Owen Gibson

and Michael Walker

Leeds United are expected to announce on Monday that their board has agreed a deal with creditors that will allow the club an extra two weeks in which to bring in desperately needed fresh funding. Whether that investment comes from a Bahraini sheikh, Abdulrahman Bin Mubarak Al-Khalifa, remains to be seen.

That relatively good news, however, is tempered by the knowledge that to meet interest payments until the end of the season a player must be sold in January. That makes Alan Smith's future at his beloved club insecure.

Mark Viduka would be considered someone who could be offloaded to generate funds, but because of the extravagant way Leeds bought players when Peter Ridsdale and Allan Leighton ran the boardroom Leeds do not "own" Viduka in the traditional sense that they would receive the money from any sale of the player.

Leeds have effectively rented Viduka from the insurance firm Gerling. That arrangement means that any money they get from the prospective sale of Viduka will go straight to Gerling.

That, in turn, means Leeds must sell one of the assets they do own. Of these, Smith and Paul Robinson are the most valuable, though the fact that they have been unable to dispose of Robinson in the past fortnight, despite trying to do so, suggests there are no takers.

Manchester City, who were looking for a goalkeeper, signed David James from West Ham instead. City even fancied Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek ahead of Robinson.

Robinson might fetch £3 million, of which 50 per cent would have to be paid up front. Smith, who interests Newcastle, Manchester United and Arsenal, would cost more, possibly £6 million.

Leeds have denied that they have received a bid of £2 million for Smith from Newcastle, though their chairman, Freddy Shepherd, was at Elland Road last Saturday and the manager, Bobby Robson, and captain Alan Shearer admire Smith.

Smith will have his own views about whether he wants to leave the club he has supported since childhood, and the chief executive, Trevor Birch, appears to have negotiated another fortnight to mull it over.

Leeds had signed an agreement with their creditors, which include the insurance company Prudential and bondholders M&G, Teachers and MetLife, in December giving them until Monday, January 19th, to find new investors or a new owner. But Birch is thought to be close to extending that "standstill" agreement, allowing him more time to bring in capital from new investors and further deferring interest payments on the £60 million bond.

Gerling, the company which underwrites the complex financial structure at Elland Road, is also expected to agree to a further two-week extension on money it is owed.

The delay may yet save the club, but any takeover between now and the end of the season would be likely to include a clause reducing the price if Leeds go down. If they end up in the First Division next year, they would face a reduction in income of £20 million.

Leeds, £82 million in debt, said yesterday that they are engaged in "continuing, constructive discussions with a number of parties regarding proposals to purchase the company's business and assets or to inject funds".

They were forced by the Financial Services Authority to issue a statement following a 48 per cent surge in their share price after reports that Sheikh Al-Khalifa had raised £35 million to secure the club's future.

But Leeds said in a statement that the Bahraini sheikh, who has been linked with a bid for over two months, had still not produced any "satisfactory evidence" that he had access to the money to complete a deal.

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