Doubt over futures of Venables and Ridsdale

The turmoil at Leeds United is set to continue this week, with doubts surrounding the futures of both Terry Venables and Peter Ridsdale. As Venables continued to fume over the sale of Jonathan Woodgate to Newcastle United last week, the manager was giving few hints about whether he intended to resign. In his Sunday newspaper column Venables said that he was not going to be pushed into making a hasty decision. Leeds have an FA Cup replay at home to Gillingham tomorrow and it seems certain that Venables will not do anything until that match is out of the way.

While Venables will decide his own future, Ridsdale may find his powerbase weakened in the coming weeks. It was reported yesterday that the chairman is to be stripped of his executive responsibilities in a boardroom shake-up led by his deputy, Allan Leighton, following pressure from shareholders. Leighton is said to have initiated a search for an experienced businessman to be appointed chief executive of Leeds.

George Graham, a close friend of Venables, said yesterday that he would not be surprised if the Leeds board wanted the manager to resign, while John Giles, a former Leeds player, said that season-ticket holders should be refunded because directors had failed to honour promises made last summer.

"Supposedly, the magic figure they had to raise in the summer was £15m," Giles said. "Rio Ferdinand went for £30m. As far as the supporters were concerned, that was understandable because they understood the situation. Yet they have just carried on selling players."