Doing a Leeds
"Doing a Leeds" is an English football phrase which is synonymous with the potentially dire consequences for domestic clubs in financial mismanagement.
The phrase arose after the rapid decline of then Premier League club Leeds United, who invested heavily in the late 1990s and early 2000s to attain domestic and lucrative European success, which was capped by high profile appearances in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League.
Because they had never previously experienced relegation to League One or its predecessors, Leeds were the object of careful observation by media and derision by rival fans.
It can refer specifically to any club that fails to plan adequately for the financial impact of either failure to qualify for the Champions League, or of not adequately restructuring following relegation from the Premier League to avoid a further drop, or more generally, to the rapid demise in the relative standing of any club.
[14] Conversely, the avoidance of "doing a Leeds" has been invoked by managers to justify selling their best players in order to raise funds to stave off going into administration, which might lead to a relegation-inducing penalty.
Failure to invest at the expected "normal" rate in order to maintain a club's league position can be labelled as "doing a Leeds".
[16] In spite of this Newcastle suffered relegation at the end of the 2008–09 season, sparking fears both before and after that the club could "do a Leeds" and drop further, into League One, without restructuring.
Bolton Wanderers are another team guilty of "Doing a Leeds", after enjoying a successful stint in the Premier League under Sam Allardyce, which culminated in qualifying for the UEFA Cup, reaching the last 16 in the latter, which included a draw and a victory against Atlético Madrid, and draws against Bayern Munich and Sporting CP.
[20] They would be relegated from the Championship (tier two) again in 2019 and the club was nearly expelled from the football league due to its financial woes: a new buyer was found but the club was nevertheless deducted 12 points for entering administration (because Bolton finished in the bottom three in the Championship in 2018-19, the points deduction was applied in the 2019–20 season in League One.)
