SOCCER: Before anyone hails Ken Bates as the man who will transform Leeds United's fortunes, it is worth remembering that before Roman Abramovich arrived at Chelsea they were about £80 million in debt and confronted by the possibility of administration.

Despite having transformed the club in his time at Stamford Bridge, it was done at considerable cost, so only those with selective memories will cast him as a saviour at Elland Road.

Bates is entitled, however, to believe yesterday's £10 million takeover has not only stopped the rot but offered hope. Leeds had been hurtling towards administration and a 10-point penalty that would have left a financially shipwrecked club third from bottom of the Championship and contemplating relegation.

The matter of restoring Leeds to the Premiership, and actually keeping them there, is not so clear-cut. Bates does not have the bags of gold to do an Abramovich or even come close.

Leeds are still £23 million in debt and they have spent virtually the entire season in the lower reaches of a division so mediocre the Sunderland manager Mick McCarthy recently declared "every team was as bad as each other".

Bates' first job will be to peruse Kevin Blackwell's record since his promotion to manager last summer. There are mitigating circumstances to Leeds' league position, but Bates has never been inclined to listen to excuses and Blackwell should be acutely aware his new employer sacked Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea only five games into the 2000-01 season, three months after the FA Cup had been won.

Dennis Wise's name has cropped up as a possible replacement and, despite a declaration from Bates that he is "not looking to bring anyone else in", Blackwell seems prepared for the worst.

"I'm sure he will assess things," he admitted. "Someone who puts his own money into a club may decide he wants his own man."

As a former goalkeeper, Blackwell will have also picked up on the fact that Bates does not believe former goalkeepers are cut out for the role.

"It is no exaggeration to say Leeds are very hard up. It's going to be a tough job and the first task is to stabilise the cash flow and sort out the remaining creditors," Bates said. "But there is light at the end of a very long tunnel. For the past year it has been a matter of firefighting - now we can start running the club again.

"The first thing is to stabilise the team and the finances. Getting to the play-offs would be a bonus, but I'm not quite sure if that's realistic. Certainly, I wouldn't like to win promotion this year because if you go up too soon you will just come straight back down."

He believes a more realistic ambition is to "get promotion in the next couple of seasons", and after that he does not consider it unreasonable to "establish ourselves, get into the top six and back into Europe".

As for Wise, Bates snapped: "It's a load of bollocks."

Uppermost in his thoughts will also be the buying back of the club's stadium, as well as their training ground at Thorp Arch near Wetherby. When the club's debts were at their worst, peaking at £103 million 10 months ago, both assets were sold to the Manchester-based property developer Jacob Adler. In a smart PR move, designed to win over the Leeds supporters, Bates said he planned to initiate talks with Adler "in due course". He added: "Fans could ensure that no would-be property developer will be able to end the playing of football at Elland Road."

The appointment of a new chief executive would help to quicken that process and, to that end, it was highly conceivable Bates would turn to one of his most trusted former colleagues at Stamford Bridge. A pity for him, perhaps, that Trevor Birch made it clear last night he would not entertain the idea of resuming their working relationship.

Bates has brought on board two other former employees, Chelsea's former finance director Yvonne Todd and lawyer Mark Taylor, but Birch said he would not leave his new position as a partner at Deloitte.

Bates immediately set about showing just that by paying off an overdue £1.2 million instalment that was owed to the Inland Revenue as part of a £3.5 million debt.

Along with the outgoing chairman Gerald Krasner, Simon Morris, Melvyn Levi and Melvin Helme have all resigned as directors. Peter Lorimer, the former Leeds player, has been retained in another tactical PR move and Bates has asked Krasner to remain at the club in an advisory capacity.

Krasner, who has done a better job than many people seem willing to give him credit for, will carry on working behind the scenes, on a temporary basis.

"We saved the club from extinction," he said. "We solved 80 per cent of the club's problems and, with no doubt, Ken will solve the rest. When Leeds are back in the Premiership and winning silverware I will be somewhere smiling quietly, knowing we played some part in it."

Bates, under the guise of a Geneva-based company known as the Forward Sports Fund, approached the club on Monday and offered to buy a 51 per cent stake for 10 million. Lawyers on both sides worked round the clock to get a quick agreement, finalising the deal at 2.27 a.m. yesterday. Bates bought Chelsea for the grand total of £1 in 1982 and, despite all of Leeds's difficulties, he will consider he has another bargain.

"This is a great club," he said. "It has just fallen on some hard times."