Lowly Leeds

Back in 2001, I became a fan of Leeds United AFC. A Leeds scarf hangs on my studio door, along with ones for the US national team and DC United. I was drawn in by the team's underdog run in that spring's Champions League. They seemed to be a team built from the ground up, using lots of young English players and destroying teams made up of more experienced high-dollar mercenaries. What I didn't know at the time, as the team lost in that year's semi-final and failed to make the competition the next season, is that the team was perched on the brink of financial oblivion that would see them dumped into the minor leagues of English football only six years later.

What happened? This article at the BBC website explains. Basically, as the team made it into Europe, the management mortgaged the club's future on the assumption that they would stay there. When the didn't, the team was unable to afford the players that made them great in the first place. That led to a sell off of Biblical proportions:

The exit of defender Rio Ferdinand to fierce rivals Manchester United left fans angry and disappointed but at least when he was sold in July 2002, Leeds were left with the £30m in the coffers they had craved.

However, when, in 2003, BBC Sport analysed other departures the findings were very different. Striker Robbie Keane joined Tottenham in an eventual £12m deal in August 2002 - only 15 months after arriving from Inter Milan for £12m, while the £10m-rated duo of Lee Bowyer and Olivier Dacourt joined West Ham and Roma for £100,000 and £3.5m respectively.

Manchester City bought forward Robbie Fowler, who Leeds signed from Liverpool for £11m in 2001, for £6m in January 2003.

Meanwhile, £15m-rated Jonathan Woodgate and Harry Kewell, who had progressed from the trainee ranks at Leeds, sealed respective £9m and £5m moves to Newcastle and Liverpool in the January and December of 2003.

The big-name departures did not stop there. In July 2004, striker Mark Viduka joined Middlesbrough for £4.5m, while in May of the same year Tottenham acquired goalkeeper Paul Robinson for £1.5m and Manchester United snapped up striker Alan Smith in a deal worth £7m.

With the talent depleted, it wasn't a surprise that Leeds sank from the Premier League to the Football Championship (as it's called now), the second tier of English football, in 2004. New management came in and it looked like the bottom had been found. The team finished mid-table in 2004-2005, but rebounded to finish fifth in 2005-2006 (behind the stellar play of US international Eddie Lewis, among others) and finished 1-goal short of promotion back to the Premiership. This season was supposed to be the last one in the minor leagues, as most folks thought Leeds was a sure bet to gain promotion.

It didn't work out that way. The team stumbled out of the gate and never recovered. Last week, already consigned to relegation into Division One (the "AA" level of English football), Leeds went into "administration" (bankruptcy, basically), and accepted its fate. To bounce back quickly is not unheard of - Manchester City hit that level in 1999 and was back in the Premiership a few years later. Hopefully, the Leeds ship will be righted and the team can really rebuild this time on a solid foundation.