04/26/24
June 27, 2002
O'Leary leaves Leeds.: By mutual consent according to the club. Balderdash obviously, but was it the rumoured selling of Ferdinand or the controversy over his book that has made him the first managerial "casualty" of a season that doesn't start for seven weeks? More important does anyone on Sportsfilter give a damn about Premiership football?
I'm absolutely shocked. I wonder if Peter Ridsdale has anyone lined up? I hope it's not Gary Megson, although I guess they will be looking for someone a bit more high profile. There aren't any names that immediately spring to mind. Ideas, anyone? Leeds have spent money like there's no tomorrow over the last three or four years. Without Champions League football next season, I expect O'Leary was told to raise about £15million from his summer transfer dealing, and this wasn't acceptable to him. Silly really, since it was O'Leary and the players' fault that they couldn't finish in the top four in the Premiership. There's a couple of other clubs *cough*Chelsea*cough* who seem to have made Champions League qualification part of their business model. That's a very dangerous road to go down. In the major football leagues - Italy, Spain, England and Germany, there are very few teams who could confidently expect to qualify for the Champions League. There's enough Brits who use this board to ensure that Premiership football gets discussed along with the big American sports. Hopefully, there will be a few Americans who had their interest in the sport piqued by the World Cup, and want to see what high-level club football looks like.
posted by salmacis at 10:47 AM on June 27, 2002
I'm a Brit too, but not a Leeds fan (Aston Villa if you must ask). I think it may be something to do with the fact that the board wanted to sell Rio Ferdinand (who Ronaldo has praised so highly today that it has sent all the Italian clubs scrabbling for their checkbooks) to Manchester United, and David O'Leary didn't want to let him go. The Leeds board needs to sell some players, because of their big debt problems, whereas David O'Leary wanted to win things. There must have been a big argument between him and the board and he was forced out. Sad really, because he's a fantastic manager, and we hope to be recruiting him to replace Graham Taylor at Aston Villa in the near future :o)
posted by BigCalm at 11:04 AM on June 27, 2002
Salmacis has it right I think. Leeds allowed O'leary to spend massive money in the expectation of immediate returns. Remember when Redknapp basically took the piss out of O'leary over Rio's sale to Leeds by keeping upping the price. 12 million on Keane who at the time could hardly get a kick at Milan and has hardly played much for Leeds, at a time when they hardly had a shortage of high class forwards. (where the bleeding ell is Michael Bridges?) It was being widely touted as long ago as last christmas that Leeds would be selling some big names if they didn't qualify for the champions league, so O'leary can't say he wasn't forewarned. I heard something about persistent off field incidents. Perhaps he was just throwing his weight around too much. Perhaps the snake oil salesman Risdale resented his manager having a higher profile. Funny how the guy responsible for sanctioning the spending will get away scot free. BigCalm September 14, you are going to be one unhappy bunny.
posted by Fat Buddha at 01:20 PM on June 27, 2002
squealy et al: I'll be starting a group on Yahoo (UK)'s fantasy Premier League. I'll post to SpoFi as soon as it's set up. Liverpool all the way! We've got England's Owen, Heskey, Murphy and Gerrard (these last two back to full fitness and raring to go), Germany's Hamann (eventual world champion?) and Babbel, Senegal's Diouf and Diao (yeah!), Finland's Hyppia and the Swiss Henchoz, and of course Poland's Dudek (finally, we're done with the crazy boy days of Grobelaar and Westerveld). I'd like to see this line-up, and the attacking play it implies. Of course, I haven't mentioned Carragher, Redknapp and Berger and other foreign dignitaries. See you in the pool!
posted by worldcup2002 at 02:01 PM on June 27, 2002
Bridges is finally fit again, making Keane one of the more expendable players in the squad - especially after world cup heroics boosted his potential transfer fee i'm a huge fan of the lad, and would love to keep him, but he doesn't deserve to be a 4/5th striker although relations between the players and O'Leary haven't been great lately, everything points to this being a business decision rather than a footballing one - i dont think its cynical to notice that the club waited for the season ticket money to roll in before sacking him i'm really afraid about Rio heading to man u, they consistently score more goals than anyone else, partner that with great defence and no one else will have a look in - surely lufc must heed what happened with Cantona
posted by sawks at 02:08 PM on June 27, 2002
"and the attacking play it implies" it hasn't exactly been their mandate recently (more like counter-attacking), and i can't see why that would change now that their bench looks a touch stronger
posted by sawks at 02:11 PM on June 27, 2002
sawks: We shall see. I was alluding to their oft-maligned but effective counter-attacking play. Seems to me that they made offense-minded purchases in Diouf and Diao (rather than, say, buying defenders). My hope is that it means a more well-rounded style (more attack, more inventive midfield play) rather than just more players to choose from.
posted by worldcup2002 at 02:55 PM on June 27, 2002
Sawks, O'leary has been quoted in the Guardian as saying he knows who is successor is and the deal is already done. He's not naming names though. He seems a bit unchuffed.
posted by Fat Buddha at 03:09 PM on June 27, 2002
Good, maybe now instead of acquiring a bunch of thugs, Leeds will actually buy up some players that have skills...
posted by StarFucker at 03:45 PM on June 27, 2002
Risdale always struck me as a slightly more acceptable Geoffrey Richmond: one of the new breed of media-whore chairmen who slightly resented the manager's profile. That said, O'Leary has suffered from abandoning a winning script: he brought Leeds through after the departure of George Graham by continuing the pattern he'd set as first team coach, and bringing through a wave of young players who cohered into a winning team. By the end of last season, the growing distance between him and his players was more than obvious. Ironically, getting Rio Ferdinand away from London probably did more for his career than simply playing at Leeds: it was well documented that he was something of a clubber down at West Ham, and being 200 miles from London forced him to concentrate more on his game; the opposite of what happened with Woodgate, who O'Leary never managed to drag away from Middlesbrough and his dodgy mates there. (I say this as a Boro fan with no love of Leeds, but plenty of respect of O'Leary.)
posted by etagloh at 04:22 PM on June 27, 2002
etagloh: Looks like Muzzy Izzet is itching to move to Boro. If you get him, then the underserved Boksic should get better service, too. Hope Izzet gets the transfer and beats relegation.
posted by worldcup2002 at 05:03 PM on June 27, 2002
Isn't Jamie Redknapp plying his trade down White Hart Lane way these days? But yes Liverpool will (hopefully) rule triumphant next year.
posted by nedrichards at 10:33 AM on June 29, 2002
Yay, another (real) Reds fan. I'm miffed that ManU keeps using the "Reds" nickname when, in fact, they're really "Red Devils." Miffed, I tell you.
posted by worldcup2002 at 02:38 PM on June 29, 2002
F**K! as a leeds fan i'm obviously dismayed, if this has anything to do with rio moving to the scum, there is going to be an uproar too shocked to say much else really... obviously the club have spent a lot of money during O'Leary's tenure without much to show for it, but the timing of this announcement is very suspicous - if it was a performance related decision then surely he would of been gone at the end of last season