Don’t forget the crowd bonus, Gaffer
You won’t hear me going on about tactical issues, team shape, diamond formations and all that malarkey. I know my limits. I have played football, mind you – in the distant days of my youth. I was goal-hanger-in-chief for Bradford College 1st XI in 1981/82, scoring in every game I played. I even scored a hat-trick past a keeper who’d played in a World Cup Qualifier. OK, it was for Oman. But still…
And even when my full-scale football days were over, I still played 5-a-side well into porky middle-age, undeterred by a snapped cruciate ligament. I look back on my playing days very fondly, but I don’t kid myself I know the game on a deep tactical level, so I refuse to pontificate about it. I know there are plenty who have no such reservations, but I also know that the pros think of these types as a rich source of amusement – not to be taken seriously. So I’d rather stick to what I know for my scribblings.
For instance, I know enough about Public Relations to sort out the good, the bad and the ugly from the plain disastrous. It was PR of that latter variety – the really crappy end of that particular stick – that Leeds United now stand guilty of, after yet another dire performance on the field. The team was thrashed out of sight by Bournemouth, a club who had never before beaten the once-mighty United. Clearly, these are dark days, though Bournemouth are a decent side with a go-ahead young manager in Eddie Howe. So it’s no real disgrace for this Leeds squad to lose to them – but, as is the case far too often with the modern-day Whites, it was the spineless manner of the defeat which really rankled.
Even that, though – even the appalling defending and general laxity of play – must pale into insignificance by the side of some of the quotes emanating from the United camp in the wake of this defeat. The players, we are given to understand, are distracted – talking about the club ownership issues and, much more specifically, whether they are going to get paid. This information is offered almost hopefully, as a sort of mitigating background to the inadequacy of the football Leeds are playing these days. Bloody hell, guys. Really?
Trust me – nobody has more sympathy for the working man and his right to get paid than I do (I also extend this courtesy to working women – outside the field of professional football). I’m one of your actual left-wing reds under the bed, a proper old-fashioned socialist. I’m deeply suspicious of management and I’m a strong supporter of workers’ rights, including the right to withdraw their labour if necessary. What I’m not by any means as enthusiastic about is a bunch of extremely well-paid young men seeing fit to grouch – in these parlous times – about the possibility of not being paid on time, when their average bottom line must be forty grand a month at least.
To my mind, this is obscenely disgusting, and it is a PR disaster of the first magnitude that somebody has seen fit to voice such a matter as in any way excusing or making more understandable some of the players’ currently pathetic levels of performance. When you think of the times we live in – times when we’re thanking God it’s been a mild winter so far, because otherwise pensioners face agonising heat-or-eat choices – it makes the blood boil, surely, to hear even a suggestion that athletes earning up to and beyond half a million quid a year should be grizzling about their lot if force majeure necessitates a temporary reaction to acute cash-flow issues.
There are people out here in the real world actually starving, for heavens’ sake. Yes – quite literally fading away from malnutrition in this first-world country of ours, reduced to subsistence on food-bank parcels and watching, horrified, as their kids become vulnerable to scurvy and rickets. And yet, in this bleak context, you have the luckiest of young chaps, earning their munificent living in a manner most of us could only dream of, actually having the gall to grumble that this week’s £15k pay-cheque might not turn up on time – and this, apparently, is putting them off their game. The sheer nerve and bad taste of that makes my head spin. I don’t want to name names, but the person who has raised this issue of the poor players “worrying” must surely wish that, on that particular subject, he’d kept his gob firmly shut.
These are bad, hard times for Leeds United, there’s no denying that. But at the end of the day, football is only a game – and the players who are so preoccupied with thoughts of the next fat wage-packet that they’re seemingly incapable of kicking a ball straight, must surely lack even the most remote sense of proportion. So what if this week’s fifteen grand doesn’t show up? What did you spend last week’s on, or that of a week before? Are you down to the last six-figure sum in the bank yet? Honestly lads, my heart bleeds for you, it really does.
