Nine managers in ten years! On Boxing Day 1998 a certain young manager and his babies headed to Newcastle....and won 3-0.

Ten years agp, David O'Leary was very much in his infancy as a football manager but had taken to it like a duck to water after George Graham had left for Spurs. O'Leary seemed to have the world at his feet, the fans adored him, he had a solid side built by Graham, an enviable pool of young talent in the academy and in Peter Ridsdale a chairman who was prepared to lavish huge sums on some of football's biggest names....in 2002, it all went sour. O'Leary was sacked as Leeds narrowly missed out on the Champions League, Ridsdale turned to Martin O'Neill the man he initially wanted to replace Graham but the Ulsterman would not budge so next up was Terry Venables.

With his cockney charm, popular media image and vast experience which had taken him to Barcelona and the England managers job, Ell Tel and Leeds should have been a match made in heaven. However by March 2003, Leeds were slowly counting the cost of financial meltdown, elimination from the cups and a side hovering just above the relegation zone, the board lost faith in Venables and the surprise choice to replace him was ex-Man City and Sunderland supremo Peter Reid on a caretaker basis.

Reid assured Premiership status for 2003/04 and did enough for the board, now led by Professor John McKenzie to offer him a permanent post. However by November following a 6-1 drubbing at Portsmouth, Reid was fired and in came Eddie Gray for a second stint as manager. Leeds legend Gray had previously managed Leeds in the old Second Division between 1982-1985 and had been a coach under the Graham/O'Leary and Reid regimes.

Despite a brave effort, Gray could not stop Leeds from sliding out of the Premiership and he was replaced by Kevin Blackwell for the 2004/05 season.

The club changed ownership during that first season in the Championship and when Ken Bates arrived, many thought it was only a matter of time before Blackwell was ousted in favour of a new boss of Bates chosing - his close friendship with Dennis Wise was a constant source of reference. However with his contract nearing an end in March 2006, Blackwell was handed a new three-year-deal as a reward for getting Leeds into the play-offs. Unfortunately they were soundly beaten by Watford in the final.

Blackwell was removed after a poor start to 2006/07 and after John Carver and David Geddis had caretaker-stints, the Dennis Wise to Leeds rumours finally came true at the end of October. However by the end of the season, Leeds were counting the cost of relegation to League One - their first experience of life in the third tier of English football and going into administration, which meant they would begin the 2007/08 season on minus 15 points.

Amazingly Wise, partnered by another ex-Chelsea favourite of Bates Gus Poyet managed to claw back the 15 point deficit and Leeds even topped the League One table for a few hours last Boxing Day. However Poyet and then Wise were both lured away by jobs with Premiership clubs and by the end of January, Leeds turned to former captain Gary McAllister who other than a modest spell in charge at Coventry had little managerial experience and had spent time out of the game to care for his terminally ill wife.

McAllister inherited a Leeds side midway throgh a slump but revived their fortunes sufficiently enough to make the play-off finals against Doncaster Rovers. However it was the team from South Yorkshire that went through to the Championship.

Bravely, McAllister advocated the playing of attractive football at a level where most assume only kickers and cloggers will succeed. Despite Leeds fans being treated to some enthralling performances, the defensive frailties were there for all to see and Macca's failure to arrest them cost him his job.

Now it appears Simon Grayson, ironically a former Leeds youngster who could not break into the whites' team McAllister captained with such grace and elegance is the latest man to try and restore the fortunes of this once mighty club. 

Photo: Action Images

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