By Phil McNulty
Chief football writer |
 |  It embarrasses me how good the Leeds United fans are |
Leeds United is not simply the Premiership's poisoned chalice - it is now regarded as the lethal dose of arsenic for a managerial career.
Since Peter Ridsdale's vanity allowed David O'Leary to spend Leeds into financial oblivion, Elland Road has fine-tuned its reputation as the graveyard of ambitions and big reputations.
Terry Venables came to Leeds and within eight months eventually crumbled under the weight of sales forced by a mountainous debt that was eventually revealed to be �80m.
Peter Reid, who arrived as a firefighter in March, doused some of the flames but finally saw his own self-esteem extinguished by one of the most dramatic financial and footballing declines in history.
Reid's time ran out on Monday, with former assistant Eddie Gray handed temporary control of affairs while Leeds begin their search for a new saviour.
But times have changed from when the Leeds job may have been viewed as one of the game's more attractive posts.
Two years ago the talk was of Martin O'Neill - now, with Leeds in reduced circumstances, the board will rustle though a cast list made up of familiar faces, young turks and a veritable B-list of managerial names.
So what is there - if anything - that can be used to lure any manager keen to preserve his sanity and reputation to Elland Road?
Career prospects
Toss of a coin - depending on your previous career.
Leeds may appeal to an up-and-coming manager outside the Premiership on the basis that any form of revival, or indeed survival, would be seen as success.
Any manager who gives Leeds back their self-respect and edges them away from danger is guaranteed hero status.
On the other hand, the cautionary tale of Steve Cotterill may provide a useful insight.
Cotterill made his reputation at Cheltenham before moving to Stoke.
 Hart is favourite to succeed Reid |
He heard the siren call of the Premiership to join Howard Wilkinson at cash-strapped Sunderland - with inevitable results.
Cotterill was sacked after only five months alongside Wilkinson and is yet to return to the game.
It is a gambler's chance and a brave, or some might suggest mad, manager is needed for what will be a massive task.
Ambition
A dirty word at Elland Road these days. Ambition equals survival and reducing the frown on the bank manager's forehead.
This will be football's version of pushing a rock up a hill, but any relative form of success could be a stepping stone to greater things.
Forget the high-profile signings and European places. Success will be measured by proving you are not doing quite as badly as your predecessor.
But the ambitious may see it as a "no lose" situation. Succeed and you are made, fail...well, that's what everyone expected anyway.
The problems
Apart from the players, the debt, the league position and the desperately uncertain future, everything else at Elland Road is ship shape.
And in the giant and highly-expensive shape of Mark Viduka, a malign influence that casts a shadow over the whole club.
But with morale and performances at rock bottom, the only way is up - which may just be the best way of attracting a successor to Reid.
The plus points
And there are some.
Leeds have a massive and fanatically loyal fan base, whose passion has risen at an equal speed to their club's decline.
In Alan Smith and Paul Robinson Leeds have two of the country's most promising players, a flimsy foundation but a foundation nonetheless.
Still, for now anyway, a Premiership job with a small semblance of image remaining.
Some managers may regard Leeds as an example of how living on the breadline in the Premiership is always better than living on the breadline outside it.
So who's brave - or mad - enough?
Paul Hart is favourite, an old son of Elland Road with a reputation for bringing through young talent, including Robinson and Smith.
Mixed fortunes at Nottingham Forest, but may feel if he doesn't take the Premiership chance now it will not come again.
Paul Sturrock has done an outstanding job at Plymouth and is a rank outsider who will face the key question all candidates must ponder.
Is it worth sacrificing a hard-earned reputation on the altar of financial disaster assembled at Elland Road?
Neil Warnock will be regarded by many as mad enough to take it on - and he has long stated he fancies a crack at the top flight. It's a tough business to cross Yorkshire, and he may feel he has a better chance of Premiership longevity by sticking with the Blades.
Bryan Robson is desperate enough to return to football management to take on the task that proved too much for his old pal Reid.
Gordon Strachan is another old Leeds favourite who is surely doing far too well at Southampton to be tempted into the troubles of his former club.
MMIX
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