Peter Reid has been sacked as manager of struggling English Premiership side Leeds, the club confirmed on Monday.
Leeds have been in freefall all season and a humiliating 6-1 defeat away at Portsmouth on Saturday did nothing to appease the club’s increasingly under-pressure board.
Former player and assistant manager Eddie Gray, who takes over as caretaker manager, said that his first job when he walks back into Elland Road will be to restore dressing-room confidence.
A statement on the club’s website paid tribute to Reid’s tenure at the end of last season when he prevented the club from being relegated but said that the club’s safety this season was paramount.
”While the board acknowledges that Peter did a sterling job for the club towards the end of last season in keeping United in the FA Premier League, it believes it must not allow this season to reach a point beyond which the club’s Premiership status comes under serious threat,” the statement said.
”The recent run of results has clearly been unacceptable. The board therefore concluded that it has a duty to act now.”
Earlier in the season Reid was given a stay of exection by the Leeds plc board after fans said he should be given more time to turn the club’s fortunes around.
However, the former Sunderland manager, who was sacked from the north-east club last year, has failed to lift Leeds up the table in what is probably one of the most challenging environments he has had to work in.
As well as seeing a number of the club’s top players leave due to crippling debts of £78-million, Reid has been involved in a spat with the club’s top remaining striker, Mark Viduka.
The Australian was left out of the squad that travelled to Portsmouth for Saturday’s Premiership clash after what the official Leeds website described as ”a fresh training ground bust-up” with Reid.
But after the Portsmouth defeat Reid’s future at the club seemed to be sealed.
Leeds must now begin their long haul back up the table if they are to avoid relegation to the First Division, which could financially cripple the club.
Leeds chief executive Trevor Birch said: ”It is of course sad to part company with Peter under these circumstances. The board appreciates and thanks Peter for his efforts and recognises that he has always worked in the best interests of the club.
”But we have got to move forward and are overwhelmingly focused first and foremost on retaining our Premier League status and ultimately bringing success on and off the field back to this great club.”
Former player Gray was initially appointed assistant to David O’Leary in 1998, but when Reid took over from the Irishman’s successor, Terry Venables, he brought in his own backroom staff, and Gray was asked to leave on 12 months’ notice in March as part of cost-cutting measures.
But as Leeds lurch into a new crisis, Gray is the man they have turned to and he has promised to fight to keep his club in the top flight.
”I don’t think it is a lost cause — but it is a difficult task,” he said.
”I will try to instil a lot of confidence in the players and I hope they will respond to that. If you start to win a few games it begins to pick people up. If you are in there fighting you always have a chance, and we will look to move up the league,” added Gray. — Sapa-AFP