Cheer Up, Peter Reid
‘SINCE when has a football club like Leeds United ever cared what its fans thought, far less held off from sacking a manager because of pressure from the terraces?
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| Keeping the seat warm? |
We have little doubt that the Mail is correct in its assessment this morning that Peter Reid was only spared the sack yesterday to save their manager-in-waiting from the start from hell.
In their next five games, the West Yorkshire club face Manchester United (twice), Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn hardly the fixtures on which a new boss would like to cut his teeth.
The paper says costly compensation packages for Reid and whoever the new manager will be (with Nottingham Forests Paul Hart the leading contender) were also a consideration.
But the biggest worry for the chairman, who yesterday refused to put a time scale on how long Reid would last, was the pressure he himself would be under if the new manager got off to a bad start, the paper says.
Meanwhile, football continues to cover itself in shame with players behaviour on the pitch as much in the spotlight as their behaviour off it.
The Mail has started a campaign to name and shame the professional cheats, starting with Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo, who was accused of diving for the second time this season by Stuttgart keeper Timo Hildebrand.
And the other papers report on how Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger stood to applaud a fan who told the clubs AGM that the Gunners had been brutalised by Sir Alex Fergusons team.
Brutes, says the Star headline, while the Sun hears Wenger tell shareholders that they should be proud of his brawling players.
If footballers want to know how to behave, perhaps they should tune into the rugby world cup to learn what highly skilled and motivated athletes can achieve.
The Mirror watches the England squad getting mobbed as they arrived in Perth, Australia, as the world No.1s.
Coach Clive Woodward thinks Australia are the team to beat, the bookies think the All Blacks are the favourites, but even the antipodeans know that England are a force to be reckoned with.’
Posted: 3rd, October 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
