ANDY GRAY Column: Money men making job impossible for Venables

IF SOMEONE told you Leeds were down to 10 men these days you'd be forgiven for thinking the rest of them had been sold.

They lost a man yesterday when Viduka got sent off, and Gillingham smelt blood in the closing minutes of the FA Cup encounter.

Whether the club's best players and the manager continue to hang on in there at Elland Road is looking increasingly doubtful as the money men demand Leeds settle their pounds 77m debts.

I feel sorry for Terry Venables because he is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Just when he thought he had turned things around on the pitch the debt collectors put the heat on and kick him where it hurts.

Although he hasn't publicly threatened to quit, all the noises coming out of the Venables camp suggest he is considering whether it really is worth his while carrying on. And if he continues to lose his best players then I wouldn't blame him if he told the Leeds board to stuff it.

When Terry took this job he knew the club had debts and that he would have to sell Rio Ferdinand.

Other major players have since gone and I am sure he would have no problem with offloading Robbie Fowler and people like Seth Johnson, who is surplus to requirements ,but it wasn't to be.

Now it looks like Jonathan Woodgate and Paul Robinson are on the list of players for sale and if they go Terry might just follow them out of the door.

This club has been built on players like Woodgate and Robinson, and when you see that sort of talent sacrificed in the name of the money Gods frustration turns to anger.

If Terry had gone to Leeds with no illusions about the players he was going to lose then fine, he could have no complaints. But the truth appears to be that the goalposts have been moved considerably. He knew he had to sell Rio but has since been forced to watch Lee Bowyer, Robbie Keane and Olivier Dacourt move on. Now it appears the so-called crown jewels of the club are about to be sold off.

Come on, do you really think Terry is going to be happy working with a bunch of players he has been forced to keep because the money men don't value them highly enough to get a good price. What kind of policy is that?

If I was Terry I would be a very unhappy bunny. If Woodgate goes and it looks like it is a done deal despite all the bluffing going on, then I am not sure I could handle it. Who's going to be sold next? Alan Smith? Christ, there would be anarchy on the terraces if he went.

If Terry quit because of all this asset-stripping it would be a massive blow, but they wouldn't have any trouble finding a replacement. Leeds are still a big club and there would be a queue at the door. But whoever took it would have to rebuild and it would be a long time before they were competing at the very top again.

I understand fully why Allan Leighton, the deputy chairman brought in to sort out the club's finances, is forcing these sales through.

Peter Ridsdale and David O'Leary did a great job to get the club back amongst the elite. but they made mistakes. O'Leary has gone and it looks increasingly as though Peter Ridsdale is going to be replaced.

Yesterday I saw the frustration of the Leeds fans who were carrying banners accusing Ridsdale of selling their soul.

They've got every right to feel like that because if this clearout continues players like Kewell, Smith, Viduka and the young lad Milner will be thinking it may be time to reconsider their own careers. A selling club is not an ambitious club.

Maybe it is time to introduce a clean-sweep policy and point the chairman in the direction of the exit door. Maybe then this mess can be sorted out once and for all and the fans get what they deserve ... a successful football club, not a financial disaster area.

Whatever happens, the fans deserve to be told the truth about who they might lose next. This selling has to stop and some buying needs to start or I genuinely fear for the future of Leeds United.

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