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11 May 2006 KEVIN BLACKWELL In 10 days time Leeds United face Watford in the Coca-Cola Championship Play-Off Final to compete for a place in next seasons Barclays Premiership. In an ironic twist of fate Leeds Boss Kevin Blackwell must defeat the man he once appointed to be one of his coaches at Elland Road. Kevin Blackwell has been speaking to Sue McCann. How bizarre is it going to be going head to head with Aidy Boothroyd given all the past ties between he and Leeds? Well yeah its just uncanny isnt it; football seems to throw up these little quirks. Who would have thought after I took Aidy from the Academy at West Brom and nobody had heard of him, that less than two years later hes in the Championship Play-Off Final and hes my adversary. Tremendous credit to him for what hes done and Im looking forward to it. Weve both got massive respect for each other and I chose Aidy (to come to Leeds) because I thought he had the potential to do the things I was looking for and he has. Presumably you are pleased that Aidy will be shouting his team on from the next dug-out to you rather than being banished to the main stand (after getting sent off against Palace) because thats what its all about isnt it? It certainly is, but obviously the authorities are adamant about cracking down on things and as a manager we have responsibilities for that. I think Aidy regretted it straight way, that hed maybe got involved in something that was needless, because they were 3-0 up with 10 minutes to go. But as he says we do things on a spur and its from the heart and he didnt mean any harm by it. With a return to the Premiership so tangible how do you approach the game in terms of giving the players the best possible chance of not freezing on the big day which can always be dangerous at this stage? It is, but weve been playing in front of 30,000 at nearly every home game this season so the lads are used to playing in front of crowds. But this will be a final and you hope it wont be a bridge too far for my lads anyway. All you can do is prepare them in as simple a form as you can and try not to make this game the be all and end all. Its just the last game of our season and Ive got to try and keep that as a League game as opposed to saying Look its worth millions, its worth Premiership status, if you make a cock up or youre at fault for something you could put everybody else down the swany. Doing that would put them under too much pressure, so well try and keep it as low key as we can, knowing how big the game is. How will you prepare over the next 10 days, will you take the players away to train or keep the training routine completely normal? Im going to keep things pretty normal; Ive just told them youve got 3 days off and I dont want to see anybody in the club, get away, go and enjoy being with your family, because after Sunday you wont see your family that much for the next 7 days. When they come back well prepare just as we would for a normal league game. The Midlands profile in the Premiership got decimated with Birmingham and West Broms relegation but conversely with Sheffield United already promoted and the possibility of you following suit Yorkshire football could be boosted. Despite your rivalry with Sheffield United they might quite like to have you up in the Premiership wouldnt they? I think Yorkshire is a massive football area as is the Midlands, but it seems to go around in numbers and Yorkshire really has suffered in the last 6 years I think seeing Sheffield Wednesday come out of the Premiership, Barnsley, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield United. The lot of them were all out of it and Yorkshire was somewhat in the doldrums but now its on a bit of a resurgence. The Midlands had a great resurgent spell when they had West Brom, Birmingham, Villa, Leicester and Derby all in the Premiership. So I think what goes around, comes around and theyll come back again and hopefully that we can cement a stronger Yorkshire contingent in the Premiership and I think the Premiership needs that. Should you get promoted youve already got a Premiership Stadium, a Premiership Boss in Ken Bates who is so experienced, so youd be in reasonable shape if you could get in the players youd want if you went up? Yeah, obviously we are still having to pay a considerable amount of money back from our financial fallout and that was the reason why we were out of the Premiership. So we dont know quite how much money would be available but one things for sure, everything about Leeds United is Premiership from the training ground through to the stadium and the Chairman and having been in there recently wed be able to handle things off the pitch comfortably. On the pitch could be a different matter but Im not really looking forward at the moment because Ive got a massive job to try and beat Watford. Its a football cliché but how big a part will the passion of the Leeds supporters play in this Final? Well we had just short of 40,000 for the first leg of the Play-Off semi-final. In the Premiership, Leeds sold out 42,000 every week. Peter Ridsdale was going to build a stadium of 60,000 because that was the demand for the games at Leeds. We know that the supporters are a massive element for our success this season. Theyve shouted us home on many occasions, for example against Southampton when we were losing 3-0 with 18 minutes to go and they were still singing their hearts out. So I know theyll be a massive plus for us at Cardiff and I cant wait to hear their singing. _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. Leedslist mailing list [email protected] http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist
