IT COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER SET OF FANS

Last updated : 02 February 2003 By Editor

In his N.O.T.W. column

I admit — I don't see my position at Leeds clearly at the moment. I know what is being written, but I haven't told anyone I am staying for certain, not even my wife.

And don't think I am not angry right now, either. Don't think I have settled. It's one thing to take a big, deep breath and say: "I'll get through this to the end of the season."

OK, fine. But where do I go from there? What about the long term?

Frankly, a lot of bridges will have to be rebuilt.

The chairman said on Friday that he has handled the sale of Jonathan Woodgate as he thinks it should have been handled.

But I feel I was kept in the dark.

So if the right way to handle it is to keep me out of it, then I'm not the right man to manage Leeds United.

Everything was kept secret. I didn't expect it to be like that. The point is I've been treated like a patsy. It's like they're testing me: ‘How far can we go?'

Whatever I do, I can't win. But as you get older you realise it's not good to react when you are intoxicated.

And anger impairs judgement as surely as alcohol. I'm a man who has learned to sleep on his decisions. And this one will definitely need a lot of sleep.

I am not going to be pushed into making a judgement on my future. Hasty decisions are often the wrong ones. I want to get this right.

Before Jonathan was sold on Thursday afternoon, the last time I spoke to my chairman was Wednesday.

We talked about the Robbie Fowler deal to Manchester City and he told me it meant no other players would be sold.

But the following day there was a rumble around the ground and in the afternoon, chairman Peter Ridsdale and two directors, David Walker and Steve Harrison, came to see me in my office.

I didn't know a thing.

They said that Woodgate was going.

I just felt a mixture of contempt and utter amazement. I just couldn't believe it — particularly to be told we now had money in the bank.

Peter said: "Well, what do you think?" I said: "Since when have you cared what I think?" and we left it at that.

I just felt numb. Maybe people would have expected me to rant and rave, but we've been through all that — the arguments where I've laid my cards on the table.

It just seems we go over the same stuff all the time.