Whites can be a top six club, says Reid
LEEDS UNITED’S return to the Premier League after 16 years has been greeted with approval from their last manager to begin a season in the top flight, Peter Reid.
Reid saved financially-stricken Leeds from relegation in 2002-03 but was sacked the following November before the club went down under caretaker Eddie Gray.
As part of Paul Cook’s backroom team at Wigan, he has also seen Marcelo Bielsa’s revamped Leeds up close and predicts: ‘I am convinced their stay in the Premier League won’t be a short one.
‘They are a big name in football. Once Leeds get on a roll, they can be a regular top six or top eight club without a doubt.’
Leeds had their promotion confirmed with West Brom’s defeat at Huddersfield on Friday, ending the nightmare that has seen 15 managers and five owners try to reach the promised land.
Their return resonates strongly with Reid, whose own playing career was formulated by the great Don Revie Leeds team of the Seventies.
He said: ‘As a Bolton apprentice, I won a raffle for the 1972 FA Cup final between Leeds and Arsenal so saw Billy Bremner walk out at the old Wembley and lift the cup.
‘I played against Billy towards the end of his career. It gave me an insight into how good these guys were.
‘Let me tell you as an 18-year-old trying to get near Bremner, you couldn’t because he only had half a touch on the ball, let alone one.’
Reid won trophies with Everton and played in a World Cup for England. As a manager, he was successful at Manchester City and Sunderland before being offered the poisoned chalice of the Leeds job in March 2003.
Champions League semi-finalists two years before, the club were £80million in debt and in the business of selling their best players like Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Keane.
‘When you get the chance to manage Leeds United, you can’t turn the job down although I didn’t know the full extent of the problems,’ reflects Reid.
‘Peter Ridsdale got me in and then Peter Ridsdale went. Professor John McKenzie took over [as chairman]. He was a lovely gentleman but I don’t ABOUT TIME: The top flight will benefit from Leeds’ return think he had any real experience of football.
‘When they started talking to me about American bond-holders and what they wanted, I realised: “Wow, this could be financial meltdown”.’
Since slipping down as far as League One, only Bielsa’s arrival two years ago made the Premier League became a realistic proposition.
‘Bielsa gets the basics,’ says Reid. ‘When Leeds don’t have the ball, I see their intensity to get the thing back. With the ball, the passing and movement is superb. There is desire in their play.
‘We all know the way Bielsa teams play football. High energy football, I love it. I think Leeds United are back where they belong.’