Captain Howson.
From Robbie Keane to Jonny Howson, it is all about squandering the resource.
Contained within the emotional side of the fall-out from the Jonny Howson transfer to Norwich City is a rational realisation for some that we are a “selling club”. Well you better late than never people I have got news for you, we have been a selling club for most of the last 30 years (odd exception 1988-1992 and 1998-2002) and certainly for the last decade. In that 10 years we have let so many good players go and relatively cheaply we could in different circumstances have the best 4 squads in the premier league and still have class to spare. It makes you ill just thinking about it, the players from the academy, players signed young when we were still premier league, players who built a reputation at Elland Road and then departed without bothering the accountant, it’s all a consistent pattern of a selling club, just one that hasn’t been particularly good at maximising income from being one.
Defining for the purposes of this article what time period to dissect wasn’t difficult, basically before O’Leary was sacked only players deemed not up to the task were sold on, after that Ridsdale decision (and regardless of where you stand on his managerial abilities) the sales began, starting with Rio Ferdinand that summer. However it wasn’t the loss of pug or 6 months later the home grown“ plank” Jonathan Woodgate that in my opinion set the tone for what has accrued since, no the real catalyst was the departure of a 21 year old striker, Robbie Keane (forced out by the Venables-Ridsdale pact) that still to this day cuts to the core.
Robbie Keane wasn’t the greatest player Leeds United have ever had, he wasn’t even the most skilful but he was young when we signed him and he was obviously going to score lots of goals for someone else. To this day he still does, 2 goals on his full debut on loan to Aston Villa means he has now scored 153 club goals after leaving Elland Road, and that includes a couple of seasons of drought! This is not about Robbie Keane per say, I am simple using him as an example of the consistency of short-termism that has been fostered on this club for the past decade. You can argue till your blue in the face the money was too good to turn down at the time but you will never convince me we didn’t suffer as a club, in the short-term as the older Robbie Fowler (paid sheds for sold cheap) Mark Viduka (could have got £25m for him once, got £5m in the end) and Harry Kewell (was worth £10m we were lucky to get £2m) let us down and in the long run as the pattern of squandered talent set in!
The list of players wasted is endless, all positions, all personality types. Not one present member of the PL (and large chunks of the present championship) haven’t taken advantage of our omi-present financial crises problems. Whilst I don’t want to list everyone, that would be painful and life is too short, but even my pulling out some case examples the number of players in bold will be extensive. Whether its losing an England class goalie for very little because an ex England manager was an idiot (Nigel Martyn) or losing the next England goalie to Spurs (Paul Robinson) and then another England goalie of the future to Liverpool (Scott Carson) and then the future of Denmark for no darn good reason (Kasper Schmeichel) it all grates. Even Neil Sullivan has had 5 seasons of similar level of football after being given a free (and when you think of some of what has played in goal for us since he left).
Obviously it’s the products of the academy we see on our TV screens constantly that cut the most, James Milner at Manchester City, Aaron Lennon and Danny Rose at Spurs, Alan Smith at Newcastle United, Matt Kilgallon at Sunderland, Fabian Delph at Aston Villa (even if we are having a cameo at the moment) and to a lesser extent Frazer Richardson at Southampton and Ian Harte at Reading are all constant reminders.
Let us not fool ourselves this is just about the fall-out from the Ridsdale years, it continues throughout the 7 years of the abomination Bates reign, only he squanders even more. Jermaine Beckford , Bradley Johnson and Neil Kilkenny are part of a let Bosman’s happen fixation we have development recently. You can debate what level of player they are or are not but you can’t tell me they wouldn’t get a game at Elland Road this season if still on our books and the same can be said for Shaun Derry and the cheap as chips sold Max Gradel. The other aspect of the Bates era is how kids have become a tradable commodity, the likes of Luke Garbett, Lewis Hutton and George Swann at least commanded a fee, Elliot Kebbie’s will need to be fought for.
On and on it goes, Oliver Dacourt (Venables never did drive him to Italy), Michael Bridges (injury not helping here), Andy Keogh, Sam Hird, Simon Walton (yes he is rubbish now but at 16 he had the world at his feet), Tomi Ameobi (apparently the only one of the brothers not PL class…) just a cross section of a large pool of wasted talent. Even players you wouldn’t rate highly left us and went on to play on PL pastures, David Healy, Richard Cresswell and Stephen Crainey for example. Even as you read this Alex Bruce will be talking to LA Galaxy (and it’s not like we have a load of central defensive talent at the moment), Ben Parker is being shipped out to Carlisle United and a nasty rumour is circulating Robert Snodgrass is Upton Park bound. Don’t even mention the potential for losing Tom Lees, Aiden White, Ross McCormack or Luciano Becchio, in the end that is what selling clubs do, we just do it better!
When you think about it, when you rationalise the last decade and strip all that emotional stuff out the truth is Jonny Howson being sold was inevitable and should not surprise us at all. However please don’t let that reality interfere with your right to feel angry with the latest manifestation of the club’s idiocy. Anger, when directed correctly is a very rational way forward and also the best way to get the likes of Robbie Keane out of your system, till his next goal obviously!
(As an aside the other side of the coin is the piles of garbage we have bought in the last 10 years, that will be the subject of a multi part series starting next week and appearing every Thursday and Sunday for the rest of the season, nice titled “150 bits of expensive tat and a few redeeming footballers, Leeds United Players 2002-2012”).
