By Phil McNulty
Chief football writer |
Ridsdale is under pressure |
Leeds United chairman Peter Ridsdale claimed he had lived the dream at Elland Road - now comes the nightmare.
Ridsdale is the lifelong fan who gambled with the family silver and lost in spectacular style and was forced to conduct the football equivalent of a car boot sale.
He was the supporter who did not just end up in the boardroom, but was calling the shots as Leeds United blazed a �100m transfer trail.
Ridsdale was feted as a man of the people who joined the celebrations when Leeds beat Lazio, and when David O'Leary led his men to the Champions League semi-final.
Now he is villified, abused in his seat at Elland Road, and almost regarded as the man who brought Leeds to their knees as manager Terry Venables says his farewells.
He will be hoping the temporary appointment of Peter Reid will buy him the time he needs to save his seat in the boardroom.
It's a harsh verdict on someone who is telling the truth when he insists he only had the footballing good of Leeds United at heart.
But there is now no doubt he should have called a halt to the spending many millions earlier.
Ridsdale is fighting for his own survival now - and he will be accused of using Venables as the convenient scapegoat for boardroom failings.
The next decision he makes, if he is allowed to make it, will be a seminal moment in the club's history.
Leeds stand at the crossroads. They will either fade away into further mediocrity or make the appointment that will turn the clock back 18 months to when the future looked bright.
Ridsdale has been so damaged by recent financial and footballing fall-out that it is difficult to see how he can survive unless he can pull a managerial coup out of the hat.
He has lost the faith of fans who adored him as one of their own when the purse strings were loose and new faces arrived on a regular basis.
This loss of trust is likely to be his most damaging wound.
It is clear the moneybags days are over, which means the chances of making a high-profile appointment are somewhere between slim and none.
But Everton and Southampton, with the appointments of David Moyes and Gordon Strachan, have shown this does not necessarily preclude success.
One thing is, however, is certain.
And that is that if Ridsdale and his board do not make their next move the right one, Venables will not be the last victim of Elland Road's purge.
MMIX
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