As Leeds United players rushed to the defence of Brian Kidd yesterday, Daniel Taylor explains why the club's fans are venting their anger at him.

If Brian Kidd is wondering exactly what he has done wrong, he might come to the conclusion there is little he can do to put it right now. Football fans have always had long memories and, as someone who learned the game on the streets of Collyhurst, perhaps Kidd's biggest crime at Elland Road is his Mancunian accent.

It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that some Leeds United supporters have donned their blinkers and taken umbrage to their club embracing anyone with a past affinity to Manchester United.

Go back nearly 40 years and, before winning over his detractors, Johnny Giles was hardly welcomed with open arms when he moved from Old Trafford to Elland Road. Brian Greenhoff tells a similar story about swapping one United for the other in 1979, while Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan were castigated for going in the opposite direction. "Cantona" is still a swear word in certain parts of Yorkshire. Indeed, there is an argument that some Leeds fans hate Man United more than they love their own team.

Kidd was a Manchester lad who grew up as a United supporter before going on to play for his favourite team, scoring in the 1968 European Cup final on his 19th birthday. He went on to play a major role in re-establishing Leeds's fiercest rivals as the dominant power in English football, winning nine major honours in seven years as Alex Ferguson's right-hand man.

Kidd was instrumental in developing the core of the side which won the European Cup in 1999, having nurtured David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville and Nicky Butt in the United youth team.

An unsuccessful time as Blackburn Rovers manager is better forgotten, but his reputation as a coach remains intact. "In my opinion, there are few, if any, better coaches in the world," David O'Leary says in his book, Leeds United on Trial. "I want people around me who will push me, question me and improve me. Brian is excellent at that. He has done everything there is to do in the game."

It speaks volumes, moreover, that O'Leary's players were so supportive of their head coach in the wake of the abuse he received at Everton on Sunday they held a hastily convened press conference in an upstairs room of their training ground yesterday, where Rio Ferdinand, Alan Smith and Nigel Martyn spoke eloquently and earnestly on his behalf.

"If we could have fitted in, there would have been 30 of us here," said Ferdinand.

Perhaps what has queered Kidd's pitch is that a Mancunian has effectively replaced one of the Leeds faithful's own in Eddie Gray. When O'Leary promoted Kidd to the role of head coach a year ago this week, it was clearly at Gray's expense, even if he did keep his title as assistant manager. At Everton the travelling fans, in between their anti-Kidd chants, repeatedly chanted his name.

"It's obviously the Old Trafford link," added Ferdinand. "With Kiddo being from Manchester it makes him an easy scapegoat. But that's totally wrong."

The perception is that Gray has been treated shabbily, restricted to scouting duties and little else, and that the team have subsequently lost their vibrant attacking style and sense of adventure. There has certainly been some truth in that during the 10-match run without a victory that has extinguished any hopes of prising the title away from Old Trafford.

Yet it should not be overlooked that before Kidd's appointment it was O'Leary, not Gray, who took all the coaching.

"There is obviously great support for Eddie and I think the supporters thought we were doing okay before Brian arrived," said Martyn. "But if you see what he gives us in training, he's probably one of the top coaches in Europe."

There is no doubt Kidd, an introvert, religious man with a dry sense of humour, was wounded by the vitriolic dissent directed towards him at Goodison Park. Yesterday, having taken training as normal, he seemed bemused yet defiant, but wanted to keep his thoughts private.

If he were so inclined, he could have reeled out a list of statistics showing that in the calendar year of 2001, Leeds won more Premiership points than any other club. Yet that is not his way. "He doesn't say a lot in public and because the supporters don't see all the good work he does it's easy to pick on someone like that," added Martyn. "We're here to put the record straight. Every one of us want him to stay."