McAllister moves to Coventry for pounds 3m

Howard Wilkinson was last night blaming the Leeds power struggle for the departure of the Elland Road captain, Gary McAllister, to Coventry City, writes Rob McLean.

The Yorkshire club are currently the subject of a High Court battle, with vice-chairman Peter Gilman seeking an injunction to prevent fellow directors Leslie Silver and Bill Fotherby selling their shares to the Caspian Group.

Wilkinson believes the club's uncertain future pushed the 31-year-old Scotland captain into handing in the transfer request that opened the way for Coventry to land their long-term target in a pounds 3m deal.

"These are difficult times here," said Wilkinson, obviously disappointed that he was unable to persuade McAllister that his future would be best served at the club which paid Leicester City pounds 1m for his services six years ago.

McAllister's move will again dismay Leeds' long suffering supporters, who in recent seasons have been bemused by the selling of many of their best players, including Eric Cantona, David Batty, Noel Whelan and Gary Speed.

"I tried to put across the club's point of view, but that's very difficult because our future is in limbo,'' Wilkinson said.

"I tried to get across to him that, whatever the outcome, the club would still be in a position where it can be kick-started and get back to the pace at the top of the Premiership."

Only last week McAllister, who links up with the former Leeds captain Gordon Strachan, was reported to have declared that he would remain at Elland Road for as long as the club wanted him - and he is just a few months into a new three-year contract at Leeds.

But he has become disillusioned with seeing Wilkinson's financial muscle nullified by the power struggle - even though it is estimated that the Caspian deal would release around pounds 11m for transfer funds.

His arrival at Highfield Road takes Ron Atkinson's spending to close to the pounds 15m mark in the 17 months since he took over as manager.

Bryan Richardson, the Coventry chairman, who has continued to back Atkinson's rebuilding plans even though the team only just escaped relegation from the Premiership last season, said: "He is certainly the player we have wanted all through the summer - he has been our No 1 target.

McAllister is Atkinson's second major acquisition of the summer, with the Northern Ireland midfielder Michael O'Neill joining from Hibernian for pounds 500,000 last week.