Football: Graham sees future among big spenders

THE SCENE is the Leeds United dressing-room around 5pm on Saturday, shortly after they were dumped out of the FA Cup by Wolves. George Graham walks round, telling each player in turn what he thought of their display - which, with few exceptions, was not much - before admitting he had also made mistakes.

Leeds' latest home defeat by modest First Division opposition in knock- out competition, their third in the 18 months since Graham succeeded Howard Wilkinson as manager, leaves another season in danger of disintegrating into disappointment and recrimination at Elland Road.

The Premiership table, in which Leeds stand seventh compared with finishes of 14th and 11th in the previous two years, is testimony to the improvement Graham has effected. But they go into tonight's visit by Blackburn Rovers with only three wins from 12 League matches. The natives who Alex Ferguson dubbed Europe's most intimidating crowd - though that was before the advent of the all-seater stadium - are restless.

As long as Leeds were still in the Cup, the disparity between expectations and achievements did not seem too wide. The manager's column in Saturday's programme was, with hindsight, strewn with famous last words. "We are not far away," said one, referring to the kind of team Graham wants. Another anticipated "a bright future". A third spoke of a "selection headache I'd love to have every week".

Afterwards, in attempting to explain the setback to reporters, Graham posed a rhetorical question: "How can you legislate for so many people failing to play to their potential at the same time?''

Perhaps, however, it was not merely a case of players under-achieving, but of their lacking genuine quality in the first place. Graham inherited a side in serious decline. Almost all of the 1992 championship squad had gone, replaced by a mixture of cheap buys and free transfers, youth team products and expensive foreigners.

Having cleared out high earners such as Yeboah, Brolin, Dorigo, Palmer and Rush, as well as the home-grown likes of Ford, Couzens and Tinkler, Graham set about building his own team. He has bought almost exclusively at the lower-to-middle end of the market; five of his 10 recruits have been for pounds 500,000 or less, with only David Hopkin, at pounds 3.25m, costing more than pounds 2m. Despite having questioned the success rate of overseas imports, he has yet to sign a single English player.

The squad is long on spirit, honesty and organisation, as evinced by their ability to fight back to win after being two and even three goals down. They outstripped last season's meagre goal tally by new year, possess an away record second only to Manchester United's and could still qualify for the Uefa Cup.

Unfortunately, endeavour can take you only so far, and Leeds remain bereft of class in vital areas. The most pressing need is for a natural finisher in the mould of Tony Yeboah or Ian Wright, who Graham bought for Arsenal, and for a creative midfielder to vary the speed and angles of attack in the way Gary McAllister did during Wilkinson's annus mirabilis.

Part of the attraction of Leeds for Graham was the fact that they had recently been taken over by a London-based leisure group, Caspian. The company had grandiose plans to tap their undoubted potential in a large, one-club city and, apparently, the resources with which to do it.

In reality, Leeds have not remotely competed with, for example, Chelsea, and have also been outspent by clubs such as Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday. Even before the Wolves fiasco, Graham was telling journalists he now needed to spend "big-time". The team, he said, was like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle. The missing pieces would not come cheaply.

Although Graham is not one to wave his chequebook around before the transfer deadline, which falls on 26 March, he will expect to have the requisite funds in place for a summer spree. Scrimping along is not his style. While he will not want to leave Yorkshire without proving a point after his enforced exile, he may not be inclined to stay if he senses his vision is not shared by the club's owners.

The Leeds chairman, Peter Ridsdale, insisted yesterday that there was no rift with Graham over transfer cash. "We have also outlined to him that if he comes to us and asks for sensible amounts of money - and he has already told us of the players he is after - then it will be made available for him to buy them," Ridsdale said.

There is, of course, a third strand to team-building, apart from buying at the middle and top end of the market. Wilkinson's legacy in terms of senior players may have left something to be desired, but the youth policy he set up could be about to furnish Graham with a handful of classy additions to what is one of the Premiership's smallest squads.

The Leeds team which won the FA Youth Cup against Manchester United five years ago is now scattered around the lower divisions, whereas Nicky Butt, David Beckham and the Nevilles became internationals. The latest crop, who hold the trophy and recently beat their manager's old club at Highbury to reach the semi-finals, are thought to have more chance of sustaining their promise. When Leeds beat Spurs last week, six of the side who finished the game were 21 or under.

As a student of football history, Graham is aware of how Don Revie built Leeds from a mediocre provincial club to a European power with a team who broke through from the juniors together. Although teenagers like Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Matthews, Stephen McPhail and Matthew Jones may soon join the Australian prodigy Harry Kewell in his side, it is financial clout that is likely to determine whether Graham stays to see them grow.