Ridsdale's last chance to quell the wrath

The Leeds crisis: Reid the saviour? An embattled chairman and club's sceptical fans have eight games to find out

The cynics might have had a point when they accused Leeds United of waiting for a war to start before slipping out their own bit of bad news. But there could be little doubt that the time had come. The posters in the window of the Elland Road club shop scream of Leeds's decline – "Sale, 75 per cent off, final reductions" – and the vast store was hosting just two customers on Friday afternoon.

At the Billy Bremner statue, gathering spot for dissidents, all was quiet, but reaction had been sharp enough to the eight-match appointment of Peter Reid as replacement for Terry Venables. Phrases like "lead balloon" and "frying pan into the fire" promptly poured from the supporters' association. Clearly, Leeds's own war has some legs in it yet.

That the latest managerial hiring is stop-gap is acknowledged not only by the embattled chairman, Peter Ridsdale, who announced it after what he called "a whirlwind morning", but also by Reid himself, the 46-year-old who has been out of a job in football since Sunderland sacked him last October.

Those supporters, it is clear, will not be silenced until the main source of their dissatisfaction, Ridsdale himself, has gone. His face remarkably unlined considering what he has been put through of late, Ridsdale acknowledges: "I totally understand the frustration our supporters are venting on me. From the annual general meeting last November until today there appear to be a lot of people hoping for the last throw of the dice from me, but I can't worry about that.

"My job is to make decisions and not start worrying about whether I'm putting my future on the line. If at some point the board and shareholders decide they want a different chairman, that's what they'll do. In the meantime, I get up every day and just do the best job I can."

Eight months ago Venables was considered by Ridsdale – after full consultation and agreement by the board, he stresses – the answer to Leeds's dilemma. On Thursday night the 60-year-old former England manager headed back south, having offered one significant quote to the local paper. "Why don't they like me here?" he wanted to know. "Is it because I'm a Cockney? I've had abuse from day one and I've never seen anything like that before."

Well, yes, it probably is, Tel. Apart from the London-based Scot, George Graham, Leeds have ritually gone for former players or hard-nut northerners when filling the manager's chair. That barometer of local opinion, the taxi driver who conveyed me from station to football ground on Friday, was unprintably vitriolic about what he called "the Cockney".

At least that complaint can't be hurled at Reid, an out-and-out Scouser. Reid has done his time as a manager at Man-chester City (1990-93) and Sunderland. There is an uncanny coincidence with his arrival at Leeds in that he was brought in at Sunderland, given seven games to save the club from relegation and stayed for seven-and-a-half years.

Though he acknowledged of that time, "Maybe I was there too long", and has occupied himself since last October with TV and radio work, Reid was as desperate as most unemployed football managers to climb back on the carousel. He claimed he did not even discuss money in "snapping Mr Ridsdale's hand off", but he will be paid by the match and, if he keeps Leeds up, can look forward to a £500,000 bonus. The supporters, pouring out scorn over the internet, are not the only ones to be upset. Ridsdale, who personally informed the players on Friday morning, acknowledged that some were "shocked" by the news. To which Reid said he, too, was shocked by the suddenness of the offer.

He will not, of course, have forgotten that an Elland Road dressing-room cabal toppled Brian Clough after 44 days in 1974. Nor is he interested in spending time thinking about the big names who have gone through the door as Leeds battle a debt of some £77m. "My concern is with the players who are here now, and there is an awful lot of quality. I think the majority of the players will know me. I am not one for the big stick. What you see is what you get with me, and they will be in no doubt what I expect. If anyone doesn't want to conform to that, they have got a problem."

The expectation had been that the resident coaching duo of Brian Kidd and Eddie Gray would carry the club through to the season's end. They will stay, certainly for now, and Reid acknowledged them as "two experienced people and lads I know very well". He went on: "I have every confidence in them, but at the end of the day I am going to pick the team to play at Liverpool on Sunday. I am the manager for eight games, I am going to take full responsibility and I am looking forward to it."

Reid wants to extend his stay, just as he did at Sunderland. "If I have half the success here I had there, I will be delighted. This is a fantastic opportunity, it is a massive football club."

The man with the protruding ears known affectionately by Sunderland fans as "Monkey" acknowledges that he needed a break from the demands of management, but targeted the anxieties of unemployed people like himself with the joke: "My missus is happy, this will get me out of the house again".

Whether it will keep him out of the house beyond the end of the season is arguable. The names of former Leeds stalwarts like Gordon Strachan, Paul Hart and Micky Adams are already being aired as possible full-time appointments and, inevitably, the wish list also includes Martin O'Neill. Heaven help us, David O'Leary, sacked only last year, has indicated he would consider coming back, presumably only if Ridsdale goes first.

"I am just thankful to get a chance to manage Leeds, I am not asking for a longer commitment," was how Reid deflected questions about his future. He knows well enough that a rousing finish to the season, pushing Leeds up the table with the associated financial benefits, will strengthen his hand when it comes to applying for a permanent job.

Ridsdale was careful to avoid any such commitment. "I am delighted that at such short notice someone of Peter's calibre is prepared to come in, but my whole focus is to get to the end of the season in as strong a position as possible. I can't look beyond that. If he has done exceptionally well he will presumably tell me if he would like to be considered for the job on a permanent basis.

"Clearly, as of today, we have a vacancy. We will take a considered view at the right time, but at the moment we are talking about eight matches."

Equally clearly, the pressure remains on Ridsdale. "If we succeed, everybody will be telling me they wanted me to do well," he smiled. "If we fail, there will be plenty watching me disappear into the sunset. When the club were doing well, we kidded ourselves we were doing a good job, but you only find out how hard it is to do a good job when it's bad times. Yet we have made a lot more right than wrong decisions."

Ridsdale is entitled to pray that the arrival of Reid is another right decision.