Ex-Leeds managers to accept payment deferral

Former Leeds managers Peter Reid and David O'Leary are willing to help out the cash-strapped club in its hour of need.

Former Leeds managers Peter Reid and David O'Leary are willing to help out the cash-strapped club in its hour of need.

With the Leeds players announcing they will take a wage deferral only as a last resort, acting-chairman Trevor Birch has spent the last few days exploring all avenues in a bid to raise the cash needed to see the club  through to the end of the season.

Leeds need between £3.5million and £5million in order to trade over the next four months, yet despite the constant speculation surrounding Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Paul Robinson and James Milner, they all now seem set to remain at Elland Road.

In order to generate the cash required, Birch is considering turning to the three managers sacked by Leeds in the last 18 months - Reid, O'Leary and Terry Venables - and asking them to defer their severance payments, along with a number of players.

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Leeds are currently in the middle of paying out a grand total of £7million to the trio, and understandably Birch is eager to put payments on hold and use the money to help keep the club afloat over the next few months.

As yet none of the managers have formally been asked to defer, with Birch initially seeing if the plan is viable in order to present it to the bondholders and creditors on Monday and gain a further two-week extension to the `standstill agreement'.

Reid, who lasted just seven months before being sacked in mid-November following a 6-1 hammering at Portsmouth, is willing to assist in Birch's campaign.

Reid, believed to have been awarded a 12-month severance package of £850,000, confirmed to the Press Association: "If Leeds United want to defer any payments then I am happy with that.

"As long as I would eventually get what I am owed then I don't have a problem with it.

O'Leary recently revealed he is helping Leeds anyway by accepting payments of his £4million compensation every six months, however, the next instalment of £500,000 is apparently due in March.

Under Birch's plan, that would be put on hold until the summer, which is unlikely to pose a problem to the Irishman according to his representative, Michael Kennedy.

"There has been no formal approach as yet, although doubtless there will be and if there is I am sure it will be looked upon favourably by David," said Kennedy.

Venables was in charge for only nine months, but still received £2million after his departure last March, and is now close to being paid off.

"You are supposed to be paid up straight away," said Venables.

"But they asked me whether I would accept payments over 12 months - which is sort of a deferral anyway - and I said that I would. I have now nearly been paid up.

Former Leeds striker Robbie Fowler is one of a handful of players - Robbie Keane, Olivier Dacourt and Paul Okon the others - who could be approached over the next few days with regard to deferring the monies owed to them.