The plight of Leeds United over recent years has highlighted the recent trend of teams that aim for instant success in a ‘Boom or Bust’ attitude. Their relegation in 2004 showed the errors of this approach and hopefully clubs can take heed of this in the future. Not all clubs who have this attitude suffer the same fate as Leeds and there are a handful clubs who have been successful with this policy.

The first British club who tried to buy success were Blackburn Rovers in the 1990’s. Until the formation of the Premier League in 1992, the majority of Blackburn’s success was pre-1930. All of this looked set to change when local steel magnet Jack Walker bought the club in 1991 and installed Kenny Dalglish as manager.

In 1992 Blackburn won promotion to the new Premier League and within three years of gaining promotion they won the Premier League having spent millions of pounds. Jack Walker’s takeover of his childhood club and his ambition to make them one of the best teams in the country had worked.

The cost of Walker’s dream to see Blackburn as Premiership champions had been costly. Once they had gained promotion to the Premiership (in 1992) they paid a then British record fee of £3.5 million for England centre forward Alan Shearer. During the 1992-93 season Walker opened his cheque book again and made several other expensive signings in Graeme Le Saux, Stuart Ripley and Kevin Gallagher.

An impressive Blackburn side finished fourth with the new signings and Walker again opened his cheque book to allow Dalglish money to further strengthen and he dually bought Tim Flowers and David Batty. The policy of spending money to buy success edged closer as Blackburn finished runners-up to Manchester United in 1993-94.

In 1994 Blackburn again set a new British transfer record when Chris Sutton was signed from Norwich for £5 million. Sutton formed a prolific partnership with Alan Shearer which helped the club win their first Premiership title in 1995. Jack Walker’s dream had come true, within five years of buying the club he had taken them from the old Second Division to champions of the Premier League.

At the end of the 1990’s, Peter Risdale, the Leeds United Chairman, harboured similar ambitions to that of Jack Walker. The main difference between both clubs was that Blackburn under Walker were a privately owned club when they won the Premier League and self financed. On the other hand Leeds United were a Plc with limited finances.

Under the management of David O’Leary , Peter Risdale hoped the glory days of Don Revie from the 1960s and 1970s (when they won a host of major honours) would return. O’Leary promoted numerous youth team players to the first team and was also allowed to spend big money to help return the club to its glory days.

Without the backing of a wealthy owner, Peter Risdale and the Leeds United board were taking a big gamble in their policy for trying to buy instant success. Leeds needed silverware and Champions League football to help finance their ambition.

Under the leadership of O’Leary (and George Graham) the club finished fourth during the 1998-99 season and qualified for the following seasons UEFA Cup. In the following season the policy of spending almost paid off as Leeds reached their first European semi final in 25 years. Galatasaray ended their dream of European silverware as they won the match 4-2 on aggregate to reach the UEFA Cup final.

On a brighter note Leeds United finished third in the Premiership and qualified for the 2000-01 Champions League. Risdale had finally seen his club gain entry into the premier club competition in the world were money was to be made.

Risdale opened the cheque book again for O’Leary in the hope that this would secure the clubs first Premiership title and also lead to European success. Rio Ferdinand arrived for a British record of £18 million, £6 million was spent on Mark Viduka, Robbie Keane arrived for £12 million and £7 million was spent on Seth Johnson. The Leeds board had taken a big gamble in their quest for silverware.

Leeds played attractive attacking football in the Champions League and qualified out of a group that contained Real Madrid, Lazio and Anderlecht. In the ¼ finals Leeds beat Spanish outfit Deportivo La Coruna 3-2 on aggregate setting up a ½ final showdown with Spanish giants Valencia. The Spanish side broke Leeds fans hearts as they qualified for the final 3-0 on aggregate.

This marked a turning point in the fortune of the club. Leeds finished the 2000-01 season fourth in the league and missed out on qualification for the following seasons Champions League. Failure to qualify for the competition had a knock-on effect on the clubs finances as the board depended on the money from qualification.

Unknown to the general public, Peter Risdale and the Leeds board had taken out large loans against future gate receipts and money from Champions League qualification. With the Leeds team failing to win any silverware the board were not receiving the money they required for the loans. The club began to slip further and further into debt.

David O’Leary was sacked for failure to win any silverware and the club had to start selling off star players to cover their debts. Some of the clubs players were sold for a considerable sum like Rio Ferdinand for £30 million and Jonathan Woodgate for £9 million; but other players left at cut price deals, Robbie Fowler who cost the club £11 million (in 2001) was sold for £3 million, Paul Robinson for £1.5 million and Harry Kewell for a mere £5 million.

With the departure of key players the clubs results began to suffer and Leeds were finally relegated in the summer of 2004, just a few years after reaching the Champions League semi final. The true sum of Leeds debts were revealed at a staggering £124 million. The policy of Peter Risdale and the Leeds board of trying to buy success had backfired.

The latest team to continue the policy set by Blackburn and Leeds is Chelsea. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich purchased the club in June 2003 for £60 million. Over £100 million was spent on new players which saw an instant upturn in the clubs fortunes as they finished second in the Premiership and reached the semi finals of the Champions League.

European Cup winning coach Jose Mourinho was hired as manager in 2004 and the spending spree continued as a further £80 million was splashed out. During Mourinho’s first two seasons at the club he won back to back titles and also reached the Champions League semi final in 2005.

Abramovich’s policy of buying instant success has worked and Chelsea are now a forced to be reckoned with in the Premiership and on the continent. Like Blackburn under Jack Walker in the 1990’s, Chelsea are financed by one individual who has complete control of the club. They also do not run the risk of racking up huge debts like Leeds United did under Peter Risdale.

It seems from recent history that instant success can be bought but at a high price. If a club is self financed by one individual then sometimes money is not an issue for the manager to meet his clubs objectives. On the other hand if a club does not have a wealthy owner, then the clubs need to win silverware on a regular basis to cover their costs and participate in Europe’s premier club competition, the Champions League.