February 8, 2012

#44: Managing To Succeed

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Episode 44 covers one of the more turbulent fortnights in recent memory. Dan Moylan, Michael Normanton, Daniel Chapman (Moscowhite), and Paul O’Dowd (Oddy) work through a Birmingham 4-1 home defeat on deadline day, Simon Grayson’s sacking, Neil Redfearn’s brief caretaker reign, and the appointment of Neil Warnock — all within ten days.

The Birmingham game opened with McCormack putting Leeds ahead at 19′. Then Nikola Žigić equalised at 31′ to make it 1-1 at half-time, and the second half belonged entirely to him — he scored again at 61′, 64′, and 68′, completing four goals in the match in what the show describes as a circus act: not excellence, simply the consequence of failing to mark a very tall man at a set piece four times in a row. Ken Bates returned from South Africa, saw the score, and Grayson was out.

The show is more sympathetic to Grayson than it might have expected to be. The structural reality is examined: Gwyn Williams as technical director with apparent veto over transfers; a budget that never allowed the quality of signing being demanded. Neil Redfearn was installed as caretaker and won 3-0 at Bristol City, Snodgrass (40′), McCormack (79′), and Becchio (90+2′) scoring with two red cards aiding the cause, before Redfearn was effectively replaced by the incoming Warnock at half-time versus Doncaster at Elland Road. His tenure was always a placeholder.

Neil Warnock is appointed. The show welcomes him with qualified enthusiasm: he has promoted teams before, has the personality to reshape a dressing room, and arrives free of the existing management’s baggage. Adam Smith has come on loan from Spurs at right back. Alan Smith has gone to MK Dons, about which the show has strong and sustained feelings. Andy Keogh has signed permanently for Millwall.

Season ticket renewal figures are grim: 62% uptake, down from 80%, with around 5,000 people not renewing. The Elland Road attendance against Birmingham was 19,628 — the first time below 20,000 in a league game since League One. Ken Bates’s reading of this as a positive development is handled with appropriate contempt.