The headline: Bates desperate to move above Abramovich, Chelsea tried to air brush me from history.By Rob Shepherd, 02/01/2010 KEN BATES is still a man on a mission of reviving a fallen giant... again.
After spending the 80s and 90s rescuing Chelsea from the bulldozers then rebuilding the club, Bates has spent the best part of the past decade resurrecting Leeds. Even at 78, a healthy-looking Bates won't rest until Leeds are back where he believes they belong eating at football's top table. And when HE is back where he believes he belongs lording it over the man who bought his dream with a shed load of roubles. "What is my ambition for the next decade ? I'd like to see me above Abramovich. I'd like to see a football man above a cheque book man," said Bates in the very hotel - London's Dorchester - where he first met the Russian billionaire for the first time only after a deal to sell Chelsea had already been done behind his back. Ever since he bought Chelsea for £1 in 1982 and fought off the property developers who wanted to build on the ground the aim had been to make the Blues the "Manchester United of the South". Just as Bates was getting there the financial panic of the early noughties - which sent Leeds tumbling - forced Bates to reluctantly agree the sale of Chelsea to Abramovich in 2003. Bates walked away with £17million and Chelsea have moved on and become real rivals to United. But if the Russian billionaire, now much more cautious with his money, ever called in his loan investment the business would go bust the next day Bates is now driven by the vision of guiding the once great Leeds back to the Promised Land. At the start of the last decade Leeds were vying with United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea at the top of the Premier League and reaching the Champions League semi-final in 2001. Today they take on United at old Trafford in the FA Cup third round cast as third class citizens but not for much longer according to Bates "The plan for the next decade is to see Leeds back where they should be but we don't want the process to take 10 years," said Bates. "I'd like to think in five years Leeds will be back their rightful place being a prominent club in the Premiership, "So that in the near future a meeting against Manchester United is a game that matters in terms of the title or European places not as something of a curiosity as many might perceive it today. "Look Leeds is the third biggest city in England. London, Birmingham then Leeds. Bigger than Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle. "For its history and huge fan base it deserves to have a club in the top league. "The last few years have been tough and maybe we haven't progressed as quickly as some might have thought. But we started this journey from a very difficult position. "The fact is Leeds has come back from the abyss and I am very proud of what we have done. I know I haven't always been a popular figure with the locals. But slowly I think we are winning the over because they see the progress that is being made. "The club has been stabilized run on proper business lines, both on and off the field. Whereas before under the Ridsdale regime they built from the roof downwards onto sand.. "Now we are building upwards with foundations of rock. We expect nothing but we plan for the worst and hope for the best. "The new Leeds has no debt. It is making a profit. Not a lot but a profit. That a lot more than can be said for many clubs even in the Premier League." The financial over-reaching in the early part of the decade which led the club into administration and eventually relegation to the third tier of the football pyramid has not been easy to mend. But many of the things Bates learned at Chelsea have been invaluable. Attractive Bates said : "After leaving Chelsea I had nearly 30 clubs from the top to very bottom asking me whether I would be interested getting involved. "But Leeds was the most attractive. I just felt I couldn't pass the chance to rebuild a great club. I looked at the fan base and the history of the club and felt I had to save it "And I am relishing the challenge. "We have plans to redevelop the ground along similar lines to what we did at Stamford Bridge with the Chelsea Village ¿.. The Elland Village if you like with a hotel, shops, bars and restaurants. "That's all part of the big plan to put the club back up there where it was before it all went wrong. "When I first got here ( in 2005 ) the club was losing £120,000 a week but they were doing it in style. They were still drinking the best rose champagne in the dressing room. "But there was no Yorkshiremen prepared to put their hands in their pockets. I knew the locals would be wary of me and my cockney roots. "When I moved up to live in Lancashire in 1956 I said then and said again recently that when northern people speak they are being blunt, forthright, outspoken and honest. "When you respond in kind you are being rude, offensive, ignorant