All Things Footie | Friday, March 1 | Jordan
PSVery Poor
Leeds United's last hope for a trophy went up in smoke last night against a spirited PSV side, but the talking point must be Leeds' inadequacies this season. It seems like yesterday that they were felling mighty oaks in the forest of European football, this season they've had serious problems with saplings. After losing to Maritimo and chancing it with French minnows Troyes they only just squeezed past Grasshoppers — drawing at home to the Swiss side. The first team of any true quality they have faced in the UEFA cup beat last seasons European Cup semi finalists without playing particularly well.
Peter Ridsdale claims that a panicked player clearout is not on the cards, but some whittling must be done to streamline the increasingly unbalanced squad. David O'Leary has spent the best part of £100m and has no trophies to show for it more importanty — with the exception of Rio Ferdinand — I don't think he's spent it all that wisely. Players like Seth Johnson, £7m and a class player, but by no means is he going to win you a Premiership title. If I was Robbie Keane I'd ask for a meeting with O'Leary every morning until he gave me a satisfactory explanation for picking a fat Australian donkey over a quality, proven international goalscorer (for a World Cup finalist). Keane and Fowler would scare the life out of any defence, and if you want a bruiser in there, I'd rather have Alan Smith (he may be little but he'd scare me more than Viduka).
O'Leary needs to bring in some World Class players, but I can't see Ridsdale stumping up more cash. Looking at the bigger picture, with Leeds unlikely to finish in the top four (I'd rate it a certainty, 9 points below with 11 games to go) they don't have the carrot of Champions League football to wave at players. Some may say the club rose too high, too fast; and they might be right. In modern football however, the only way to move is fast, the difficulty is in keeping up the pace. Ridsdale and O'Leary were simply too inexperienced to cope with the situation they found theirselves in; they both made serious errors of judgement at crucial times. With Brian Kidd helping out, a steady ship can be created and maintained and the future should be brighter than it may currently seem for Leeds United.