Radebe nears the end of the Road

Lucas Radebe has spent 10 years, 231 games and the best years of his life at Elland Road. But emphatic defeat against Bolton last Sunday saw a dynamic decade end in tears.

It came as no surprise to Radebe, who has dramatically accused Leeds United of failing to tackle the issue of racism, no longer being a team and making huge mistakes.

And if there’s anyone in a position to judge matters at the Yorkshire club, it’s ‘The Chief” who has worn out his knees and given his all for the famous white shirt.

Radebe says: ‘I used to jump out of bed full of energy and enthusiasm but earlier this season it was dead.

‘There was nothing. Managers had come and gone, administrators were changing, we didn’t know what was happening. We didn’t even know if we were going to get paid.”

Radebe, recently given a year’s extension to his contract despite a series of apparently career-threatening injuries, admits: ‘Things are better now under Eddie Gray, but the players are affected by what has been happening.

‘They have become depressed and disillusioned. You know that, whatever happens, there will always be another club who will come in for them.

‘That means we are no longer a team, we are just individuals again.”

Sunday’s devastating 4-1 defeat to Bolton saw the club slip into division one just three years after reaching the Champions League semifinals.

Radebe says: ‘Whatever happens you still have to live, you might go down but here is always a way to come back.” Some Leeds backers aren’t entirely convinced of that.

Clearly, Peter Ridsdale’s dealing when he was chairperson of the club played a major role in their demise.

Radebe says: ‘Decisions were made by the people who ran the club, the chairman [Ridsdale] and the manager [David O’Leary], that were a mistake. In fact they were massive mistakes. They put a real big dent in the club. We didn’t realise what was going on at the time.

‘Evertything was going well. We were in the Champions League, beating teams like Lazio, contesting the title.

‘Players were coming in and being given big contracts. It never entered my mind we were on the verge of disaster. You have to have faith in the people running a massive football club. But there were problems in the dressing room. I’m not saying they should have sacked O’Leary [now a successful boss at Aston Villa] but there were those problems.

‘It was like cutting down a tree. They sold the big players [Rio Ferdinand, Harry Kewell] and the young prospects, the nucleus of the team. Nobody was coming to training happy. You try to pick yourself up but it takes a lot out of you.

‘I was looking at the players as individuals and you could see they were not the same. You could see in their eyes it was a problem; I wasn’t the same either.”

Radebe, raised in Soweto where he was shot while driving along Modtsa Street in Diepkloof in 1992 — the bullet entered his lower back and emerged through his thigh — knows all about tough times.

He says: ‘I didn’t think I was going to die but when the leg went numb I though my football career was over. It has made me appreciate what I have, the career I have enjoyed.”

But the racism allegations four years ago really shook up the 32-year-old former South Africa captain.

Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer (both now at Newcastle) were accused of savagely beating an Asian student in Leeds city centre.

Radebe recalls: ‘I was at the African Nations Cup when it happened. I was the Bafana Bafana captain and suddenly everyone was saying Leeds were the most racist club in England. That made me very sad.

‘I asked Bow and Woody about it. They insisted there was not a racial issue. I accepted that.

‘I’ve known Woody for years, deep down I think he’s a good boy but he wouldn’t give things much thought, then get himself in trouble.

‘Bow? I found him okay, and he was cleared of all charges. But the club suffered and never really tackled the issue of racism. What happened affected all the players and not enough was done to improve the image of Leeds, to get across the message that this was not a racist football club.”

Now, the entire Leeds squad is in limbo. The club has engaged a special football agent to off-load players in an attempt to save the club from meltdown following relegation.

Managing director David Richmond, who didn’t do too well when he ran Barnsley into the ground three years ago, may even decide Radebe is surplus to requirements.

And Radebe knows just how difficult the next few months are going to be. He says: ‘We have a player like Alan Smith, Leeds through and through. He loves the club and will always give 100%. Then you have the players like me, who are loyal to the club. It’s unbelievable. I look back myself and think it should not have happened to this club.

‘One day we were enjoying being top of the league and being in the Champions League semifinals. All the big clubs were coming here and we got used to that, but when it went it was very hard.

‘I’ve always aimed, since I came to this club, to play in the Champions League and to do well in the league, so it will be very sad to end my career in division one.

‘This is the lowest I have been in my 10 years at a club that doesn’t deserve this. But things have gone wrong and we couldn’t put them right on the field.

‘It’s hard to describe the pain and it’s like a bereavement, not just for the players but also the fans, to see this club go down.”