Sorry Leeds suffer seaside nightmare
Telegraph 25/3/14By Jim White
It has not been a good week for Brian McDermott. The Leeds Unitedmanager has seen his club pushed to the very lip of extinction by another series of boardroom blunders which culminated in Massimo Cellino, a putative new owner, being deemed by the Football League as not a fit and proper person to take charge of a club.
Then on Tuesdat night McDermott stood hapless on the touchline as his team produced an unwanted piece of history: this was the first occasion they have lost to Bournemouth. Actually, they were not just beaten, they were hammered. And McDermott believes there is no coincidence. The feeble, lacklustre display on the field mirrors what is going on in the boardroom.
“It does affect what’s happening on the pitch,” he said of the ownership shenanigans. “There’s no doubt about that. All the talk is about who’s going to be in, are we going to be paid, this and that. And this has been going on for quite a time.”
Leeds were 3-0 down within 28 minutes, ripped apart every time the home right-back Simon Francis galloped athletically down the wing, and eventually lost 4-1. It was a wretched performance on the pitch, Leeds offering about as much defence as the convicted fraudster Cellino. The 1,300 Leeds followers perfectly summarised the situation.
“We might be ---- but we still love Leeds,” they chanted, an observation which drew a sympathetic round of applause from the home supporters, who have faced down a few financial crises of their own over the years.
There was a cruel coincidence in the fixture computer pitching Leeds in their latest moment of misery with a club currently basking in the glow of benevolent ownership. After years of financial disaster on the Dorset Riviera, Maxim Demin brought some sunshine to the place in 2012.
The Russian billionaire has proven himself the kind of owner every supporter would wish for their club; even as Leeds have mortgaged their resources, in a succession of crises selling everything that is not nailed into the west Yorkshire limestone, so Russian money has transformed Bournemouth. New training facilities have been acquired and the Goldsands Stadium has richly been buffed up.
But on Tuesday night, Jeff Mostyn, the Bournemouth chairman who prides himself on providing the best hospitality in the Championship, had no Leeds directors to entertain. The club were represented by the ex-player Dominic Matteo, obliged to tackle the extensive finger buffet on his own. Leeds currently appear to be a business without owners.
The Bahrain-based principal shareholders, Gulf Finance House Capital, have been trying to sell their asset almost from the moment they bought it from Ken Bates. Possibly the only oil state investors without any money, they are now in difficulty.
With the league administrators ruling out their deal with Cellino, the club have been pitched into a troubling limbo, no one even sure if wages will be paid this week.
“It’s not a club out of control,” McDermott said. “It’s just I don’t think we’ve got control.” Maybe, in the absence of anyone prepared to take responsibility for a once great footballing institution, Mostyn should have invited Phil Beeton into the directors’ box in their stead.
After all, Beeton is far more representative of the Yorkshire club than any of those recently in charge of the fish tank there.
Tuesday night was the 2,000th consecutive league match the 61-year-old had watched. He was here in 1990, when Leeds came to Bournemouth on May Bank Holiday Monday and 10,000 Yorkshire supporters celebrated promotion to the top division by tearing the old Dean Court stadium apart. One Bournemouth observer remembers being terrified. Now, the only scary thing about Leeds are their accounts.
Certainly on the pitch they presented the softest of opposition. From the first whistle, Bournemouth were picking them apart with the slickest of pass and move football.
Within seconds, Jack Butland, the Leeds goalkeeper on loan from Stoke, was obliged to palm Mark Pugh’s fierce shot behind. From the resulting corner, Yann Kermorgant deflected in Francis’s fierce volley.
Sixteen minutes later, Francis galloped down the right on to Matt Ritchie’s clever through ball and beautifully squared to Lewis Grabban, who fired past Butland. The third came in the 28th, when Francis again was the provider, belting into box then back heeling for Grabben again to hammer past Butland from 12 yards.
“You’re not fit to wear the shirt,” the Leeds fans chanted as their team went four behind to Kermorgant’s sharp volley early in the second half.
In the face of such a tawdry display, the Leeds fans did what they have done all season: they chanted. For 20 minutes in the second half, they maintained an incredible round of “we all love Leeds”.
They barely broke to acknowledge a consolation strike by Ross McCormack, the player who is currently the only thing Leeds have going for them. No wonder the first thing McDermott did on the final whistle was to go over and acknowledge their effort.
“That is the soul of the club,” he said, pointing to the stand where the Leeds fans were accommodated. “They are what this football club is all about. For the last 10 years they have been let down. To have somebody come in and take this club to where it really belongs would be fantastic.”