What relegation can mean
by Paul O'Donnell
With the recent developments at Newcastle where its board may be driving the club to the brink of extinction as an EPL class organization, this short article about another club and its fans that has suffered for years as a result of a very similar mishandling seems more than appropriate. This is an example of what can happen as a result of such shenanigans by those that fancy themselves the masters.
Newcastle has much more in the way of financial resources but the unending parade of managers is a very real dire warning of just how badly mismanagement of those resources impact results on the pitch. In the end the team must earn the points on the pitch to win another season at the EPL level regardless of what goes on elsewhere in the organization but the poison is, and has been spreading on Tyneside. The threat to their survival in the top flight is very real.
Ask yourself who do you think will step into the hot seat there now with what they have done to the man that only 8 months ago was presented to the world as their savior? Keegan realized he couldn't do it with the interference from above and in the end they would destroy him much as they did the man before him, Big Sam. The question now facing Newcastle is, who can, or would? What follows is an example of what could happen if they can't find the answer or change their ways.
How about this for a lesson in humility; a pro club that finished in the top five of the EPL for five consecutive seasons (1997/98 to 2001/02 the lowest finish was 5th); a team with a nice balance of the audacity of youth, skill and a strong backbone of very competitive players that worked hard for each other to achieve success on the pitch; a team that competed in Europe's Champions League and UEFA Cup year-after-year; a club that had a long history in England's top flight that now finds itself toiling in League One.
A team that fielded internationally recognized players such as Robbie Fowler, Rio Ferdinand, Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Lee Bowyer, Alan Smith, Jonathan Woodgate, Ian Harte, Danny Mills and many others. The club? Leeds United, founded in 1919. The team graced by icons like Jack Charlton who put on the shirt for 20 years making 629 appearances for the club in league play.
Most don't know or have forgotten but Leeds paid West Ham 18M pounds for the then young Rio Ferdinand in 2000 in a bid to rise even farther in the table after their 3rd place finish in the 1999/2000 season. Then, with the hidden financial management concerns weighing heavily they sold their prize central defender to Man United for 30M pounds less than two years later. Few knew it at the time but that transaction really became the signal event that warned of their demise as a top flight club. The 12M pound profit on Rio wouldn't be nearly enough to stave off a financial disaster.
Two more complete seasons finishing among the elite in the top five followed as the pressure mounted and Leeds slipped down the table finishing 15th in 2002/03 before their run ended with a 19th place end to their EPL campaign in 2003/04.
The fire sale after relegation failed to rescue the club from the creditors and the struggle to survive at the Coca Cola Championship level had them bottom in 2006/07 and now Leeds was a League One side. They managed a 5th place finish there last term and so far this season are dead middle of the table a very long way from the heights the club was accustomed to in the EPL. In all Leeds has tumbled down the hierarchy of English football 47 places from their 3rd placed finish in the EPL in the '99/2000 season.
Why did this happen?
An all consuming desire to compete and win at all costs against the Big Four was surely a large part of the drive that contributed to the financial practices that led to the downfall. Part of the pressure belongs on the players themselves too of course, as several of them were "characters" that likely made investors wary. Eventually it would be revealed that key members of the board actually had borrowed money against future gate receipts counting on a lengthy run in the lucrative Champions League or UEFA Cup competitions. They were left holding the bag for over 60M pounds when the team failed to extend their run. That gamble, instead of sustaining the club for bigger and better seasons to come, became the crushing blow to their chances of remaining a viable club at any level.
Along with the shaky financial dealings several of the young players seemed to be skilled at more than football and new revelations about off the pitch activity added fuel to the fire about to consume the club. Allegations (mostly true) regarding many of their star players revealed on what seemed like a weekly basis, made life at Leeds even more difficult adding to the pressures on the club and their manager at the time (David O'Leary).
We've seen other clubs fall from prominence in the top flight since the inception of the EPL like Millwall, Bradford, Coventry City, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City to name a couple but few have been as deep, dramatic and prolonged as Leeds. Many expected them to rise back to the top flight long before now that is for certain. Leeds is now in the 5th season since relegation from the EPL and still a long, long way from the top flight.
On August 26 League One Leeds thrashed Championship side Crystal Palace 4-0 in the League Cup competition as if to say we're still here and working hard to get back.
