More injury woes for beleaguered Venables

UEFA CUP/Preview: Terry Venables maintains a second house on the road between Alicante and Valencia and, if you believe the more fanciful rumours, he is of a mind to take a one-way drive there if Leeds lose to Malaga tonight.

However, while he admits he is under severe pressure following a run of results that even his chairman, Peter Ridsdale, has described as "unacceptable", he denies he has ever thought about quitting, let alone standing on the verge of it.

Venables could not miss the headlines to that effect which leapt from the news-stands as he made his way through Leeds/Bradford airport yesterday. But he said: "I don't know how they got such headlines from an interview I gave to TV on Monday evening. It was just a philosophical view. I have never considered quitting and I don't have any regrets about taking the job."

Venables, though, has admitted that he has not found the job to be as advertised, and after Sunday's woeful performance at Spurs there were question marks about the commitment of his players who, according to reports, made his predecessor's job untenable.

The boardroom battle which has threatened to engulf Ridsdale has done nothing to shore up the shifting sands under Venables.

"I take the criticism personally because it is aimed at me," Venables says. "If it were someone else, I could feel sympathy, but it is not. I am surprised to find myself under pressure so early and I don't know why. I have heard many, many reasons but none of them make any sense to me."

One theory is the team's acquaintance with the bottom half of the table that has angered fans who expected any fight to be for a Champions League place rather than against relegation.

Venables admits that the Premiership is the priority for his team, although tonight's tie, like the previous round's encounter with Hapoel Tel Aviv, gives him the opportunity for a result on foreign soil that could ease the domestic pressures.

Neither Mark Viduka nor Robbie Fowler was fit to make the journey, adding to injury problems that will prevent them from fielding a full substitutes' bench tonight. But Malaga will be without their star striker and talisman Debray Dario Silva, which is an enormous loss for a side with such a small squad.

MALAGA (probable; 4-4-2): Contreras; Sanz, Valcare, Josemi, Roteta; Leko, Romero, Sandro, Musampa; Edgar, Valdes.

LEEDS (probable; 4-4-2): Robinson; Kelly, Okon, Woodgate, Harte; Bowyer, Bakke, McPhail, Wilcox; Smith, Kewell.