Mighty Leeds Weblog

Leeds United will discover their opening-day opponents next week as part of Thursday’s new Premier League season fixture’s release. By Lee Sobot Based on the betting markets, the Whites are expected to finish 15th in their third season back in the top flight. Twenty one years ago, David O’Leary’s side were predicted to end the 2001-02 campaign in fourth having filled the same position the previous season – in addition to reaching the Champion League semi-finals. After watching Leeds beat opening-day opponents Southampton in August 2001, Terry Venables felt United might finish even higher than fourth – yet O’Leary’s side dropped to fifth as the first signs of the slide appeared. Venables, who would end up being a Leeds manager the following year, cast his view as part ITV’s coverage of the opening day of the season. United’s first test came against a Saints side who had finished the previous term in 10th place under boss Stuart Gray, Glenn Hoddle having left for the Tottenha...

NIGEL, GIVE US A GOAL Written by: Rob Conlon Leeds United is a club of what ifs. What if the West Stand didn’t burn down and we didn’t need to sell John Charles? What if Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer decided to have a night in? What if we didn’t always get shit refs? We’ll never know the answer to those, but we do have an answer to the question, what if we kept Nigel Martyn instead of giving him to Everton in 2003/04? Maybe the better question is, what if Terry Venables wasn’t such a monumental tit? When Martyn was returning from the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Venables was still filming ‘Wish You Were Here?’ while he was meant to be taking over from David O’Leary as Leeds manager. Martyn was still worn out from the previous season’s exertions when he asked Venables if he could stay in Leeds, training at Thorp Arch, rather than joining the squad on a pre-season tour of Asia, where he had just been with England twelve days earlier. Venables took umbrage, even if he...

April’s fixture between Leeds United and Liverpool was a first league clash between the two sides at Elland Road for over 17 years. By Lee Sobot There were, though, no supporters in the famous ground’s stands. But that will all change tomorrow when the Whites and Reds lock horns before a packed crowd in Yorkshire for the first time in a league game since February 2004, when Erik Bakke and Mark Viduka were both on target in a thrilling 2-2 draw. Back then, a familiar face came back to haunt Eddie Gray’s Whites for the opener as Harry Kewell fired home for Gerard Houllier’s visitors in the 21st minute. Jamie Carragher broke forward down the left flank and delivered a pass to Milan Baros who was afforded plenty of space running at United’s back four. Baros, though, opted to pass to Kewell on the right hand edge of the Whites penalty box and the Australian took two touches before sending an unstoppable curled effort into the top left corner. Leeds, though, were level just eig...

Sport David Conn: Directors in Leeds' downfall expected to escape DTI action 25 September 2004 The administrators' report into the conduct of Leeds United's directors leading up to the club's £100m collapse earlier this year has been delivered to the Department of Trade and Industry. The DTI is expected to take between two and four months to decide whether the report identifies misconduct serious enough to warrant disqualification proceedings against any of Leeds' directors in the previous three years, including the former chairman Peter Ridsdale and non-executive director Allan Leighton, the Royal Mail Group chairman. Garry Wilson, one of the administrators, would not comment on the contents of the report and told me it was "too early" to speculate on the DTI's decision, but other sources suggested that although Leeds' meltdown was mighty it is unlikely to lead to DTI action against any of the directors. In their Premiership and Ch...

Guardian Unlimited Football | News | Time running out for Leeds takeover Matt Scott Tuesday January 13, 2004 Leeds United do not expect to secure a takeover for the club before their January 19 deadline. A statement to the Stock Exchange yesterday indicated that negotiations are ongoing but that none of the current proposals amounts to a buy-out. "Further to its announcement on December 4 2003, the board of Leeds United confirms it is in continuing, constructive discussions with a number of parties regarding proposals to purchase the company's business and assets or to inject funds," said the statement. "However, none of the interested parties' proposals contemplates an offer for the company's shares." Leeds's best hope is to gain interim funding that will take them to the end of the season, by when the relegation-threatened club's footballing fate will be known. With a £20m discrepancy in revenues between the Premiership and the Firs...

Sport  By Steve Tongue 14 December 2003 Give him his due, Trevor Birch is always up for a challenge. This is a man who, bearing the burden of being Bill Shankly's last-ever signing, tried to break into a Liverpool forward-line of Keegan, Toshack and Heighway, with David Fairclough as the regular supersub; then, having lost that battle, had to replace Ian Rush at Chester ("After most games the manager used to come in and lament, 'If only Rushy was still here', which taught me about man-management"); was a 16-year-old school-leaver who took a degree at 23; then jacked in a partnership with an accountancy firm to return to the crazy world of professional football, where the numbers never quite seem to add up. As managing director of Chelsea (estimated debts £98m), he performed such wonders of juggling that not a player had to be sold, and administration was avoided. Just the man then, after being rewarded for his achievements with constructive dismissal (Manchester...