Birch Asking For Managers Assistance

Last updated : 23 January 2004 By Kevin Markey

Leeds need between £3.5m and £5m in order to keep afloat until the end of the season and despite the constant transfer speculation surrounding Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Paul Robinson and James Milner, they all now seem set to remain at Elland Road.

Trevor Birch is considering turning to the three managers sacked by Leeds in the last 18 months, Reid, Venables and O'Leary, and asking them to defer their severance payments, along with a number of players in order to generate funds.

Leeds are currently in the middle of paying out a total of £7m to the trio, and understandably Birch is eager to put payments on hold and use the money to help keep the club going over the next few months.

As yet none of the managers have formally been asked to defer, with Birch initially seeing if the plan is viable in order to present it to the bondholders and creditors on Monday and gain a further two-week extension to the 'standstill agreement'.

Birch is also understood to be looking at the possibility of asking former chairman Professor John McKenzie to return a significant proportion of the £200k paid to him in advance for what has been described as 'consultancy fees'.