Leeds actually had an excellent run over Christmas/New Year 2002, beating Sunderland, Chelsea and Birmingham easing the flak on Ell Tel!
The opening of the transfer-window in January is usually a time of anticipation for supporters up and down the country. For Leeds fans in 2003, it was a time of trepidation and trauma.
Having sold Robbie Keane to Spurs earlier in the season for a loss, the fire-sale was well underway as the New Year dawned.
With just months remaining on his contract, Lee Bowyer moved to his boyhood heroes West Ham for an “undisclosed fee” rumoured to be a derisory £100,000 – a fraction of the £8m Leeds would have got if Bowyer had moved to Liverpool the previous summer.
Robbie Fowler was another big-name just waiting to be cherry-picked, an on-off move to Manchester City finally went through, according to reports Venables was assured that if Fowler departed for Maine Road then Jonathan Woodgate’s future would be assured. Newcastle were reportedly ready to prise the England man from the Leeds ranks.
With just hours of the transfer window remaining, hard-up Leeds were cornered with a straight-cash offer of £8m from the Geordies. The board accepted and the fans were furious, accusing the men at the top of betrayal and selling off the family silver.
They re-directed their spleen from the shoulders of Venables squarely onto those of Peter Ridsdale’s. Clearly there had been a breakdown in the relationship between chairman and manager and an awkward, tense press-conference was held at the end of January.
Someone else who had clearly been missed off Venables Christmas Card list was midfielder Olivier Dacourt. The relationship with the Frenchman got so bad, Venables even told a press-conference that he was prepared to personally drive Dacourt back to France. Hastily,fan's favourite "Olly" was shipped out to AS Roma on-loan.
Venables chose to soldier on when many predicted he would walk away from Leeds. The whites’ league form stagnated and Leeds looked vulnerable in mid-table, quite capable of getting dragged into the relegation dogfight.
Some form of relief emerged in the FA Cup, the last throw of the dice to salvage something from a wretched season. Leeds made it through to the quarter-finals, the draw being kind and pitting them albeit away against lower-league opposition in the form of Scunthorpe, Gillingham and Crystal Palace. Another away-tie and more lower league opponents came in the form of Sheffield United. The Blades had already claimed the scalp of Leeds in the League Cup and a Steve Kabba goal 13 minutes from time made it a double of sorts.
Saturday March 15th saw Venables familiarise himself with old friends in the form of Middlesbrough, the club he had spectacularly help save them from the drop during a short-stint as Head Coach in 2000/01. The Boro fans bestowed legendary status on Venables, who saw his Leeds side slip to another defeat. Leeds had now won just one in their last nine under Tel and his time was up. But again, the fans’ venom was directed at Peter Ridsdale, who was taunted with chants of “Ridsdale what’s the score?” as the Teesiders eased to a 3-2 win which was nowhere near as close as the score suggested.
The following week, Venables was sacked and another shock was in store for the fans, Peter Reid was named as his successor.
The big-name appointment had backfired. On reflection, Venables had an intolerable time of things and clearly, like the rest of us, was oblivious to the true picture of the club’s financial mismanagement. However, despite losing Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Keane, he had an immensely talented bunch of players at his disposal, who at times seemed totally baffled and unmotivated by his tactics. It should also be acknowledged that he was responsible for signing two of the most inept midfielders in the clubs recent history in Nicky Barmby and Paul Okon!