The damned united

Relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time in their gilded 88-year history would be a catastrophic new humiliation for a club sent into the vortex by grotesque financial mismanagement.

In 2001, Leeds faced Valencia in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Their supporters have long since tucked away their European flight schedules. Poring over road maps to find the quickest way to Yeovil could soon be a more pressing concern.

It is a club whose greatest period is intrinsically linked with Scotland. Between 1965 and 1974, a core of outstanding Scottish talent powered Don Revie's team to finish each season as one of England's top four clubs. Two league championships, an FA Cup, a League Cup and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups were all greedily gathered. An unparalleled record of runner-up finishes meant even that heady haul did not give true impression of their immense abilities.

"There was a time in the 1970s when there were 17 Scots at the club between the first team and the reserves," says Gordon McQueen, at the heart of the Leeds defence between 1973 and 1978.

"That's true. Don Revie loved Scottish players and the characteristics they brought to the team. His wife was Scottish as well.

"Of that 17, there were quite a few internationals. You're talking about David Harvey, Billy Bremner, Peter Lorimer, Eddie Gray, Frank Gray, Joe Jordan, myself, David Stewart. It's just terrible how things have changed.

"It's a club on a massive downer. I thought a bad season would not be making the play-offs. To be strong relegation candidates is disastrous. The future is scary."

McQueen has not been to Elland Road for some time, but such is the importance of the Preston game that he plans to be in attendance tonight. Eddie Gray will also be there, but then he has rarely been apart from the place since first being recruited in 1963.

Undoubtedly one of Leeds' greatest ever players - and to many the scorer of their greatest goal for a physics-defying dribble against Burnley - he has twice been manager and helped coach the outstanding crop of young talent that emerged late in the 1990s. He now covers every game as a pundit for BBC Radio Leeds and is deeply pained by their plight.

"It's very hard to watch," he said. "To see us so close to dropping into that division for the first time in our history is terrible. It would be a calamity if it happened.

"Something tells me we'll sneak out of it, but I don't know if that's my heart ruling my head. One thing I know is that it would be a disaster if we didn't pick up three points against Preston."

Dennis Wise and Gus Poyet form the current management team, old friends of Ken Bates, the reigning Leeds chairman, from their days together at Chelsea. That triumvirate may not have painted themselves in glory, but the club's implosion can easily be traced back to others.

David O'Leary had constructed a squad costing £100m over his four years in charge, before he was sacked as manager in 2002. The aforementioned Champions League semi-final was the high-point of a dizzying fantasy which was flipped into the blackest nightmare.

The Leeds board, chaired by Peter Ridsdale, had been funding purchases via a sale and lease-back scheme. Through Ray Ranson, a former professional footballer turned insurance expert, they found financial institutions willing to cover transfer fees which would then be paid back by Leeds over the term of a player's contract. With interest.

The plan was based on the premise that revenues would continue to rise, primarily through annual participation in the Champions League. When in the spring of 2002, it became clear Leeds would not qualify for that elite moneypot, the house of cards began to tumble. Net debt had reached £82m and the annual wage bill had soared to £53m.

Plan B was to begin selling their main assets; the players. Rio Ferdinand's proposed £29m transfer to Manchester United was the final straw in the deteriorating relationship between O'Leary and Ridsdale. Ferdinand's value had been boosted by an excellent World Cup for England, but the transfer market in general had contracted. Leeds had paid fees and wages at the top of the cycle and could not balance the books.

Ridsdale, now chairman of Cardiff City, has been widely vilified for his role in the shambles. He resigned as chairman in March 2003, with subsequent boards including insolvency experts to help save the club from extinction. Relegation from the Premiership was an inevitability.

Bates became chairman in 2005 and is contractually bound to pay several former players years after they were shipped out. That draining arrangement is finally set to end this summer.

"Everyone was saying they enjoyed the ride at the time and it was wonderful to see the team flying high in the Premiership," says McQueen. "Very good. But at the same time, you are looking for the people behind the scenes to provide financial stability. Not gamble with the club's future and that's exactly what they did.

"It was totally irresponsible. Ask any Leeds fan now and they'll tell you that. Don't get me wrong, they don't like the present chairman because he raised the ticket prices. But he said he had to do that or the club could go under. They are living week to week with the payments that go elsewhere. The real severe damage was done years ago."

Elland Road and Leeds' Thorpe Arch training ground were also both sold in 2004 to stave off administration. Bates is hoping to repurchase both sites with assistance from the local council.

Gray was part of O'Leary's coaching staff during the peak years of spending and feels Ridsdale has, to some extent, been singled out unfairly, given the entire board were behind the scheme.

"Ridsdale takes the flak but there were a lot of other people involved," says Gray. "They have sneaked out the back and left Peter to carry the can.

"But there was far too much spent. At one time we had Mark Viduka, Alan Smith, Robbie Fowler, Robbie Keane, Michael Bridges on the books. All strikers. The best teams in Europe don't carry that kind of ammunition.

"A lot of money was recouped through sales but it was the day to day running of the place that was far too high. The wages were ridiculous."

The current squad is not even a shadow of O'Leary's, but should still not be the worst in the Championship. David Healy, for example, has scored more goals for Northern Ireland this season than he has Leeds, partly because Wise has stuck him into wide positions in some games for which he has been selected.

"He'll play from the start and through the middle against Preston," said Gray hopefully.

"I think he has to now.

"We have been bottom of the table for two months and have lost 23 games, more than anyone else in the division. We have not performed well at all and deserve to be in the position."

McQueen is more pessimistic than Gray about the future and feels Leeds' loyal core of support has already been pushed beyond breaking point.

"An awful lot of fans are totally disillusioned," he said. "It's going to be difficult to get them back because they've had too many kicks in the teeth over the past few years. It's a support that's on its knees. My wife is from Leeds, and a lot of my in-laws are Leeds fans. They just don't go any more."

Damned by their guardians and now by their followers. The next chapter in Leeds United's story could be the bleakest yet.