LEEDS seemed united in July when Terry Venables took over the manager's chair at Elland Road.

But they now seem to be in trouble again ahead of their weekend clash with Wanderers.

The club had looked in turmoil throughout the summer, after David O'Leary's departure and the saga of Rio Ferdinand's sale to rivals Manchester United.

The release of both captain and manager was chiefly caused by the club's failure to qualify for the Champions League since reaching the semi-finals of the competition in 2000-01.

With the two figures who were perhaps most synonymous with the West Yorkshire club's successes over the last few years gone, the club needed a fresh injection of life.

Enter Mr Venables for his first permanent top flight position in more than a decade,

As Leeds United Supporters' Club chairman Ray Fell said at the time: "Terry Venables has almost unrivalled football management experience and we know we have got a man with charisma and ability and a track record that we are looking for."

Indeed, what more could they want?

Although shackled a little in the transfer market by the club's £40m debt, he soon brought in Nick Barmby from Liverpool, and the promotion of Paul Robinson to first choice in goal showed that Leeds were looking forward.

Things started so well with two victories in the opening week of the season, and of course Venables' pals in the London-based national media were already reporting that the Messiah had returned.

But there have been one or two problems since then. Until their laboured victory over West Ham at the weekend, Leeds had won just one of their previous nine games, and that was 1-0 at home against Hapoel Tel-Aviv in the Uefa Cup.

They were humiliated in the Worthington Cup last week in losing to Sheffield United, and events got worse for the boss with chants of "Venables out" from the Leeds fans amidst scenes of crowd trouble.

Despite his much-lauded arrival, just what exactly did Leeds expect from the 59-year-old, who was reportedly the club's third choice behind Martin O'Neill and Steve McClaren?

After a moderate career with Chelsea and Tottenham, Venables earned his managerial reputation by taking Crystal Palace to the top flight in the late 1970s and then helping QPR to fifth place in the old First Division.

In 1984 he surprisingly took over at Barcelona after Bobby Robson had recommended him to the Spanish side.

He won the title with Barca in 1985 but was sacked two years later. Since then he has won just one trophy - the FA Cup in 1991 with Spurs, whom he spent four average years as boss.

Although he took England to the semi-finals of Euro '96 his reign was plagued by poor performances, including bore draws at Wembley with the likes of Uruguay, Romania, Columbia and Switzerland.

Since then he has failed to take Australia to the 1998 World Cup as they lost in a play-off to Iran, became chairman at Portsmouth, spent four months back at Crystal Palace, and in 2001 linked up with Bryan Robson to help Middlesbrough's international stars remain in the Premiership.

His managerial record is reasonable, but in no way proportionate to his reputation, which sees him perenially linked with a return to the England job.

So maybe Leeds expected too much, and certainly when you consider the long-term injuries to Robbie Fowler, Dominic Matteo, Michael Bridges and Jonathan Woodgate.

That has been compounded by the poor form of Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Ian Harte and Gary Kelly, and the controversial temperament of Alan Smith.

Things have got so bad that the fans are calling for David Batty's return.

Despite the increasing pressure Venables is glad that he returned to management and is positive about the future of the club with games against Bolton, Tottenham and Charlton coming up in November.

"The recent statistics have been worrying but I have no regrets about coming to Leeds and I think that the margin between where we are now and turning the corner is very small.

"I know that I'm biased but I think that despite the fact that results have not gone our way, we have always played well. At the moment players are feeling low but Manchester City have shown that results can quickly change.

"I'm looking at the next three games to get us back on track because it could easily turn round.

"Looking ahead we've fixtures coming up now we should do something about. It's an opportunity to get up that league and we've got to put ourselves under pressure to be able to do that."

Despite so long away from the top of the domestic game Venables has quickly picked up the vocabulary of unsuccessful modern managers who rely solely on the acquisition of players to produce results.

By his own admission the squad is "imbalanced" and he will be relying upon a big turnover of personnel during the transfer window.

He said: "The club has said they will do everything they can to help me acquire players at that stage, so we've got to get prepared for that.

"I would like to keep the squad as it is, although there may be one or two who want to leave, but if I can add two or three players then I'll be happy.''

O'Leary spent £100m and failed to bring any silverware to Elland Road. Venables will have a fraction of that and at present looks unlikely to achieve the club's target of returning to Europe's top table.