Ridsdale: 'No more excuses'
Leeds chairman Peter Ridsdale has warned the club’s highly-paid stars there are now no excuses for United’s current demise.
Ridsdale, along with president Lord Harewood, today officially unveiled Leeds’ new town’s £5m (€7.9m) state-of-the-art Academy, which is being hailed as one of the best in the country.
But Ridsdale, who at last Friday’s Annual General Meeting told manager Terry Venables results were “not acceptable”, has now pointed an accusing finger at the players.
Winger Jason Wilcox, in an attempt to take the increasing pressure off Venables this week, conceded it was the players’ responsibility to turn Leeds’ crisis situation on its head.
United head to Fulham on Saturday in a miserable 16th place in the Premiership - their lowest League position for nine years – after winning just one of their last 10 top-flight matches to leave them just three points off the relegation zone.
Ridsdale, who secured his seat on the board with an overwhelming 99.1 percent of the shareholders’ vote at the AGM, feels that with some of the best training facilities throughout Britain, Leeds players now have everything they need to start producing the goods on the pitch.
“This is now no excuse time because when you see the facilities the players have, there aren’t any excuses,” said Ridsdale.
“Apart from the fact they are all very well paid individuals, they are all now very well looked after individuals.
“If any of them are listening back through there (as Ridsdale was speaking inside the Academy) on Saturday I would like three points please and lets get back to putting our season together.”
The players are at least aided in their fitness bid by the new Academy at the club’s Thorp Arch training complex, with the £5million facility officially opened by Leeds president Lord Harewood yesterday.
The Academy includes a half-sized indoor football pitch, state-of-the-art equipment and a specially designed ’wet’ area to help rehabilitation, with a swimming pool and baths which can massage specific areas of the body.
Physio Dave Hancock has played a major part in designing the facility based on what he has learned by visiting top clubs in Europe as well as American Football clubs.
He said: “Working in water allows players to start exercising earlier because there are none of the problems caused by running on the ground.
“We’ve been working in a pool for some time (at Tadcaster), but having it on site will save us several hours a day in travelling and also mean that all the physios are on site all the time.”
In the club programme, Matteo added: “The facilities are superb. It has everything we need to get fit.”
