pay around £2million a year to rent the stadium and their training ground at Thorp Arch near Wetherby, a huge financial burden for a club in League One.
Among United's other liabilities is a possible future payment of £5million to creditors owed money as a result of the club's insolvency, due in the event that Leeds win promotion to the Premier League before the 2017-18 campaign.
United could also pay up to £2million in seasons to come depending on player appearances and success on the pitch.
Yorkshire Evening Post 15/4/10
Much more drama to come – Grayson
By Phil Hay
The strain of grasping and retaining second place in League One has been amply demonstrated in the past fortnight, a spell which Simon Grayson sees as a warning of inevitable drama ahead.
His Leeds United squad were the division's incumbents for many weeks until a 3-0 defeat to Swindon Town at Elland Road on April 3 passed the baton to Danny Wilson's squad and forced Leeds down to fourth.
Swindon's momentum was compelling but their retention of the last automatic promotion place lasted for little more than a week before their loss at Colchester United on Saturday made way for Millwall. Some 72 hours later, another shift in power saw Leeds return to second with the aid of an impressive win over Carlisle United.
Grayson predicted long ago that numerous "twists and turns" would occur as League One's clubs attacked the final straight, and nowhere has changing fortune been more apparent than at Elland Road. For a time, Leeds were incapable of buying a win; since their demotion from the top two, they have delivered three in succession, their finest form since December.
The reward for Grayson is the assurance that automatic promotion will be United's provided his squad successfully navigate their final four matches. Twelve points from those fixtures would put second place beyond any of the three clubs beneath them, but Grayson has seen too much movement in recent weeks to make presumptions about his team's league position.
"We've been up at the top of the division before and we've had the pressure of being first and second," he said. "It's a different type of pressure being in those positions, especially when you're not expected to be there.
"I'll be more than satisfied when we're in second place and no other team can catch us. Until then, all we can do is approach our games with the same attitude.
"In a few weeks' time, I'll hopefully be talking about what we have achieved and not about what we might achieve."
More encouraging for Grayson than United's presence in second place is the resurgence which has carried them up the league and halted the wayward form which threatened to define their season.
Their defence of League One's final automatic promotion place was nervous and unconvincing during the weeks of February and March, and their loss at home to Swindon earlier this month relegated Leeds from the top two for the first time since the end of August.
Their descent seemed symbolic and the manner of their collapse against Swindon – conceding three goals in the space of 12 minutes either side of half-time – spoke of a crisis of confidence in Grayson's dressing room.
Talk in Leeds centred around the safety of his own position as manager when Leeds travelled to Yeovil Town on Easter Monday, desperate to avoid a fifth successive defeat, but a 2-1 win at Huish Park was the catalyst for a swift revival, bringing further victories over Southend United and Carlisle.
United's performance at Brunton Park was as complete a display as Grayson's players have produced in a league fixture in 2010, allowing them to profit easily from what was in theory a difficult game. Two goals from Luciano Becchio and one from Max Gradel settled it inside an hour.
Grayson said: "We're winning games in a different manner now. In the early part of the season we played fluid football but at this stage, as much as you'd love to be winning by getting the ball down and knocking it around, you'll take any victory however it comes.
"That's what we needed after Swindon – a victory to stop the rot. You can see the confidence coming back into the players. There's a strong mental approach from them and they wanted to respond to the criticism they've had over the last few weeks.
"I said that we could win seven out of our last seven games and we've won three so far. It would be a great achievement to win all seven but what we've done is to turn around a minor blip and give ourselves an opportunity again."
It is an opportunity which still exists for three clubs beneath Leeds, led by Millwall who are unbeaten in 11 matches after they snatched a 1-1 draw at Yeovil Town with an injury-time goal on Tuesday night.
Swindon's backward steps have come through a 3-0 defeat at Colchester United and a scrambled draw at home to Exeter City but Wilson showed no sign of conceding automatic promotion.
The Swindon manager said: "The one thing we don't want to do is to let this chance just drift away.
"We don't want it to peter out, to be satisfied with being in the play-offs and give ourselves a pat on the back. We want to give second place a good go and if we don't manage it and don't get there, then fine. But I don't want to be regretting it in four games' time, saying 'we wish we had done this, that or the other'."
