From The Observer:
Mark Viduka may be the most hated man in Leeds at the moment but he might have a point. 'If you all want to go down, then stick with him,' he is reported to have said during a training ground bust-up with the manager Peter Reid on the eve of this game. In horrendous debt they may be, but Leeds might well now deem it necessary to add to the £80 million to pay off Reid.
Certainly this cannot continue, the financial implications of relegation being unthinkable. Leeds were again the ragbag assortment that had conceded four at home to Arsenal last weekend and they have now lost four Premiership matches in a row and are anchored at the bottom of the table. This against a side struggling for form themselves, who were giving a first Premiership start to Gary O'Neil. He responded by scoring two of the goals.
How shaming was the scoreline for Leeds, joyful for Portsmouth. In the FA Cup three seasons ago, Leeds came to Fratton Park as a team on the up, one that would go on to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. Portsmouth were in the First Division and lost 5-1. No doubting which looks closer to the First Division now.
Paul Wilson, also in The Observer:
Peter Reid is going. Reid's troubled reign at Leeds United looks over after his team crashed 6-1 at Portsmouth, their second heavy defeat in a week, to stay bottom of the Premiership.
Reid was saved from the sack last month when the club's powerful vice-chairman, Allan Leighton, persuaded the board to give him more time. Leeds responded by beating Blackburn but have since lost to Manchester United twice, Liverpool, Arsenal and now Portsmouth.
Reid is unlikely to escape this time. He will receive a payoff close to £1m if his contract is terminated but Leeds, even though they are £78million in debt, seem certain to ditch Reid and bring in Nottingham Forest's Paul Hart.
The Sunday Times:
Peter Reid will be sacked as manager of Leeds United this week following the club’s humiliating 6-1 defeat against Portsmouth yesterday. Despite Reid’s insistence that he will stay on and fight for his job, the decision to dismiss him has already been taken by the Leeds board.
A meeting will be held in the next two days with Reid, 47, and Leeds’ new chief executive Trevor Birch, where the manager will be told that his position is no longer tenable. The club have won only twice this season and are bottom of the Premiership table.
Reid narrowly avoided the axe at the start of October after the club made their worst start to a league campaign for 22 years. Then it was a mixture of supporter power and the reluctance of non-executive vice-chairman Allan Leighton to take drastic action that saved him.
Reid insisted last night that he would not be going voluntarily. "At the age of 47 I’m not going to start resigning now," he said. "But that second half (against Portsmouth) was the worst 45 minutes of my managerial career and the players don’t deserve to pick up their wage packets after that performance. I won’t resign but I’m certainly not happy about the lack of desire."
The Sunday Telegraph:
Peter Reid's future as Leeds United manager looked in severe jeopardy after the Premiership's bottom club suffered yet more humiliation at Fratton Park, slumping to their seventh league defeat in eight games.
The striker Mark Viduka's absence after another training ground set-to with Reid set the tone for another afternoon of gloom for the Yorkshire club, who are £80 million in debt. Gary O'Neil, starting a Premiership match for the first time, turned out to be Portsmouth's hero with two goals.
Leeds arrived on the south coast in a sorry state, propping up the division and without Viduka who, although he frequently appears lethargic, is always capable of turning a game with a piece of individual brilliance.
Fined a week's wages - a tidy sum amounting to £65,000 - for previously turning up late both for training and his side's game against Arsenal, he had crossed swords verbally with Reid again on Friday apparently after being told he would start yesterday's match on the bench.