Ex-Leeds United man points out £12m mistake as Liverpool transfer motive questioned

September 17, 2024 admin LEEDS UNITED 0

Leeds United were severely punished for their lavish spending in the Premier League.

Former Leeds United goalkeeper Nigel Martyn has questioned the club’s extravagant spending during his time at Elland Road, pointing to the arrival of Robbie Fowler from Liverpool as a key example of poor decision-making.

Fowler was one of three big-money signings made in the summer of 2001, with the striker joined by Robbie Keane and Seth Johnson as chairman Peter Ridsdale attempted to keep pace with those fighting for Champions League football. Leeds paid £12million for the Liverpool frontman but were unable to get a significant return on their investment, with a run of just 33 games preceding a move to Manchester City for half that value.

Having emerged as one of England’s best finishers during his early years at Liverpool, Fowler’s form dipped amid a string of injuries and he was eventually pushed to the fringes of first-team action. A fresh fitness issue in the summer of 2001 was enough for the Merseyside club to cash in but Martyn has questioned why so much was spent on a player with ongoing problems.

“It’s frustrating [the financial issues],” Martyn told Under The Cosh. “As players you’re not necessarily aware of what’s happening. We were just turning up, training, playing, that’s it. The thinking was we had got to third in the League, we wanted to challenge Manchester United and Arsenal and to do that we needed to buy players.

“We’d spent a lot, we bought Robbie Fowler but you’ve got to ask why are Liverpool selling to a rival? Great footballer, great footballer. But it was a lot of money [£12m]. I’ve been on the receiving end of Robbie many times in a Liverpool shirt, he could score goals for fun.

“But he came to us with a hip injury and his mobility wasn’t as good as it could have been. We saw in flashes of how good he was, in a Leeds shirt. But he wasn’t as mobile as he was and Liverpool saw that.”

A long list of similar investments were paid for by loans borrowed against future gate receipts but Leeds’ failure to qualify for the Champions League during the 2001/02 campaign was the catalyst for financial chaos. Fowler’s £6m move to Manchester City came alongside exits for the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Keane and Jonathan Woodgate.

Martyn would follow them out the door a year later, with Leeds essentially stripped of their first-team core before suffering relegation in 2004. Continued financial issues in the Championship saw them enter administration in 2007, a move which earned them a 10-point deduction and confirmed their drop into League One.

Leeds spent three years in the third-tier and another 10 in the Championship before their long-awaited Premier League return, but have still been affected by the events of more than two decades ago. Only earlier this year did Elland Road come back into full club control, having been sold in 2004 before a long period of ownership change.

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