David O'Leary, not o'Leeds

On a related note I wrote a letter yesterday to Rio Ferdinand begging him not to join Manyoo, let's hope it works eh?

Well this means that Rio is definetely going to Man Utd! sorry Chris!

wow, didn't know this. i'm off tot football365 to see whats going on. is he off to manage an under-17s team?

nooooooooooo!

Ridsdale is now attributing it to "off-field incidents" hmmmm

Apparantly O'Leary is going to go to Man Utd as Alex F's number two and will take over as manager in two/three years time

The BBC site mentions his book about the 2000-2001 season...and the fact that they've spent £100m without winning anything. No more transfer money perhaps? Possibility of losing Rio, Kewell, Viduka et al = leaving by mutual consent.

The merry go round begins...I can't believe that other Premiership teams won't be interested.

For the huge amount of money spent, one might expect the team to be a little closer to winning a trophy. It's not clear to me that the team has got any better after the high point of the Champions League run of a couple of seasons back.

Hopefully for LUFC the books can be balanced with one or two high- profile sales and any new manager will be given a bit of money to re- shape the team. In particular, the squad has too many strikers (Viduka Keane Smith Fowler & Bridges returning) and is missing a really high-quality distributor of the ball from midfield to service all those running players?

did I see yesterday that Robbie Keane would be going to Boro? surely his performances in the world cup would have bumped up his value though, and maybe he'll be going to the continent?

I reckon they'dbe better off getting rid of Kewell though, he seems the most prima-donna-ish of the lot.

Maybe Spurs will buy Keane and Hassan Sas!

hassan sas would be bloody great in the premiership. It'll be interesting to see where Liverpool play Diouf too.

This is astonishing. You sure it's not a wind-up?

New manager? George Graham could do with a job.

Who is going to take over? Any ideas, my made (a leeds fan) thinks that Van Hiddink will take over. I don't really know who will want the job if they have to sell a load of players. They are meant to be getting a new ground so it looks like Leeds might have the best stadium in the first division soon.

Who is going to take over? Any ideas, my mate (a leeds fan) thinks that Van Hiddink will take over. I don't really know who will want the job if they have to sell a load of players. They are meant to be getting a new ground so it looks like Leeds might have the best stadium in the first division soon.

Who is going to take over? Any ideas, my friend (a leeds fan) thinks that Van Hiddink will take over. I don't really know who will want the job if they have to sell a load of players. They are meant to be getting a new ground so it looks like Leeds might have the best stadium in the first division soon.

According to the dutch media Hiddink is going to PSV Eindhoven.

That looks like 3 votes for 'Van Hiddink' already.

Ridsdale is now attributing it to "off-field incidents"
Yeah, that atrocious performance on the BBC! I hear Wright, Reid and Schmeichel will also be unemployed soon too hahahahahahaha

What?!?

Ian Wright is gonna get sacked from Friends Like This? No way! :)

I have a feeling that Leeds next manager will not be high profile, or a young manager...maybe even David Batty.

Like Marilyn Monroe, I can only dislike one team at a time, and I'm busy disliking Brazil at the moment, so the Man Utd option sounds quite good to me. In fact I think I like O'Leary enough to make me like Man Utd if he goes there. He reminds me of Richard Beckinsale.

Haven't all the other teams who haven't won anything spent loads of money as well? I thought it was the norm now.

yeah, but theres that feeling that leeds have hit the top, and are fading a little now, theres not that 'potential' about them that there was not that long ago (when they were beginning to look like inevitable in taking over from man u)

Club statement:

"Leeds United plc today announces that David O'Leary, manager of Leeds United Football Club has left the company by mutual consent."

Left the company? Not the club? Maybe, just maybe, the plc status is the real problem here...

The club are up to eyeballs in debt after their securitisation, and the Board's number one priority in law is shareholder value. Rio offers them a 12M return over 2 years, which goes a long way to paying off those pesky debts. Especially when you've got a new stadium in the pipeline. Walls come tumbling down...

Thought there does appear to be something rotten in the state of Leeds. The lack of discipline, the hiring of Stan Boardman to do his 'gags', the O'Leary book advised by a Board Member seemingly not mentioned to Ridsdale, the Board Member advising Duberry to keep schtum.

it all does rather add up to a big fat can of worms waiting to spill over. O'Leary has never been backwards at coming forwards witha a quote in the past, wonder if he'll be keeping schtum on his reasons for very long on this one? And where will his next job be? Surely not Manyoo?

I'm hoping for a remake of that Porridge film where they escape during a football match. Urgent and key quote:

Referee Mr McKay, booking Cooper: "What's your name, Cooper?"

Cooper: "Cooper."

i used to love football, loved leeds - i actually thought it was about 38 games a season 90 minutes, 22 men (except in leeds games where it would often go to 21 or 20) all competing for the glory of lifting the league trophy

somewhere along the line the 'CHAMPIONS LEAGUE' suddenly became a money weilding phenomena - WHEN did this happen

all of this has left an extremely bitter taste in my mouth - football is solely about cash now - 90 mins means nothing compared to t-shirt sales in asia.

im off to the abbey to support cambridge utd, i'll probably be able to watch a 1/3 of the season before the money mean liqudate them.

football is on the verge of a massive crash and i for one am leaving the sinking ship - tally ho im off to watch tennis ahhhhhhhhh i hate tennis

problem is i cant quite extricate myself from it - yeah the world cup was ok (everyone looked pretty tired tho) - i cant believe im gonna say this - I WISH THERE WAS LESS FOOTIE ON TV

From a Leeds fan on a mailing list I'm on:

"The club is in free fall, it has just sacked 19 members of staff, allegedly devastated its much vaunted Community Scheme budget and has, with the sacking of David O'Leary announced to the world that it is now officially a selling club.

The share price is now at an all time low of 5.75p and I would say that if Ridsdale can get the right backing he will go for a management buy out.

Our trust working group meets this saturday to discuss the situation against a background of very very cheesed of supporters (7,000 season ticket holders failing to renew), a club which manages its media with less panache than Railtrack and the aftermath of the most damaging event in the club's history since the fraud from which it was born - the Bowyer Woodgate trial.

Yes, the PLC status is a problem but the whole financial world in which football exists and the nature of the people who run football clubs on a day to day basis is also open to question. I almost wish that the first item on our agenda was how do we form AFC Leeds and play in the Leeds Red Triangle.

If you need a really good belly laugh watch the antics of the clowns who deal with the media for Leeds United."

Golly.

>>> "the fraud from which it was born"

Cripes!

Herbert Chapman, then manager of Leeds City FC, made some under the table payments and as a result of the investigation, Leeds City folded, and Leeds United were formed in their place.