Why isn’t there a queue to buy Leeds?
THEY’RE ONE OF THE UK’S TOP SIX CLUBS
IDON’T think anybody knows what happened at my old club Leeds United last weekend. And I don’t think anybody knows what’s going to happen. It’s common knowledge that Massimo Cellino thought he’d bought the club. In fact he hadn’t, so his dismissal of Brian McDermott was premature to say the least.
What a terrible state of affairs, but I thought the lads responded brilliantly with a 5-1 win over Huddersfield.
And I also think it helped Brian get back on good terms, not just with the players but with the fans. He’d been getting some stick in recent weeks, but this seems to have pulled everyone together again.
People are talking about the club falling apart but you never know – they could use it as a turning point.
What I really can’t believe is that Leeds are looking for yet another owner.When I took over in February 2012, I spent more or less the first seven months of my tenure trying to convince three different parties to buy the club.
There was a group of Saudis who had a long-standing interest, and an American investor. Then GFH came on the scene in June and July. Person- ally, I thought the American guy, Preston Haskell, was the best bet. But Ken Bates, the chairman at the time, was in favour of GFH, so obviously I had to go along with that. It was just a shame it took so long.
I remember when I first took charge, people were asking me which players I wanted in July.
In the end, though, it was December when GFH eventually took over and by then it was too late to sign anybody.
It was disappointing for me that I wasn’t able to spend any substantial money in that January window because I think a couple of players and we’d have been right up there.
But nobody wanted to spend anything until the summer. From my point of view – and for the Leeds fans – it was a waste of a year really.
Brian has managed to buy some players, like Scott Wootton, Matt Smith and, of course, Luke Murphy who allegedly cost £1m. But I’m sure he feels, like me, that he could do with one or two more. Even so, while it seems a good thing to some people that GFH are getting out, it really depends who replaces them.
What I do know is that in today’s climate, more than 31,000 fans watched the game against Huddersfield last week. That’s incredible support. Then there’s the stadium, the training facilties. In my eyes, Leeds are still one of the top six clubs in the entire country.
I can’t for the life of me understand why someone doesn’t buy it with the intention of seriously funding a return to the Premier League. It’s absolutely ripe.
There should be people queuing round the block with offers but instead they got one man. Baffling.
And as for Brian, I don’t think you can give any advice. He knows what he needs to do – get results. Football is all about results and if he wins a lot of games, he makes himself very difficult to sack. It really is as simple as that.