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HAY: United revival driven by fan power
Asked last season how he thought relegation to League One would affect Leeds United, the club's former manager Howard Wilkinson was brutally honest with his prediction.
"It would do a lot of damage," he said. "Walking into Elland Road would be like walking into a graveyard. You'd be able to hear people breathing in there."
Wilkinson was not alone in suspecting that United's supporters might vote with their feet. The simplest means of protesting against the club's rudderless journey from penthouse to pavement. He put into words the feelings of many – that Leeds United had pushed their fan-base beyond the limit of their patience.
In hindsight, nine months on, the idea that Elland Road would stand virtually empty throughout this season comes straight from the Comical Ali book of foresight and distortion. Iraq's former 'information minister' – who famously claimed American soldiers had "started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad" – might be able to spot empty seats in United's stadium next weekend, but the honest observer will have difficulty identifying any gaps.
Yesterday morning, ticket sales for United's final game of the term against Gillingham stood at over 35,000 – enough to ensure that the Elland Road club would be credited with the largest Football League attendance of the season.
By 2.30pm, eight days before kick-off, the club announced that their maximum capacity of around 39,000 – an attendance last seen at Elland Road in 2004 – had been reached with the sale of the remaining tickets.
To put that figure into context, the total number of spectators who passed through League One turnstiles for 12 matches last weekend was 106,199, less than three times the total that Leeds are hoping to welcome in one fell swoop next Saturday.
No club outside the Premier League has a higher average turn-out than United, and seven inside it have failed to match up. This is a season that statisticians will look back on for many years when they come to analyse the phenomenon of big fish in football's smaller ponds.
The campaign had the potential to humiliate Leeds to an extent that only clubs with their reputation can suffer. Asked to mingle in circles they were previously unaccustomed to, the possibility that United might become lost in the wilderness was as real as the threat that their supporters would no longer be there en masse to see it.
Clubs with something approaching United's stature have been here before and one in particular – Nottingham Forest – still is. Manchester City and Sheffield Wednesday have both entered and escaped League One, though the latter may return to this level next season. The Owls, in fact, are a warning to anyone who believes one promotion automatically equates to a club bottoming out.
But United's decline was unique, at least from the perspective of their supporters, for the simple reason that their catalogue of problems had been so public for so long.
The slope that City, Wednesday and Forest found themselves slipping down was as steep, but they generally fell without the scorn and contempt that followed Leeds. The chaos provoked by Peter Ridsdale's board meant relegation last season was the tip of a destructive iceberg or, in Wilkinson's opinion, the final straw.
It is worth re-living United's final home game of last season, if only to illustrate how far the club and their support have travelled mentally in the interim.
The deathly silence that gripped Elland Road when news filtered through that Hull City were winning in Cardiff; the sinking sensation when Alan Lee glanced a header past Casper Ankergren and, of course, the pitch invasion that came with the speed of a broken dam and the same destructive force.
Days like that test your faith in football and leave you to question why so much is sacrificed for so little in return. The answer for a club like Leeds is that, however long it takes, the tide will turn with enough force to bring the type of crowd and exuberance that Elland Road will see next weekend.
The upper tier of the East Stand will be in use, ticket prices have been set at a reasonable and realistic level and the club is planning to give away match-day programmes for free. It is a collective effort befitting of an institution that was always powerful enough to rise from the depths, provided it moved forward as one.
Assuming sixth place is taken care of tonight – an achievement that should not be under-estimated whatever the potential trappings of arbitration – next Saturday will be a suitable moment to put the play-offs to one side temporarily and bask in an atmosphere which should be the antithesis of a graveyard. It is a day for self-congratulation for all concerned. The chances are you won't be able to hear yourself breathe.
****
Ken Bates announced before Leeds United's victory over Carlisle United a fortnight ago that "the worm has turned" with respect to media reports about the club's insolvency and arbitration.
United's chairman revealed his intention to fight back against what he believed were defamatory or misleading assessments of the events which led to the Football League imposing a 15-point penalty on Leeds last summer.
A particular focus of Bates' displeasure are the explanations given for the stringent deduction (for leaving administration without a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), in case there is any reasonable doubt) and a steady flow of writs from Elland Road appears to be keeping his legal team occupied.
From the club's point of view, it is not a wasted exercise or solely a matter of reputation. Bates estimates that some 12,000 has been raised through recent libel action, all of which has apparently been invested in United's academy. Every little helps in a world where youth development is of such importance.
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
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