It felt like there was no stopping Leeds, or Peter Ridsdale. Rio Ferdinand was at Thorp Arch, £18m going to West Ham for him, a world record fee for a defender.
At Upton Park Harry Redknapp was fuming, not over the loss of Ferdinand, but by the Department for Employment and Education’s refusal to grant his replacement a work permit. Hayden Foxe, they said, hadn’t played enough games for Australia. “It is a scandal and a disgrace,” said Redknapp. “The system is crooked. It is all about who you know.”
Ridsdale, meanwhile, was now reported to be in talks with Inter Milan, making ‘discreet inquiries’ about taking their striker Ronaldo on loan during his recovery from knee ligament surgery; United’s sponsors Nike were said to be keen. If that wasn’t an option, ‘Baby Irish’ Robbie Keane was a backup plan. “I never comment on transfer situations,” said Ridsdale, adding with perhaps a wink, “accurate or otherwise.”
He had plenty of other comments to make. “We have a strategy and it has been meticulously conceived,” he told the Daily Mirror. “Our stance is to build a team and a club that will takes us significantly forward over the next five years. The aim? We want to challenge Manchester United. We will challenge them. David O’Leary will tell you that. Alex Ferguson will tell you that as well.”
So would Rio Ferdinand, echoing his new chairman. “I’ve heard Arsene Wenger’s comments about the English game being boring because United keep winning the title,” he said. “Well, I’ve come to Leeds to help them stop the boredom levels.”
Ridsdale was convinced he’d be a long term success. “We have secured a player who we hope can guarantee that we will be in Europe year in, year out. That’s worth £18m. It is part of putting our long-term strategy into place. It is not a knee-jerk reaction. Nothing we do is knee-jerk. It is part of this strategy for the benefit of our shareholders and I am prepared to be judged on that.”
Leicester City manager Peter Taylor was hoping he’d have an advantage by facing Ferdinand in the short-term, as Filbert Street was set as the venue for his high-profile debut. He’d only been at Leeds a week. “I would rather be playing against Rio now than in six weeks’ time when he will have had more time to adapt to his new club and team-mates,” said Taylor.
It turned out he had a point. David O’Leary claimed he had “other reasons, it was not to accommodate Rio,” for playing Ferdinand alongside Lucas Radebe and Jonathan Woodgate at the back, although he wouldn’t say what the other reasons were. “I don’t want to get into that,” he said. Ferdinand had played well as a sweeper at West Ham, but Radebe was given that job, Ferdinand to his left and Woodgate to his right, with Gary Kelly and Dominic Matteo as wing-backs. Ian Harte was dropped, Harry Kewell was coming back from long term injury on the bench, Stephen McPhail was not fit. “I’m a flat back-four man. Always have been, always will be. That is what I want to play,” O’Leary insisted, as if he hadn’t just picked a team that was completely the opposite.
Leeds had Olivier Dacourt, Matt Jones and Lee Bowyer in midfield, with Alan Smith and Mark Viduka up front, and they had problems right from the start. Ferdinand, under the scrutiny of several newspapers’ takes on ‘Rio-Watch’, was judged by most to be an innocent bystander. In fact, he was the last one standing.
The first Leicester goal, scored by Robbie Savage after six minutes, started with Woodgate kicking the ball over his head on the right, followed by Paul Robinson parrying Darren Eadie’s shot and neither Ferdinand or Matteo reacting before Savage scored and set off on a triumphant lap of Filbert Street. Eleven minutes later Ade Akinbiyi headed in their second, after Matt Jones passed to Frank Sinclair and Woodgate was beaten to the cross at the back post. City were convinced they should have got a penalty for Radebe’s challenge on Muzzy Izzet, then on the half-hour Gerry Taggart headed a third, after a disguised free-kick became a cross while Woodgate wandered off.
O’Leary didn’t wait until half-time. “I won’t name the player but we had a chap who gave them a three-goal start,” O’Leary said later; never quite the master of subtlety he thought he was, O’Leary must have thought everyone had forgotten him hauling Woodgate off eight minutes before the break, bringing on not Harte but Jason Wilcox, Matteo staying at left-back. Then, halfway through the second half, after Kewell had come on for Jones, Radebe got his second yellow card and now Leeds had three at the back again: Matteo, Ferdinand and Kelly. “Rio must have thought, ‘Jesus Christ, what is happening here?'” said Radebe.
“I was delighted with Rio,” said O’Leary, “but he didn’t get a lot of help from those around him. You can’t afford to give anyone a three-stupid-goal start.” A Dacourt free-kick hit the post after Radebe went off, and Kewell, returning from six months out injured, missed several chances to get Leeds back in it; eventually Smith’s shot was blocked by Simon Royce and Viduka scored a consolation from the rebound.
Ferdinand left quickly, not speaking to the press, with Leicester fans’ chants of ‘What a Waste of Money’ ringing in his ears. He may also have been aware of events at Old Trafford, where the crowd slept blithely through a 2-0 win over Spurs that took then seventeen points ahead of Leeds, then awoke cackling when the score from Filbert Street was read out. O’Leary fielded questions about how Leeds would cope in midweek against Lazio if they couldn’t cope with Leicester, and might have been quietly relieved that Ferdinand’s ineligibility for the Champions League removed any more tactical temptations. Temptation was never far away from Leeds, though. Reports on Sunday suggested Peter Ridsdale was on the phone to Newcastle, now, testing their £11m asking price for Kieron Dyer. ⬢