Im not sure if you lot have read this yet but...
Sheikh comes to the rescue with takeover at Leeds
SHEIKH Mubarak al-Khalifa is understood to have agreed to a takeover of Leeds United, subject to Gordon Strachan being appointed as manager. Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s ruling dynasty, who has been a Leeds supporter for a quarter of a century, has offered to pay £65 million for control of the Yorkshire club, who are bottom of the Barclaycard Premiership. The deal is expected to be completed by the middle of next month.
The takeover is expected to hasten the appointment of a permanent manager. While Eddie Gray will remain in his caretaker role for the match against Bolton Wanderers today, Strachan, the Southampton manager, could be in place as early as next week.
Significantly, al-Khalifa has made it clear that Strachan is his favoured choice as the permanent successor to Peter Reid, whose brief and tortured tenure ended two weeks ago when he was dismissed after a 6-1 defeat away to Portsmouth. Reid is one of three former managers, along with David O’Leary and Terry Venables, who are still being paid off by Leeds at a total cost to the club of almost £7 million.
Strachan, captain of the Leeds team that won the old first division in 1992, is out of contract at Southampton at the end of the season. Rupert Lowe, the Southampton chairman, maintains that Leeds have not made an official approach, but there is a feeling that Strachan may have taken the club as far as he can without a significant injection of money. Southampton may seek as much as £1 million in compensation, although the final settlement could be closer to £500,000.
“Nothing has changed — we love him and want him to stay,” Lowe said. However, reports that Lowe has lined up Mark Hughes, the Wales manager, as Strachan’s replacement suggest that he fears the worst. Hughes is licking his wounds after Wales’s European Championship play-off defeat by Russia and could be tempted by a return to club football.
The game is still coming to terms with Roman Abramovich’s takeover of Chelsea in July, when the West London club was transformed overnight from paupers to pacesetters. Leeds will be hoping for a similar effect. Just 2½ years ago Leeds were in the European Cup semi-final but, three managers, one chairman and £78 million worth of debt later, they find themselves staring at the possibility of relegation. Slipping into the Nationwide League would probably force the club into administration. Under Football League rules, they would then start next season’s first division ten points behind the other clubs.
Al-Khalifa’s appearance at the opening match of the season against Newcastle United led to speculation that he was about to take a stake in the club. He has been to a number of matches since, most recently the Carling Cup defeat by Manchester United, and he has been courted as a financial backer.
The sheikh is believed to be the mystery partner who, along with Allan Leighton, the deputy chairman, has pledged to invest £4.4 million in the club. That promise came after the club announced a deficit of £49.5 million last month, record losses for a British club. and Leeds are also in talks with bondholders about restructuring the long-term debt. The club borrowed £60 million against 25 years of season-ticket sales and still owe a finance company £21.3 million for the hire purchase of several players, including Mark Viduka, the forward whose personality clash with Reid contributed to the manager’s dismissal and who is paid £65,000 a week.
The club’s shares are worth £11.7 million. Al-Khalifa needs the shareholders to back the deal, so will probably offer them a sizeable premium on the market price. A deal will then need to be agreed with the lenders.
Strachan left Leeds to become Ron Atkinson’s assistant at Coventry City in 1994, claiming that he had been driven out of Elland Road. “They (Leeds) asked me to go out and work in the community and I thought that was insulting,” he said. “I’d helped them win titles and they were asking me to go out at night and work for a few extra quid. It was embarrassing.”
Now Leeds want him back as a saviour and are prepared to offer him a huge salary increase.
Meanwhile, Gray did a neat sales pitch as he prepared for the match against Bolton. “There’ll be a lot of people who will love this job because it is a great club,” he said. “There is potential to go forward. There are players here with the strength and quality for us to survive.
“I’m just doing the job for now and if the chairman comes and says to me ‘thanks very much, that’s it’, I’ll say, ‘fair enough’. I won’t be bitter about
a dons legend like him doesnt deserve to be in the 1st division!