Grayson adopted much the same attitude when he reacted to Leeds' defeat against Swindon by asking his players to return a maximum haul of 21 points from their remaining games.
Scepticism about United's season was rife but Grayson cut through the negativity by promising that he would reverse a trend of costly form before it damaged United irreparably. He was least surprised of all to see Leeds back in second place on Tuesday night, 10 days after the club's term reached a worryingly low ebb.
Grayson said: "I expected my players to stand up and be counted – to go out and prove people wrong. People started writing us off and that was up to them but we genuinely thought that we could still do it. You can sense the confidence in the players now and that plays a big part in any team in any sport."
Bradford Telegraph and Argus 15/4/10
United hoping Terriers can do them a favour
By John Wray »
Leeds United and their fans will be backing West Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town tomorrow night when third-placed Millwall visit the Galpharm Stadium in Coca-Cola League One.
Leeds’ victory at Carlisle on Tuesday night lifted them above Millwall into the second automatic promotion place, and the hope is that Town can do their neighbours a favour by taming the Lions.
Huddersfield have enough incentive as they look to secure their place in the end-of-season play-offs, but victory over Millwall would be a huge boost for Leeds as well.
Elland Road manager Simon Grayson knows his players’ destiny is back in their own hands and he wants maximum points from the remaining four games against Gillingham, MK Dons, Charlton and Bristol Rovers.
Although Leeds have won their last three, Grayson is taking nothing for granted as he prepares his squad for Saturday’s trip to Gillingham.
He said: “We have won three on the trot but you are only as good as your last game. You can’t get too down or too carried away because anything can happen. I am sure there will be a few more twists and turns before the season is over.
“If other results happen for us, all well and good. If they don’t, we just have to keep going and try to finish the job we set ourselves at the season’s start.”
Grayson admitted the decision to drop Jermaine Beckford to the bench at Carlisle wasn’t easy, but it was justified.
He said: “Of course it was a big decision to leave out our leading scorer, who has got so many goals for us over the last two or three seasons, but we felt he was going through a barren time.
“Luciano Becchio and Max Gradel did ever so well at the weekend (against Southend) and they carried that on at Carlisle on Monday night. "Jermaine accepted the decision. He knew it was about the team and that strikers exist on goals. It just hasn’t been happening for him so we decided the best option was to leave him out. He understood that and it paid dividends.”
Telegraph 14/4/10
Ken Bates blasts reports of Australian takeover at Leeds United
Ken Bates, the Leeds United chairman, has poured scorn on suggestions that Australian billionaire Frank Lowy is weighing up a takeover bid for the club.
By Rob Stewart
Bates went on the offensive after reports in Australia claimed Lowy, the chairman of the Football Federation of Australia, had commissioned a review into the state of the Elland Road club’s finances.
Leeds chief executive Shaun Harvey insisted the League One club had had no contact with the property tycoon and then Bates hit out after it was claimed in the Australian press that Lowy was plotting a buy-out.
Bates also took a swipe at former Leeds chairman Gerald Krasner, who is now an insolvency specialist, as he vented his spleen over the takeover rumours as the club’s race for promotion to the Championship hots up.
“I had never heard of [Lowy],” Bates said in an interview with the Yorkshire Radio station. “I know of this story now because someone sent me a printout of an Australian newspaper the report was in but it is the usual rubbish – a source said, somebody claimed, and nobody was available for comment.
“This Lowy, I think he runs Westfield, the property company. Aren’t they the one that has completely buggered up the town centre of Bradford? Hardly the best reference for someone who wants to buy a football club 12,000 miles from home. Interestingly he [reportedly] has a Leeds-based agent examining Leeds United – let’s hope it’s not Gerald Krasner.
“It is no secret we would welcome further investment. But we are quite blunt – name and money. The moment you say that they all disappear.”
Leeds’ promotion challenge appears to be back on track and Bates is convinced the club are heading in the right direction off the field as well following the release of the 2008-09 financial results. He said: “The results demonstrate ... that it is a very expensive club to run and it is significant that on £23 million turnover we made £15,000 profit.”