Gammel artikkel ja - publisert for nøyaktig en måned siden.
Men er snakker Bates om 'alt'.
I tillegg ekstra interessant når det har gått ytterligere en måned og vi har ett bein i Division 1.....
Pride in job puts Bates in mood to succeed Ken Bates will tomorrow celebrate his second anniversary in charge of Leeds United. Here, he outlines exclusively to Richard Sutcliffe what hurdles have been overcome and what the future holds for the Elland Road club.
"TURBULENT and tumultuous."
That is Ken Bates's reply when asked, by the Yorkshire Post, how he would best sum up his first two years in charge of Leeds United.
Relaxing on the sofa in his luxury city centre flat, the United chairman then stops for a couple of seconds before adding: "I can't think of any other 't's', to be honest. Terrifying isn't quite right. Though, I do admit it has been a bigger job than I thought."
It is a revealing insight into just what state the Elland Road club were in when Bates assumed control from Gerald Krasner's board on January 21, 2005.
Bored with watching Soccer Saturday on Sky in his Monaco home and pining for a return to the game that had been a major part of his life through spells at Oldham, Wigan and, most famously of all, Chelsea, he was ready for a new challenge. And what a challenge it has been.
The legacy of the Peter Ridsdale "spend, spend, spend" era has hung over Leeds like a giant, dark cloud with payments to former players, managers, agents and the taxman set to top a staggering £20m when the final arrears to the Inland Revenue are settled in 2008.
Despite such onerous commitments, Leeds still managed to spend more on transfers than most Championship clubs last season with the recruitment of Richard Cresswell, Rob Hulse and Robbie Blake totalling more than £3m.
The investment almost paid off with Kevin Blackwell's United side coming within a whisker of earning a Premiership return only to slump to an embarrassing defeat to Watford in the play-off final. The hangover from the Cardiff debacle continued into this season and, by September, Blackwell was gone with United second bottom in the Championship.
Fast forward four months and Dennis Wise is now in charge, but the league position has not changed. Crucially, however, United's 22nd post-war manager can, courtesy of the transfer window, finally select a team he considers more his own than that of his predecessor.
Bates and Wise go back a long way, the pair first linking up in the summer of 1991 when Chelsea signed the Wimbledon midfielder. A firm and lasting friendship was struck up immediately.
'Batesy' and 'Wisey' – there is none of the usual 'Mr Chairman' or 'Gaffer' talk between these two – were reunited at Elland Road in October and the pair are intent on preserving United's proud record of never having been out of the top two divisions.
The Leeds chairman said: "Dennis has built what is effectively a new team with, crucially, a new attitude.
"His basic problem from day one, and he is not an excuse maker, is that the players were not fit enough. Some of the players also had an attitude problem, which Dennis tackled straight away.
"The dressing room is key; you only have to look at how Brian Clough lasted just 44 days at Leeds to see how powerful players can be.
"He had to break up the cabal. Some responded and some didn't. Those who didn't have gone. Dennis has brought some good players in. This fella Flo, for a tall player he has amazing ball control. He can hold it up and play it off. I think he will make a big impact."
When pressed on United's alarming position in the Championship, six points adrift of fourth-bottom Hull City, Bates's reply is instant.
"I can tell you Dennis is certain we will stay up – it will be the biggest shock of his life if Leeds get relegated. I think we will stay up, too.
"A couple of teams are sinking and Dennis is working on three players now. But the clubs involved don't want to let them go, even if they lose them in the summer."
Should United preserve their Championship status, there is every reason to suggest that the club can finally look to the future rather than peering wistfully at the past.
The draining burden of having to pay a host of former players and managers will have ended, while the £25,000 per week wages of Gary Kelly, the last remnant of the Ridsdale era, will finally be off the books.
The former Republic of Ireland international is also due to collect a huge 'loyalty' bonus at the end of this season when his five-year deal expires, the awarding of which Bates finds hard to understand.
"With the contract Kelly has got, there is no question he would ever have left anyway. It is so good. So, why should Leeds have put a loyalty bonus in as well?"
Bates added: "I was at Chelsea when Ridsdale was in the middle of his spending spree; he actually had six international strikers. I remember saying, not to him because no one could talk to him, why does any club need six? How can they keep them happy?
"If you buy a guy, he wants to play. You need competition to keep them on their toes and deal with injuries or suspensions, but Leeds went way past that.
"We have had to pay for that. But I still get letters saying 'why didn't you buy Matteo?' What with? These same people then complain the prices are too high. Where is the money supposed to come from?"
At a club such as Leeds where one man's desire to "live the dream" almost resulted in oblivion, the topic of money will inevitably dominate debate.
Bates said: "Last November, I said 'Okay, we are still not where we should be because, as a football club, certain things take time to work through. So, from December 1 to July 31, which is 34 weeks, we have to save £100,000 a week. Every week'.
"This was due to gates being down, commercial operations being down and wages staying the same. That is what fans forget. The upshot was budgeted income was down so we had to cut expenses.
"That is why Shaun (Harvey, chief executive) is on a second round of paying off players."