and abusive. "To be fair, when I said that at Leeds they all laughed. Yes, I think we are winning them over. "I did an interview some time back and said the problem with Yorkshire people is that they have got short arms and long pockets but the next Saturday when I went into the directors' box they all had their hands up by their chests. "They have got to know me and we are getting on and heading in the right direction." And Bates is doing it the old fashioned way. Flippant So what does he make of the increase in foreign ownership and where that will eventually lead English football? Moving from flippant to philosophical Bates reasoned " When Mao Tse Tung was asked what effect he felt the French revolution had on the future times of the world he replied: "Too early to tell¿¿¿.. "At this stage, I would say the impact foreign ownership is mixed. For me the two shining examples are Manchester United and Aston Villa. "For the criticism of the Glazers, they are gentlemen and I look forward to shaking their hands ¿.if they are at the game. But part of their strength is you don't hear from them. They let the management get on with it and they are the most successful club in the world. "And with Villa when Randy Lerner arrived it was a case of Randy Who? But he has put in a management team and let them get on with it. They are one of the success stories. "It's a system we are following at Leeds. I have a great management team below me who get on with the day-to-day running of things. "But they all know when I visit the ground they have to get their ties on. "Beyond those two clubs then I would Liverpool is a puzzle inside an enigma. West Ham is a disaster. Portsmouth is a disaster. Notts County is a joke. "And look what happened with Shinawatra at Manchester City. Now let's see how long this new lot are in it for." Conspicuous by their absence in Bates' appraisal of the foreign owned clubs is Chelsea. Understandably there remains as sense of bitterness how he was ousted. Bates said : "After we had parted company with chief executive Colin Hutchinson, who had made some disastrous buys which had crippled the club, we brought in a chap called Trevor Birch. "It was a massive mistake. His background was insolvency and very quickly started to panic. Yes there was a £75 million bond but we were paying that back on time. "There was £20 million worth of other debts but we had just qualified for the Champions League. "The club was not heading for the wall but, in very quick time, Birch had done a deal with Abramovich without my knowledge, telling me there was good wedge in it for me. "I said I was prepared to listen but by the time I went to the Dorchester to meet agent Pini Zahavi, Abramovich and a couple of his henchmen it had all be done. It was out of my hands. "It was agreed I would stay on for two years then become life president but as soon as that Peter Kenyon turned up, it was obvious I would be sidelined. "After all those years of battling for the club's survival they sidelined me. They have since tried to airbrush me out of the club's history. "But I still have use of a penthouse flat above the hotel at the ground and am proud of what we built there and John Terry's a player we brought up and Frank Lampard one we bought and they're still very much the backbone of the team. "Chelsea was rebuilt as a club before Abramovich arrived. Now my aim to do the same job at Leeds ¿.then go a bit better. "But for the time being if you ask my fondest memory in football after all these years then it was seeing Robert di Matteo scoring for Chelsea after 43 seconds in the 1997 Cup final." Thirkers PS If it hadn't been for this man would we still have a club? I am trying to trawl up the interview where he names some of the big mouthed, short armed, long pocketed Yorkshiremen who had plenty to say until it came to putting their money where their mouth is. It gets a bit tiresome for me reading nothing but criticism of him when as I remember it he was the only man who came up with the goods or plan or whatever you wish to call it to save the club. I suppose this will get battered but IMHO if it hadn't been for him what would have happened to Leeds United. Cue for all the haters with uncorroborated tales of underhand dealings etc etc. It appears to me if you take on board and believe what he has supposed to have done with all his illegal dealings etc etc he must be a very, very clever man, the type of bloke you want at the elm of a struggling football club. PPS Have a nice day, it's quite a nice day here in North Yorkshire at Ravenscar. PPPS I am prepared for the deluge of abuse from you Ken Bates fans, so what, I'm used to being my own man and I'm no expert but I thought it was time we saw something positive about the man for a pleasant change. PPPPS Am I suspended Betty/ Related Lin _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist and the hardest time in a sailor's day is to watch the sun as it sails away
