Leeds' final countdown

By John May

Leeds settle on Rio

As the clock counts down on Leeds United, Trevor Birch will be winding for all he is worth to keep it ticking over.

Chief executive Birch is the man with the seemingly thankless task of preventing Leeds going into financial meltdown, and he does not have long to do it.

On the surface Birch's task is a simple one. He has to raise £5m by 1700GMT on Friday to keep creditors off the club's back, effectively buying £5m worth of time to see his strategy through.

Leeds players agree to defer wages

Leeds have seen several White Knights ride up to the drawbridge, only to find they have attracted camp followers who show up on the battlefield after the scrap to pick the carcass clean.

Birch's whole strategy is designed to thwart carpetbaggers, trading on Leeds' plight to pick up the club on the cheap.

To do that, he has to keep the club ticking over until the end of the season, when Leeds will know what division they are playing in.

Even if they plunge into the Nationwide League, at least the club will be realistically priced to a genuine buyer.

Venables has agreed to defer his payments.

Unlike most Premiership clubs who could raise £5m by picking up the phone to the bank manager, Leeds would only find the Samaritans on the other end of the line.

Birch's task of raising the money requires a geometrical act of squaring several circles as he does the math.

So how does he plug a £5m gap? Piece of cake.

Manchester United's generous offer to stump up £1.5m immediately as a final settlement on Rio Ferdinand's hire purchase agreement puts a dent in the £5m.

That leaves £3.5m to find.

The revolving door on the manager's office at Elland Road has meant Leeds are still making payments to former bosses Terry Venables, David O'Leary and Peter Reid.

Their consent to deferring their payments should save Birch another £1m.

Just £2.5m to go.

Birch has always maintained that selling players is not a good long-term solution to solving a short-term fix.

He has stood firm and resisted the temptation to raise the money at a stroke by selling off the family silver in the form of Alan Smith, Mark Viduka and Paul Robinson.

But Leeds could raise £1.5m by allowing Middlesbrough to make Danny Mills' loan permanent.

Leeds deadline extended

That leaves a mere £1.25m to go, and what's that between friends?

But if Birch is reluctant to sell players, it is they who could ultimately decide Leeds' fate.

Their announcement on Thursday to defer "more than 20%" of their wages will have come as a huge boost to Birch.

The players' initial reluctance and insistence that one of their number be sold clearly softened in the face of fans' anger.

Mills could give Birch a bit of financial muscle

An answer to their short-term problems could be to accept a couple of million from a benefactor.

But there is no such thing as a free lunch and any sugar daddy would want something in return - which brings Birch back to the very situation he is trying to avoid.

In these days when football appears to be awash with cash, £5m seems an almost paltry sum to raise.

But try telling Trevor Birch that.