Norwich City did a great job of exploiting Leeds United's Ken Bates problem: View | OneFootball

The story of Leeds United's rise and fall is an all too familiar one for Whites fans.

Having appeared in the Champions League semi-final against eventual runners-up Valencia, not many would have envisaged the ten-year downfall that followed.

What happened was a tragedy for one of England's biggest football clubs, as they wound their way down to the third tier of English football after being imposed with points deductions and administration.

This meant that for many years, Leeds had to become a selling club and sell some of their best homegrown and bought in talent to rival clubs.

One of these clubs was Delia Smith's Norwich City, who were able to purchase some excellent individuals from the Yorkshire club.

Ken Bates sells top Leeds talent

A muddy ownership structure at Elland Road was always a problem, with nobody truly understanding who was in control at the club, despite Bates being the front-man.

In May 2011, the former Chelsea owner finally took full ownership of the club as he purchased 73% of it for an undisclosed fee.

With that problem finally sorted, Bates began to make moves in the transfer market. Surprisingly or not, incomings would be at a minimum and high profile outgoings became a feature of his time at the helm.

Max Gradel, who had scored 18 goals in the previous season, and Kasper Schmeichel, who claimed nine clean sheets, were both sold to Saint-Étienne and Leicester City for a combined £3.14 million respectively in the summer of 2011.

These two departures left Leeds fans upset. But, the addition of Bradley Johnson leaving on a free to the Canaries in the summer, being followed by Jonathon Howson's January departure, enraged fans.

Protests followed, with fans angered at Bates' seven terrible years in charge and his clear lack of ambition to take the club back to the Premier League.

A 2019 interview with Leeds fan and previous manager Simon Grayson confirmed the suspicions. Stating a complete lack of funds provided to help get them near promotion during his tenure. He was quoted as saying: “They’d seen what the club had gone through financially and didn’t want to go through that. But the odd little gamble…I wasn’t wanting millions on players. Half a million on this, that and the other would have helped us go along the line.”

Unfortunately, it got even worse, as winger Robert Snodgrass and forward, Luciano Becchio, both followed Johnson and Howson to Carrow Road.

Norwich City take advantage of Leeds misfortune

For Chris Hughton at Norwich, he had found a clear source of signing quality players for very limited fees at Leeds.

Whilst Becchio didn't set the world alight, appearing only 16 times for Norwich City, the other three became superb players and were a mainstay of Hughton's side.

In his first season, Snodgrass made the most appearances for the Canaries, with 37 in the Premier League, where he provided 14 goal contributions for his side. He followed this up with another eight the following campaign as the East Anglian club were disappointingly relegated in 18th place.

Howson and Johnson enjoyed brilliant spells as well, both becoming firm parts of Norwich's Premier League and Championship team, as they played next to each other in a midfield four.

Both players enjoyed a particularly fruitful spell in their 2014-15 promotion campaign as they scored 24 goals and provided seven assists between them.

Norwich had clearly done well in their transfer dealings with Bates. Which is no more evidenced than with all three players outside Becchio receiving the Player of the Year award on separate occasions.

Leeds fans anguish is Canaries joy

Had Leeds been under a more stable owner, it would have been no surprise to see many of their key players remain at Elland Road and push them towards Premier League football at an earlier date. They had proved to be the core of players to drive them out of League One and to seventh in the Championship in 2010/11, had Grayson received the aforementioned backing, he might've got them over the line.

Nobody can blame Norwich though for taking advantage of the situation, and they profited with on-pitch performances alongside the sale of Snodgrass to Hull City for £7 million covering the cost of all purchases.

It was a time when Norwich thrived on Leeds' position, whilst the Whites merely survived floating from one EFL journeyman to another on the back of key sales.