great read.......

Woody · great read.......

Birkenhead beckons for beleaguered Leeds
By Phil Shaw
Last Updated: 1:23am BST 09/08/2007

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The best-selling novel about Brian Clough's turbulent 44 days as Leeds United manager bears the title The Damned United. If presented as fiction, the plot that has unfolded around the club this summer may well have been dismissed as too far-fetched, for there have been times when the Premiership contenders of barely five years ago resembled The Doomed United.

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At one stage, the statue of Billy Bremner outside Elland Road was festooned with white, blue and gold flowers. A show of defiance by supporters, it looked for all the world as if they were mourning the passing of big-time football in the UK's third largest city.

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The career of full-back Frazer Richardson tells its own story. Richardson's debut came alongside Harry Kewell, Alan Smith et al in Florence in the Uefa Cup; he makes his 100th appearance on Saturday in Birkenhead where Leeds begin life in League One against Tranmere.

Before the Football League belatedly and reluctantly approved Leeds' exit from administration last Friday, it appeared the Champions' League semi-finalists of 2001 might not reach Richardson's landmark. Yet unless chairman Ken Bates can win over his fellow League chairmen at a special meeting in London today, the patchwork collection that runs out at Prenton Park must carry a 15-point deduction into the new campaign.

Bates says that Leeds have not broken any rules and Lord Mawhinney, the League chairman, has sent out a letter warning of the far-reaching implications of the vote. The unprecedented punishment was imposed because Leeds failed to comply with the League's insolvency policy by instituting a creditor-backed Company Voluntary Agreement. The club thought they had avoided such a blow when Bates accepted a 10-point loss late last season by entering administration with debts of £35 million when relegation was all but assured.

Manager Dennis Wise says wryly that they now need 105 points to win the division; 65 to stay up may be a more realistic target. But at least the threat of extinction has been lifted for a club Bates still calls "one of the big six". For three weeks their survival was in doubt as the League pondered whether to allow the winners of last month's three-way tussle for ownership, Bates' Leeds United 2007 company, the 'golden share' of membership.

Meanwhile, the current squad were not paid in June and the plundering of their playing assets continued as David Healy, Robbie Blake, Richard Cresswell and Kevin Nicholls departed.

During pre-season friendlies, chants of "Get the Chelsea out of Leeds" were directed against Wise, his No 2 Gus Poyet and Bates. Fans also took to waving footwear while singing "Shoes off if you hate Ken Bates". Gallows humour gave way to anger when customers at the club's superstore were unable to use credit or debit cards, the bank that handles such transactions refusing to process them until the impasse was ended.

A transfer embargo meant Wise missed out on several free agents. Since its lifting, however, he has recruited Danish goalkeeper Casper Ankergren from Brondby, and signed 26-goal striker Leon Constantine from Port Vale, plus midfielders Curtis Weston and David Prutton from Swindon and Southampton respectively.

The outfield trio appeared as trialists during a tour of Germany and the Czech Republic, which produced three defeats and looked a curiously grandiose venture for a financially embarrassed club gearing up for trips to Yeovil and Cheltenham.

Alan Thompson, 33 and previously of Celtic, will be Wise's captain. Another ex-Chelsea man, Tore Andre Flo, 34, hopes to play a part despite having broken a foot shortly after arriving last January. Some team-mates will be half his age, academy graduates comprising six of Leeds' 18-man squad in the 2-1 home defeat by Wigan in their final friendly.

Jermaine Beckford scored for the second game running, but with HM Revenue and Customs pressing Leeds for £7.7 million in unpaid tax and VAT, the 23-year-old striker must have his price. Another United, Scunthorpe, covet him after a successful loan spell - and they now offer a higher grade of football.

Josie-lufc

Oh dear

Joe1

Sad that scunny are above us, but still Beckford will be a Leeds player this season.