There’s a real world out there, and most of the people living in it would laugh tears of bitter mirth at the very idea of a professional footballer at a club like Leeds United actually whinging about or even worrying about money. As a breach of good taste and etiquette, that knocks passing port to the right into a cocked hat. Things may well get a good deal worse at Leeds before they get better – but even if they do, all the sympathy should be reserved for the fans, those long-suffering fans who follow them everywhere, at vast expense, leaving home fans in awe of their sheer gutsiness wherever they visit. There was the usual raucous army down at Bournemouth, most of whom will have arrived home, cold and dispirited and about £100 lighter in the pocket, sometime in the dawn hours of Wednesday morning. How will they feel when they hear about the players’ petty worries? Not too impressed, I’ll be bound. They might well think – what if nurses, or soldiers, or fire-fighters decided to stick the bottom lip out and sulk when things got a bit stretched financially? Where would we all be then? And they might well be tempted to snap at a discontented footballer: “Honestly – grow up”.
Leeds United as a club doesn’t have a lot going for it at the moment. It doesn’t own its stadium or its training ground. It’s beset by takeover crises and an ownership and investment situation which seems to worsen by the hour. But what it does have is undeniably the best support around – it’s the last real asset of the Leeds United “brand” and as such, it’s something the club simply cannot afford to squander. But really – even a fanatic will run out of enthusiasm at some point – probably about the same point a saint loses the last shreds of his or her patience. It’s a finite resource, like anything else. And if there’s one thing guaranteed further to sicken a devoted fan who has just made a round trip of hundreds of miles at great expense to see the heroes in white get well and truly stuffed, it’s to be made aware that those so-called heroes can think only about the next wedge of cash due to them – and sadly not about those poor fans, without whom there would be no game of football for them to get overpaid to play.
That’s a terribly sad situation, and I truly hope that all parties to this tasteless leak of unpalatable information get a lot of earache for it, together with a stern reminder of what real life is like out there in the real world. I’m a devoted Leeds United fan, and there’s not much about my beloved club that could ever genuinely nauseate me.
But this thing has – it really, really has.
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
This should be sent to the manager and players.
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well said pal most earn in a week that most average workers do in a year , and using the take over as an excuse to play like the have been doing is wrong.
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We’ll said, it’s true everything u say, thanks for putting it into words and let’s hope are mighty club has a silver lining!!!
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I agree with all of this. I’m glad, Rob, that you’re finally pointing the figure at the players. I don’t know what’s wrong with some of them. True, about a third of our squad are just rubbish and a few more are mediocre, but I expect more of Lees, Wootton, Murphy, and so on. Why are they so lost? We know they’re capable of fighting for every ball, are they really so thick that they can’t work out where their teammates are in any formation other than a flat 4-4-2 and so flounder? (One thing pros do occasionally say is that players can look bad because just one or two of them are, literally, in the wrong place).
Well yes, some of them are that thick. I fear that Lees may be in that class.
But that explanation still doesn’t cover it. I hope McDermott is here next year, because he knows this lot best and, given the chance, I’m sure he’ll get the guilty parties out. (Shame they seem to include Hunt and Kebe; signing those 2 is the one place where I think BM has gone wrong.)
I do blame the players. Modern footballers are a pack of wankers for the most part. I’d exempt McCormack and Smith from this, and probably Byram (carrying an injury I’m sure), Mowatt and White. but the others have all looked guilty at some point. Makes me wonder if, if BM is given the chance to make a clean sweep, players like Murphy, Wootton and even Lees will find that they’ve failed to make the grade. Look at the speed with BM got Peltier out of the door when he caught the whiff of a half-chance. “It’s locked now Pelts, you can’t get back in!”
Takes time to build, especially when you inherit a rotten culture and a bad squad, and can – mostly – only sign a few kids.
