Ridsdale must level with fans over Rio

David Mellor13 April 2012

Apparently Rio Ferdinand will have six former SAS men to protect him from Leeds fans when he returns to Elland Road tomorrow lunchtime. Although some will say that this serves the turncoat right, I reckon it's time for Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale to come clean.

Ferdinand may have wanted the move, but I suspect that Leeds would have sold him anyway, because £29million was irresistible.

So why doesn't Ridsdale, who tries to set standards for others to follow, level with the fans?

Ferdinand had to go to balance the books, and has actually done the club a huge favour by bailing them out.

And if the fans want to make trouble, let them pick a fight with the board which sold him, not with the player who was merely a pawn in the game.

Sadly it won't be as simple as that. When I was on Six-O-Six, I never had to worry about the programme if Leeds were playing Manchester United, because there was always plenty of action off the pitch as well as on it.

Plenty to complain about, not least the willingness of some Leeds fans to sing the 'Munich Song' almost 50 years after the event.

Why do supporters think it's amusing to jeer at the death of a lot of blameless and highly talented young men in a plane crash?

Perhaps the ground has something to do with the misbehaviour.

People forget that while most Premiership clubs have spent their money on new stadia, Leeds have used future revenues to buy players. Ferdinand had to go because this gamble did not bring success.

With one large stand and three desperately old-fashioned ones, Elland Road is a throwback to the early Eighties - just like the behaviour of some of their fans.

Events at the game between Watford and Luton this week show that, when local passions are inflamed, football is still a tinderbox. And there's a lot at stake tomorrow.

After winning at Newcastle on Wednesday, Leeds will desperately want to prove that a serious revival is under way, while United - minus Roy Keane and Paul Scholes but with the increasingly erratic Sir Alex Ferguson still on board - will also be under pressure to demonstrate that this season isn't disappearing down the Swanee like the last one.

Even at this 11th hour, the Leeds board should seriously consider making a statement about Rio to clear the air.

If Leeds don't, and there are disturbances, they will certainly have something to answer for.

Fayed's FA swipe is spot on

The Fulham chairman's blockbuster letter to the Football Association and other national associations about borrowing players for internationals contains a very interesting passage.

It reads: "The operation of a top-level football club is a business not a public service . . . there is no precedent where one business can demand from another that certain workers can be handed over, free of charge, to enable one business to make a profit it doesn't share with the second."

Bang on the button, Mo. I wonder who wrote it?

The FA would have you believe cash from internationals and the FA Cup goes to the game's grass roots but that isn't the whole story.

A £4.5million bonus has been given to the players, even though they are still being paid by the clubs while on international duty. Shouldn't the cash have gone to the clubs in part-compensation?

And FA technical director Howard Wilkinson has seen his salary double in three years to almost half a million, a shocking figure.

In the real world, executives are paid what is necessary to motivate them, and retain their services in a competitive market place. But who the hell else is in the market for Wilkinson?

Clubs spark capital gains

Exclude Charlton and the performance of the capital's remaining four is even more impressive - only two losses out of 19.

The reasons aren't hard to see. Arsenal these days have resilience as well as quality. Watching their 10 men play better than Chelsea's 11 a fortnight ago wasn't comfortable for me, but they were undeniably impressive.

As for Chelsea, well three points against Blackburn on Wednesday after twice being behind suggests the glass chin is getting stronger. In addition, all their 10 goals have come from players other than Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

A rampant Gianfranco Zola has already scored more than he did last season. And to what does he attribute this return to form? Training hard all summer, he says.

Fulham too have at last discovered the back of the net. Given the quality it was obviously going to happen some time, and with European football to come, and Jean Tigana alone on the bridge again, there is a surge in confidence.

Don't forget the magic of the InterToto Cup either. Just like Newcastle last year, starting a season fully fit after five competitive cup games is a huge advantage. Let's hope this real progress can be sustained.

Colour blinds cricket

And if they pull out, the game's governing body, the ICC, advises that other less scrupulous countries will be substituted.

For years, South Africa were not allowed to compete internationally because of the evils of apartheid.

But are the actions of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe any less worthy of censure?

Had he been white, Zimbabwe would have been banned ages ago.

Heskey's lazy days

A label worn with pride for so long by John Barnes, and latterly by the lackadaisical Steve McManaman.

Has Liverpool's Emile Heskey now joined this legion of the damned?

After last Saturday's efforts, I fear so.

Footy ads a turn-off

Is it me, or are they getting more and more mindlessly laddish by the week? But it could be worse.

In Italy, some channels have now taken to showing ads every time the ball goes out of play. Hopelessly distracting. It couldn't happen here? Don't bet the ranch on it.

Scots' demise so sad...really

But I just think of the great players and managers Scotland have produced - Denis Law, Jock Stein, Kenny Dalglish, Alex Ferguson et al - and feel nothing but sadness. That all-conquering Liverpool team of a generation ago was built around a strong Scottish contingent.

So perhaps one of the reasons why our Premiership today is so full of foreigners is that the number and quality of players from north of the border has fallen so dramatically.

I'm not gloating, just writing a Get Well Soon card.

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