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“Alan Smith will never leave this club, as long as I’m here,” he declared.Now if we ignore the question that statement may beg in some mischievous minds of precisely how long the manager will be here, in view of Manchester United’s quest to find a successor to Sir Alex Ferguson, the statement was imbued with the genuine emotion of a protective father determined to see the best in his gifted but occasionally errant son. “The fact that the manager said that means a great deal to me,” said Smith after training on Friday, as Leeds prepared for a potentially perilous FA Cup tie against Cardiff City “I’d love to stay here because I’m a local lad. But that doesn’t mean that I can become complacent.”Indeed, Fowler’s appearance – and immediate assault on Leeds’ goalscoring records – could, in many similar young eyes, have strengthened the squad but diminished their own prospects. Fowler, Smith, Mark Viduka and Robbie Keane, with Harry Kewell acting as an auxillary forward, may well invest Leeds with attacking options but doesn’t necessarily bode well for every individual named.In fact, O’Leary’s belief in the volatile 21-year-old, a one-time Elland Road ball-boy, who can be as much an assassin as artist when the mood takes him, has been demonstrated by giving Smith the responsibility of a new role in a three-pronged attacking strategy comprising himself, Viduka and Fowler.”I’ve been playing wide on the right,” he said. “That means if Bow [Lee Bowyer] goes forward on the left-hand side I’ve been tucking in to make a three in midfield.” Significantly, Smith, Fowler and Viduka were all involved in the latter’s first goal in the 3-0 victory over West Ham on Tuesday night.”There was good movement between us and it shows that our system, with three attacking players, can pay off. We’ve done it for the last three games and won all three, so long may it continue.

The first time I played there I was a bit na?, but recently I’ve settled into it a lot better and played probably my best football I’m happy there. I feel I can do myself justice.”Whether he can continue doing so, however, is the principal doubt concerning a player who boasts a record of 36 goals in fewer than 100 games, but a rather less satisfactory statistic regarding dismissals and suspensions.The hierarchy, in the shape of both chairman Peter Ridsdale and O’Leary, emphasised their displeasure after Smith’s straight red card following an elbow on Aston Villa’s Alpay in November. “What is unacceptable is to be paying a player who is suspended and what is not acceptable is for Alan himself to disrupt his career as a talented player because he’s not available as he keeps on getting sent off,” said Ridsdale O’Leary added: “Has Alan Smith got to improve? Yes Do I want him to have an edge? Yes. But it’s through his frustration that he lets himself down at times.”What riles him, Smith explained, is not a defender’s uncompromising challenge, but losing. That is what provoked his late dismissal against Valencia at the end of last season’s Champions’ League semi-final second leg.

However, you put it to him, that hardly explains his red against Villa. “If you go in for tackle and mis-time it and get sent off the manager won’t slag you off for that,” he said “But that day I was stupid. I’ll put my hands up myself and say that was probably my stupidest sending-off, particularly as we were winning and I’d just scored. If a fellow went down like he [Alpay] did I’d feel embarrassed about myself.”But really there was no reason for it, and I can’t explain it. Even my mum says after something like that, ‘What were you doing?’ and all you can say is ‘you’ve never played and you don’t understand what goes through your mind’.”Smith added: “The manager didn’t need to say anything, to be honest I know myself that I’ve let people down.