A relish for the scraps keeps Bates hungry for a challenge with LeedsBy MATT LAWTON - More by this author »
Last updated at 07:00am on 1st September 2007
Ken Bates rolls into Monte Carlo's Casino Square on a bus.
'From my apartment to here costs 45p,' he says proudly before taking his usual table at the Cafe de Paris. 'But why travel here any other way? Why waste the money?'
Monte Carlo or bust: Bates enjoys a meal out in Monaco but is set on successfully leading Leeds out of administration
He hates wasting money, just as he hates what he found when he first took charge of Leeds United in January 2005.
'It wasn't a business,' he says as he reflects on a turbulent two-and-a-half years at Elland Road — a tale of administration, relegation and what has now become a fierce battle with the Football League in the wake of their controversial 15-point deduction.
'Leeds were very similar to Chelsea when I walked in there 20-odd years ago,' he says. 'Rotten from top to bottom. I was stunned by the club's inefficiency when it came to making money.
'Loads of paperwork churned out with no information. Too many overpaid people not doing much work. I said the Leeds motto was: “Find a hard way of doing something and do it like that.â€
'I remember Melvyn Levi, who used to be one of the directors, telling me he would get 20 or 30 tickets for each game for people he said were important, people who can help Leeds. I said they could help by buying a f*****g ticket. That would be a start.
'Well I put a stop to all that. They all went bananas but why should the guy behind the goal, who really struggles to pay, subsidise these parasites in their big cars with their two foreign holidays a year and their big houses? Why should they get it for nothing? We had to educate them a bit.'
The players also had to be told.
'They wanted 150 tickets for every game and when I cut it to 75, Gary Kelly went bonkers,' says Bates. 'He said they needed them. I said “Well, if you need them you can bloody buy them.†My son comes to watch and even he pays for his ticket.
'I'll never forget a story Joe Smith, the old Blackpool manager, told me. One of his players asked him for extra tickets for his family. Joe said: “F**k me, if they won't pay to watch you, then how can you expect anyone else to?â€'
Like most people, Bates says Peter Ridsdale, the former Leeds chairman who earned the nickname 'Father Christmas' because of his extravagance and generosity, has to shoulder much of the blame for the club's financial collapse.
'I actually persuaded Peter to stand for a place on the FA board,' he says with a shake of the head.
'He's a good salesman but he's not a businessman. If you're just a salesman you need good back-up and there wasn't any back-up.
'Ridsdale was a spendaholic and he had nobody questioning what he was doing. He had players on very long contracts. Look at Gary Kelly. When he left in the summer he got a £600,000 loyalty bonus.'
It is the morning after a heavy night and Bates orders a glass of champagne, an espresso coffee and something that tastes utterly disgusting. 'It's called a Fernet Branca,' he says with a chuckle.
'An old business colleague of mine urged me to have one in Dublin and it works a treat. You down it in one and then follow it with a glass of water. Here, there's a tip from me to every reader of the Daily Mail.'
Even at 75, his appetite for life is as insatiable as his appetite for football and business. 'In the 18 months between selling Chelsea and buying Leeds I got bored out of my bloody mind,' he says.
'I played the stock market and watched football on TV. I fell in love with Jeff Stelling, probably because I saw him nearly as much as my wife. It's the best football programme on TV.
'My wife was delighted when I went back to football because she could see I was bored. Susannah and I have a great relationship that is built on laughter. I get out of bed every morning naked, she starts laughing, and we go from there.'
But why Leeds? 'I was flattered by the fact that 36 clubs asked me to join them,' he says. 'But you've got to have a challenge and for me that meant taking over a big club like Leeds and setting myself the target of getting it back where it belongs. We want to get back to the Premier League, rebuild the stadium and make it a commercial success. It keeps me on my toes.'
As the Football League and Sir Brian Mawhinney are beginning to discover, Bates is as bellicose as ever. When he clashed with a radio station in Leeds, he responded by launching a direct rival. 'We've already got 35,000 listeners,' he says of Yorkshire Radio.
For legal reasons, he has to be careful what he says about the Football League and their decision to deduct 15 points for what they considered a breach of their rules on administration, a decision that was taken after a vote by all the other clubs in the Football League.
'We have asked the Football Association to launch an inquiry,'
Bates says. 'Because how can you be judged by people who have a vested interest? It should be independent. Whether you like the outcome of the Tevez affair or not, at least the decision was made by an independent panel.'
Whatever the outcome, the situation appears to have galvanised the club. Had it not been for the points deduction, Dennis Wise and his team would be meeting Luton Town — and his predecessor Kevin Blackwell — today as leaders after three successive victories. As it is, they sit at the bottom of League One on minus six points.
'In the match programme we print what we call 'The Real Table' and we are top,' says Bates, who lives in Monaco. 'And page 15 is actually page minus 15. Dennis is doing a great job but it has brought the team and fans together.'
By now a drink has become lunch with Susannah and friends and the subject of Chelsea and his decision to sell to Roman Abramovich eventually comes up.
'I still speak to a lot of Chelsea fans and, while they are happy to have the success, they say it's just not the same any more,' he says. 'To quote Peter Kenyon, it's a brand rather than a club now, and a lot of the fans struggle to relate to that.
'When I sold it to Abramovich I thought they would continue what I'd been doing, although obviously with more money. I thought the club would evolve. Instead, however, there has been a revolution.
'My relationship with them disintegrated and it probably dates back to when I was sitting with Eugene Tenenbaum (a Chelsea director) one day in August 2003. I said: “Manchester United must be laughing their bollocks off.†He said: “Why?†I said: “Veron and Kenyon. They've sold you two lemons in three weeks.â€
'Look at Veron, Crespo and Mutu. That was £100million and none of them were any good. Before I left I took an option out on Joe Cole and Scott Parker, and they could have had them for £6m each. But Abramovich didn't want them. He said they weren't good enough. I said they're the best two kids in England and I've stolen them.
'The following January they paid £17m for them. Too many people were making a fortune out of him by recommending people from overseas.'
And, in the opinion of Bates, wasting the Russian's money — and that's something the man just cannot abide.
[
]
