WHEN, in 1999, Jonathan Woodgate was asked whose results he followed, he could not have foreseen the maelstrom of malice that he would find himself in, nor the swamp that his favoured club would wade though. To invert the question, Leeds United now follow nearly everyone else; flirting with relegation last season, shedding their best players, living a nightmare.

For the first time since his £9 million transfer to Newcastle United seven months ago, Woodgate, 23, will return tomorrow to Elland Road and he will be joined by Lee Bowyer, Sir Bobby Robson’s sole new recruit of the summer. The pair represent the tainted past of Leeds, the ambition that was gambled away and Newcastle’s elevated status.

The story is old and distressing: the drunken night in Leeds city centre that ended in a savage beating for Sarfraz Najeib, the two trials that followed. Woodgate was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and fined eight weeks’ wages, while Bowyer was not found guilty of any offence.

Having played through it all, Bowyer, 26, refused a new contract, pulled out of a £9 million transfer to Liverpool and signed for West Ham United for £300,000 in January. Leeds supporters will not forgive the perceived betrayal. By contrast, the fury that Woodgate generated was directed towards the Leeds directors.

They will receive a mixed reception. Bowyer, who was part of the West Ham team beaten 1-0 away to Leeds in February, will not be greeted kindly; Woodgate will be fêted. “Going back to Leeds won’t faze them,” Alan Shearer, the Newcastle striker, said. “They are both strong characters.”

While the controversy has dissipated, Robson was not permitted a comfortable ride at yesterday’s press conference. Why had he chosen to pair Bowyer with Woodgate? “I didn’t think about it,” he said. “It’s only if you stir it up that people will remember it, but you have to look to the future.”

That may prove wishful thinking. On the day that Bowyer made his debut at Upton Park — when Robson’s side were visiting — a group of protesters picketed the ground and a banner reading “West Ham Fans United Against Racism” was torn down. In friendly matches for his new club, he has been taunted from Sheffield to Malaysia.

“It has been unrelenting, but I’ve spoken to them both and they’re fine,” Robson said. “What people have to be conscious of is that those two loved Leeds. I hope Leeds supporters remember that.”

Whether the issue comes to be viewed, as Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, predicted, as “a storm in a teacup”, is uncertain. Bowyer has not helped himself by saying little other than that he wants “to win things”, but he and Woodgate are certainly good players.

As long as they shun the limelight, Newcastle will be happy. For Leeds supporters, tomorrow will be an uncomfortable reminder of what they lost, although Bowyer’s final act for the club was to stamp on the head of a Málaga player. Will Newcastle come to wonder what they have got themselves into?