"Leeds is an expensive club to run. Just look at the ground, everyone went ape-s*it when we shut the upper-tier of the East Stand.
"But the fact is we saved a huge amount of money on stewarding, cleaning, electricity., probably in the region of £150,000 to £200,000 per year. Then there is the liability insurance coming down, and so on.
"I had letters saying 'I have sat in that seat for years and want to keep doing so'. But the reality is does that supporter want to sit in another seat or have no seat at all because there is no club?"
At the age of 75, it is a wonder Bates still has the appetite for the huge job that has been required, and will no doubt continue to be required, to bring stability to a club such as Leeds.
"The simple fact is I love a challenge and am proud to be the chairman of Leeds United."
BATES ON . . .
* Potential investors . . .
"I am very happy to talk to anyone interested in investing. But most people are time-wasters and chancers. Leeds have had too many in the past.
"That is why Leeds has such a bad reputation, no credible person will invest in Leeds because of all the chancers and time-wasters that have passed through."
Sheffield United . . .
* "I am a big fan of Sheffield United at the moment as we will get somewhere near £500,000 if they stay up (through the Matthew Kilgallon and Rob Hulse transfers).
"Of that, around £100,000 will have go to West Brom (who Leeds bought Hulse from), but I still enjoy it when I see they have won a game in the Premiership."
* Getting the staff involved . . .
"I sent a letter round to all the staff saying there was a £1,000 prize for who came up with the best idea for saving money.
"There were some great ideas, so we split it four ways.
"It might have been things like 'why do we get the office cleaned every day?' or 'why do we have fresh flowers all the time?' It saved us £12,000 per year."
* Gerald Krasner's board . . .
"There have been a lot of surprises to deal with but we are getting to the end now. I believe if the Krasner group had really worked at it, they would not have needed to sell it to me.
"They spent all their time running around looking for short-term gain, ignoring the long-term pain. I have had to buy back the programme, the internet and LUTV from Sky.
"Thank God I came in when I did, because they were about to sell the catering for £800,000.
"That would have been a total ******* disaster. Now, everything comes to us. The food is now the best in Leeds and that is why our banqueting business is growing so fast."
* Cost-cutting . . .
"Krasner and (Trevor) Birch did their cost-cutting, as did David Richmond and Geoffrey Richmond.
"But there were still basic things going on such as sending all our post out first class. It never gets there the next day, so why bother? It sounds a silly thing, but it all adds up."
* Budgeting for the season . . .
"Our average gate is 19,500, but we budgeted for 22,000. I think we were entitled to expect a small increase after reaching the play-off final.
"What was encouraging is we took the same season ticket money as last year. We have to recognise the fact that 'x' number of people will support Leeds through and through. Others won't. And that is the budget we have to work to."
* Key to the future . . .
"People might say 'Bates is always banging on about this and that', but the only way a medium-sized club is to prosper – and at the moment let's not hide and say Leeds is a big club, it was and people still think it should be – is to bring revenue in outside of home games.
"How much do the people of Leeds and the city of Leeds want a football club?"
Plans to transform Elland Road on hold
ELLAND ROAD is the only place for us.....
So says a line in one of the many anthems dating back to the Seventies that are still sung by Leeds United fans today and it is Ken Bates's avowed intention to turn the area into a home-from-home for all the city in the future.
Buying back Elland Road is near the top of the club's wish list just a couple or so years after it was sold to Manchester businessman Jacob Adler as the reality of relegation from the Premiership began to bite.
Then chairman Gerald Krasner negotiated an £8.5m sale, which included a
25-year lease that can be extended for an additional quarter of a century, plus a buy-back provision.
Leeds's home was subsequently sold to Teak Trading Corporation, a company based in the British Virgin Islands, in 2005, but the club's lease and buy-back clause was unaffected.
Bates said: "We will get it back in due course, that is not a problem. It is just a question of priorities.
"Once we buy it back, we will have the stadium land and I would like to see the area developed. I first had the idea at Oldham 54 years ago, I did it in a small way at Wigan and then I did it again successfully at Chelsea – though people did slag me off at the time.
"But West Ham, Oxford, Reading, Bolton and Coventry have all done it since, while clubs such as Sheffield United are planning to do it.
"They all have or want leisure complexes at their stadiums." Bates points to the Chelsea Village where he replaced one of the most notorious terraces in football with a luxury hotel, restaurants and bars.
Leeds is crying out for an arena, with the lack of such an entertainment venue being the one chink in the city's claim to be a modern, go-ahead 24-hour city. Bates has already revealed that the future could include relocating the club shop and constructing two hotels in its place to add to the Billy's Bar pub built last year.
He said: "We want to be involved because Elland Road should be the focal point of any development. I want those developments going on Leeds United's land because we want to have those profits.
"We don't want some London-based property developer taking all the rent and profits back to London.
"The trouble with the council is they do not know what they want to do with the land.
"The matter is on-going, but we are making sure we are in the talks because, long term, we have to generate lots more money on the 340 days we don't play a home game."
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