Badge kisser: But Alan Smith's move from Leeds to Manchester
United upset Elland Road fans
As Fabian Delph contemplates leaving Leeds to
join Manchester
United, the 19-year-old could do well to
remember what happened to the last Elland Road star who signed up
to the Theatre of Dreams.
Alan Smith was a hero at Leeds, scoring at Anfield on his 1998
debut aged just 18, and netting 52 goals in 229 games for the club.
He also scored seven Champions League goals as the Yorkshire side
reached the semi-finals in 2001.
However, as soon as he joined United in August 2004 in the wake
of the side's relegation from the Premiership, his cult
status evaporated at Leeds - as did his goalscoring powers.
Sir Alex Ferguson shelled out £7m for Smith's goals but was
repaid with a just 11 in a three-year, 93-game spell that was
punctuated by red cards, injuries and the form of Cristiano
Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Indeed, so sharp has Smith's decline in front of goal been that
he is now regarded as a midfielder and after a £6m switch to
Newcastle in the summer of 2007, he went a whole season and 37
appearances without scoring. He's not played this term because of
injury.
Delph is more of a creative player than the aggressive Smith so
will not expected to be the new Roy Keane.
And if he does make the Roses switch to Leeds' most hated
rivals, he will join a long line of high-profile defectors over the
years, the most successful being Eric Cantona who quit the White
Rose for the Red Rose in 1992 after helping Leeds win the title -
then became the first player to win back-to-back championships with
different clubs.
Other high-profile
moves: Rio Ferdinand (£29m) July 2002; Gordon McQueen
(£500,000) February 1978; Joe Jordan (£350,000) January 1978.
High-profile United players
moving to Leeds: Lee Sharpe (£4.5m) August 1996; Gordon
Strachan (£300,000) March 1989; Johnny Giles (£33,000) August
1963.
In demand: But would Delph be wise to leave one
United for another?
