Living the flawed Dream

When David O'leary took over the managers job at Leeds he inherited a great bunch of young players who were destined for stardom. Players like Harry Kewell, Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Bowyer, Alan Smith, Paul Robinson, etc.

By the Millenium the mighty whites were once again competing at the top end of the English game, they had qualified for Europe in the Eufa Cup. The fans had hope again as they started winning game after game eventually reaching the semi-final of the Eufa Cup. The draw turned out to be what the authorities didn't want Leeds were paired with Galaterassary with the first leg in Istanbul. The Turks had a growing reputation for violence and Leeds massive travelling army sent the alarm bells ringing. Recent years Leeds had lost their hooligan tag and their fans travelled to the Turkish capitol in numbers but the Al Yemi Stadium has another name "Hell".

The unthinkable happend the night before the match when groups of Yorkshire fans enjoying a night out in Istanbuls main square were attacked by hundreds of Knife weilding Turks. Fighting went on for over 20 minutes before police arrived yet Television Cameras were there to film it all. At the end of it all two Leeds supporters Kevin Speight and Christopher Loftus lost their lives (they only went to watch a football match). Many other fans were hospitalised with serious stab wounds.

Leeds asked for the match to be cancelled but the authorities overuled and the Whites lost 2-0 but no one cared Football was no longer important that night. On their return Billy's statue at Elland road became a shrine for the two fans.

The following season O'Learys team qualified for the Champions league and the they were issued a terrible 1st round draw paired in a group with two of the favorites Barcelona & AC Milan with the group made up of a team from the place nobody wanted to go Besiktas (Istanbul). First up was Barcelona away and the spaniards proved much too strong for the Leeds youngsters.

A home win against Besiktas gave us a chance but nobody gave us hope in the next match in Milan who had beaten Barcelona. However that night Leeds proved everyone wrong when a Dominic Matteo header gave the whites a shock 1-0 victory.

This group then produced a string of shock results and by the end it was Leeds & Milan who qualified for the 2nd stage. Leeds were again given a tough draw with Real Madrid, Lazio & Anderlecht.

Leeds were growing in confidence and manager O'Leary was given cash to spend from chairman Peter Ridsdale, Ferdinand had arrived for a record fee, Robbie Keane, Seth Johnson all on big contracts. Leeds were up with the big boys and spending like them.

With the supporters now "living the dream" the club was sent in turmoil once again as they made the front pages of the national papers. Two of our players Jonathan Woodgate & Lee Bowyer were accused of a racial assault on an asian student in a Leeds nightclub. They were later sent to trial that lasted almost two years and the club was slaughtered in the press for months.

However this created a siege metality reminiscent of the Revie days and the team played some awesome football to qualify with Real Madrid for the last 8 the dream was still alive. The 1-0 victory in Rome against Lazio thanks to local hero Alan Smiths fantastic goal proved significant. That night Leeds took their biggest travelling support since Paris with 15,000 making the trip to the Olympic stadium.

It was the knock out stage and Leeds were awesome beating spanish champions Deportivo 4-0 in the first leg at Elland Road, although they lost in the 2nd leg Deportivo couldn't stop the whites going through on aggregate to face Valencia in the semi-final. A 0-0 in the home leg left it all to do in Valencia and despite all our hopes it proved a bridge too far and we didn't reach the final.

The fans were not over dissapointed as we had exceeded all expectations we had a great young team we would get plenty of more cracks at this competition, we were about to rule the world, belief was back.

The following season suddenly we started selling some players Ferdinand went to "you know who" ok for a good profit but the fans couldn't understand why. As the new year arrived we topped the league and went to lower division Cardiff for an FA Cup tie and suffered a shock defeat. This game ended in violence when Cardiffs gang about 1500 strong charged across the pitch to confront the travelling Leeds fans, well the Service Crew were also out in force that day and lets just say the police earned their money.

With the Woodgate/Bowyer trial still getting Leeds slaughtered in the papers the club went on a losing streak that saw them tumble down the table.

Something was wrong and rumours circulated they had overspent the club was in dept, the bankers wanted their money, Players were sold.

Eventually after nearly two years Woodgate & Bowyer got a result "NOT GUILTY" had this been a conspiracy we will never know.

New managers were brought in (Venebles then Read) the ground was sold more players were sold, what is happening, we were in trouble.

Eventually we were relegated in 2004 Kevin Blackwell was brought in for his first managers job the vultures were circling, all our players were been sold. The true extent of our dept was £125,000,000 the club was going under they had virtually no assets left. Blackwell took is first training session pre season and only had two players. To his credit he loaned, borrowed, signed those nobody wanted but the trap door was open would Leeds fall through the lower divisions.

Miracle they managed to stay up somehow but bigger problems were around the corner we were one week from going out of buisness (Ridsdale & O'Leary have a lot to answer for). A unlikely saviour arrived in the shape of former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates who bailed us out and saved our club. Ironically he bought the club with the money Roman Abramovich gave him for his Chelsea shares.

Last season we made the promotion play offs and almost got back to the premiership which was a remarkable achievement, perhaps the yo-yo is on the way up again, we will see.

This brings my story of the history of Leeds Utd that I have told on this blog over the last week or so to an end. I know a lot of my blog friends aren't that interested in football but I ask you wish my team luck when they start a new chapter tomorrow.

They face Norwich City at Elland Road in the first match of the season and knowing Leeds anything could happen and it probably will.