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From one Peter to another, the desperate reins

Nick Townsend
Sunday 23 March 2003 01:00 GMT
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It was a sun-drenched, if windswept, day in July, and the happy couple emerged from the giant marquee that Leeds United use for such events blushing with contentment, though few of us believed it was going to be anything but a marriage of convenience.

For all their endearments, Terry Venables and Peter Ridsdale did not truly have eyes for each other. Venables was photographed with a supporter's baby, as he spoke about his elevation from TV pundit to football manager. "Television was safe," he insisted. "I didn't want that." He got his wish, particularly as the Leeds chairman was issuing all manner of promises at the altar, notably: "This club has no intention of selling Rio Ferdinand. Were it to do so, it has no intention of doing so to Manchester United."

From the moment Ridsdale and Venables sat in close proximity, though with body language suggesting they were metres apart, at a press conference following the departure of Jonathan Woodgate on 31 January, Friday's declaration to the Stock Exchange by Leeds was inevitable. Ferdinand was long gone, along with Robbie Keane and Robbie Fowler, and trust had ebbed from the relationship.

In such situations, Venables is not the most stoical or philosophical of men. He played the victim, the slighted partner, impeccably as the body count of departing players began to accumulate like those in Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians.

Just turned 60, the former England coach, who appears to have aged even further in those eight months, will return, presumably, to become wisecracker to Des's straight man on ITV, with a decent Leeds pay-off, having discovered that only Sinatra could come out of retirement and keep wowing the fans.

As for Peter Reid, that mock- mournful, self-deprecating guise – "I got the call at nine o'clock this morning, just got in as it happens", an allusion to his reputation of being something of a social animal – would not be the first choice of most Leeds followers. But he would have to be bereft of his faculties to allow Leeds to descend into the Nationwide, despite recent indifferent results. Forty points should comfortably suffice; Leeds currently have 34. Two victories from the eight games remaining are surely not beyond this genial Scouser.

In the longer term, Leeds may entertain the prospect of an Elland Road old boy. Gordon Strachan or Paul Hart, maybe? Firefighting looks the limit of Reid's ambitions here. He overstayed his welcome at Sunderland and oversaw a deterioration which the Black Cats are still attempting to repair with the appointment of their third manager, Mick McCarthy, in a season.

There is a common theme here. Sunderland's Bob Murray and Leeds's Ridsdale share an almost obsessive passion for their clubs, and in both cases that appears to have impaired their judgement.

It was in October 1998 that fate intervened so mis-chievously in the affairs of Leeds United. George Graham, having instigated a regeneration of Leeds, had been enticed by Tottenham and Ridsdale, chairman for just four years but a supporter since childhood, had been determined to install Martin O'Neill from Leicester. The East Midlands club refused him permission to speak to the Irishman. In an honourable act, O'Neill did not force the issue, and Graham's assistant, David O'Leary, took over.

What the outcome might have been if O'Neill had been lured into breaking his contract, the Leeds faithful can only imagine as they reflect on Celtic's Uefa Cup defeat of Liverpool at Anfield, the scene of Reid's reintroduction to the Premiership today.

Within a year, outlandish claims were being made of O'Leary's and Leeds's potential. He was associated with Manchester United as a possible successor to Sir Alex Ferguson, but Ridsdale, at the time the most popular chairman in the country following his diplomacy after the killing of two Leeds supporters in Istanbul, had him handcuffed with a lengthy contract.

Ridsdale's standing was further enhanced among the fans when he opined that the club could be the biggest in the country, Manchester United included. Those who now denounce his grandiose sense of ambition were then quite prepared to pursue that dream with him. Ridsdale was correct, in a sense, that you speculate from a position of strength; he duly indulged Loadsamoney O'Leary, who proceeded to outlay £97m, with mostly borrowed money, and retrieve only £29m. But the concept of Leeds's status as a credible élite force turned out to be illusory.

O'Leary departed last summer to join his two predecessors who are also currently out of managerial work – what is it about Leeds? – and Venables arrived from his holiday home in Spain. A certain circumspection would have been packed into his baggage, but even he could not have foreseen the sequence of events. He will privately consider it provident that he has extricated himself from the yoke with his managerial stature barely tarnished.

But Ridsdale remains, with the chorus demanding his resignation becoming ever more voluble. A man with a keen political sense, he has admitted his errors of judgement but will not do their bidding until he decides the time is opportune. To walk away now, in his eyes, would be an erroneous step. Leeds followers will just hope that judgement on his future will be rather more blessed than that which has contributed to the club being in their present plight.

The Leeds run-in

Today: v Liverpool (away)

5 April: v Charlton Athletic (away)

12 April: v Tottenham Hotspur (home)

19 April: v Southampton (away)

22 April: v Fulham (home)

26 April: v Blackburn Rovers (home)

4 May: v Arsenal (away)

11 May: v Aston Villa (home)

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