Your reading a pre 2010-11 archived article
In this weeks column Graeme Garvey cautions one of our oldest rivals.
Doing a Leeds is worse than meltdown. Official!
In an age of exaggeration, Graeme Souness was asked last week to qualify his statement that the once-mighty Liverpool were ‘in meltdown’. He explained his comments in a seemingly rational way. By ‘meltdown’, he meant that they weren’t likely to ‘do a Leeds’ but they were still in serious trouble. The term ‘meltdown’ came into media usage during the Chernobyl disaster and that was about as serious as trouble can be. Imagine the media frenzy if the nuclear reactor had been on the brink of ‘doing a Leeds’.
When we were not-so-merrily on our way down to League One from the Championship, if you remember such dismal days and have not had the mental scars removed by psychotherapy, Southampton did the double over us. They were on their way to the play-offs. We finally amassed a measly total of 36 points before Chairman Ken’s dive into administration took another 10 away leaving us with an even more paltry 26. It was not exactly a triumphal season and worse was to come as Ken Bates and Lord Mawhinney mud wrestled away another 15 points that cost us promotion straight back up.
Saturday’s 1-0 win, courtesy of a Snodgrass stunner was against a former Premiership side who have ‘done a Leeds’ all of their own – failure in the Championship play-offs, going into administration, relegation to League One. Welcome to the party!
Although for many younger Leeds fans the rivalry with Man U is the club’s greatest, I’ve always felt that, historically, Liverpool were our biggest rivals because they were the team that regularly challenged our best ever side. Then, when we went, too quickly, into decline, they won just about everything for years and years. I know they haven’t won the league for 20 seasons – in fact, we have won it more recently than them – but they still think they have an absolute right to win major trophies and describe not doing so as ‘unthinkable’.
At long last, things are changing, however, and there are real signs that they are now in a true decline. They have a massive debt, are out of the Champions League and might not even qualify for Europe. The wonderful new ground they are dreaming of is beginning to look as realistic as was Ridsdale’s Folly just off the M1. And this is only the start, boys. Next, you lose your best players and sign the ones who are just looking for an easy life. Maybe Peter Reid will take care of that part. The fans get brassed off and season ticket sales drop, you slide down the league, go into administration, maybe get relegated. And, hey, welcome to meltdown!
What comes after meltdown? What comes after meltdown? You ‘do a Leeds’. Does it hurt? Youbetcha. And it seems to go on forever. What about all that ‘You’ll never walk alone’ stuff? You know, that song you sing when you’re winning 3-0? You’ll be able to try it out at Doncaster or even Yeovil. See if it works. Or you can get a new song, a new manager and a new team, after you’ve let them walk alone for a while.
Sorry, Reds, it CAN happen to you. It happened to us and our fans showed the loyalty and character almost any other club in the world could only dream of. We took our medicine. Then we took some deep breaths and got stuck in. Perhaps, on our way back up, we’ll pass you on your way down, in your post-meltdown phase, ‘doing a Leeds’. Unthinkable? Think about it!
