Birch refuses to play blame game at Leeds

An hypothesis is circulating in the City that Leeds United's former deputy chairman, Allan Leighton, will never return to Elland Road after taking his leave of the club last Thursday.

Though he has stated publicly a willingness to invest his money in the club, there is a feeling the Royal Mail chairman has taken his opportunity to slip quietly through the exit door under cover of darkness.

For darkness certainly looms over Leeds and much of it Leighton was complicit in creating. He, City sources claim, was the "chessmaster" behind many of the decisions of Peter Ridsdale's disastrous reign. But the man charged with bringing sunshine back to the club refuses to apportion blame.

"History will write the story on who's at fault," said Trevor Birch, the former Liverpool apprentice turned insolvency specialist. "At the moment it hardly matters on what I need to do. I'm sick of hearing about the past. You can't do anything about that now. Let's just deal with what we've got now. The time for recriminations and blame, that can all take place in the future."

Birch's arrival as chief executive has brought a long-overdue dose of realism. A "standstill agreement" was reached last week with the club's United States bondholders - who are owed £60 million - and the lenders of a further £22 million in player-leasing agreements. The deal released £4.1 million that will secure the club's survival until the January 19th deadline for a bid.

Birch accepts that is unlikely to be from a benefactor in the Roman Abramovich mould, though he was in part responsible for the Russian's arrival at Chelsea, where Birch worked as chief executive. The Bahraini Sheikh Abdul bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa has made noises about a possible buy-out, but Birch will not get excited until talk translates into the formality of a bid.

The club's former chairman, John McKenzie, now in a non-executive role, stripped away £20 million of annual running costs and believes Leeds will now be an attractive investment, even suggesting £60 million might be raised in the sale. That figure seems outlandish.

"It isn't like selling a house - it's what you can get for it," said Birch. "If it's £10 million, that's what we can get. It's whatever the market will pay. That's why we don't want to put numbers in. John was pressed on a figure and people we are talking to about a purchase know the potential of the club."

Birch is seeking to reassure snipers, such as Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, that no one at Leeds wants administration. Echoing a recent Football League ruling that will punish clubs using administrative receivership as an escape route, Gartside declared that if Leeds were to take this route they should be expelled from the Premiership.

"Administration really is the worst-case scenario for everyone concerned and therefore there should be enough goodwill and common sense around the table to try to achieve a solution outside administration," said Birch, who intimated Leeds may not be the only Premiership club whose future is financially perilous.

Though the big five of recent years appear robust, he contends only Manchester United and Chelsea are on firm foundations.

"All those (other) clubs contending for Champions League positions are in exactly the same position at the moment," he said. "It means absolutely everything to them because they are operating on such thin margins. Look at Arsenal when they won the Double: they lost £23 million. Okay, some of those costs were for Ashburton Grove, but it shows the precariousness of football finance."

A new stadium project is Arsenal's way of improving income and this expensive route, conceded Birch, is one Leeds must explore.

"You've got to have that - the extra £10 million to £20 million every year, that makes a huge difference," he said. "To make Leeds great again we have to have a ground. Whether Elland Road or elsewhere, there has to be a better ground." In any event, Leeds will not come cheap.