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Hi,John I agree with most of your post. I do believe that the failure is the managers,even if you do not have the best players you can still make it very difficult for the opposing team by closing them down. It shows that they lack fitness because they are unable to move around the pitch.teams are running straight through them.butland doesn’t stand a chance
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I think McDermott has so little power he may as well have none at all. Austin, for instance, is clearly thick, and we have no alternative to playing him. You can’t put it all on the shoulders of Mowatt and Murphy. That problem alone cripples the team, and there are plenty more. Basically, McDermott is a caretaker manager. I hope he stays for another 2 years, but he can’t really start the job until this mess is sorted out. I do think he got it wrong with 3 of the signings, but how could he know that Hunt and Kebe would be so bad? They worked for him at Reading. (Maybe Hunt still isn’t fully fit.) And Zaliukas, well, Hearts did well out of him. Who knows what’s going on there, I suspect the player has said or done something.
So I just don’t think there’s enough evidence to convict McDermott. Results lie – it isn’t him, it’s the rubbish he inherited.
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Very well put, Rob. I couldn’t believe it when Brian was saying that stuff, but surely deep down, SOMEWHERE in the McDermott body there must have been at least one fibre of his being contorted with rage at the rubbish display he’d just witnessed from very close range.
I think even having eleven blokes behind the ball and parking the bus, would have been preferable to running around like headless chooks.
I wonder if he gave the players a right old post-match bollocking? Or just a friendly chat and a promise to buy the first round back at the hotel?
McDermott himself must be on a very lucrative wage, so perhaps he’s also distracted, the poor lad?
I STILL believe that Brian should be thanked for handling himself so well after the night of the long knives, and there is very probably a lot going on behind the scenes which he cannot reveal, but yeah the players are paid – handsomely – to play football and with two or three exceptions most have proved not fit for purpose at Leeds United.
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Do you really think that yelling at people makes them work harder? Threats might do it – but how do you threaten overpaid people with secure contracts?
I think McDermott is probably past suppressed rage now and into pure despair. He’s only clinging on because he said he wouldn’t walk away and because things might come good for him in the summer. If the summer is a mess, though, maybe even he will have had enough.
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Rob
like you I can almost take anything thrown at me to do with LUFC, but to hear comments like that coming from players about there next wage packet sickens me to the core. That’s me mate im done with it after 40 years until there are major changes at our club from top to bottom.
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NEVER MORE A TRUE WORD SAID ROB, I once put pen to paper and informed Ken Bates exactly the same thing. LUFC do not have any assets even the so called players 75% of the them cant be seen as an asset to the club as they are worth nothing.
The most prize possession this club has and has had since the s###t hit the fan all those years ago are the supporters. In my mind their is not one club in the whole of the UK or even the world that could have asked more from its supporters, they have stuck with this club over the last 12 years with only the promotion from League 1 a season to remember.
The 1,500 that were their last night all deserve a gold medal each and they have my full respect for true support and i am dame sure that their would have been even more if tickets were available.
The club and all its staff have to reflect back on what has been going on at this Football club for the last 12 years and more most off them are relatively new to the club and thus have not had to put up with the LEEDS factor of all the crap we have had to deal with over this time, the supporters are not new to this and have been through the lot. All the staff need to ask them selves this question do you have the heart and passion for this job in hand, if not get out of the front door and let someone who does have these qualities to take your place and MOT with the supporters that clearly do.
we cant get back to the top with those that do not have our passion for the shirt that they pull on
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Absolutely spot on.
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Do you have the direct quote upon which this article is based? Or is it just from that tweet by Phil Hay?
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It was from multiple sources. And it pissed me off.
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Fair enough but as you say it’s a PR issue…I would bet McD . Mc Corm and most others haven’t used this as an excuse or even think it.
Typical rudder less run club. Ownership and uncertainty will have an effect but that being said we want and should receive more. I back McD because at least he continues to have the balls to face the camera without any support. When are we going to hear from the Middle east owners?? Leaving the manager to do the talking and face the bombardment of ownership questions is beyond a joke.
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Excellent! I just hope the players , staff and owners(if we have any) read this post. I fear for Leeds Utd.
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Funny how you should write about the itinerent mercenaries on the very day a former commander in chief mercenary announces his retirement. We have the worst possible coach in charge to deal with these players too. When i was a kid the grown ups would lecture on what a load of pampered softies footballers were. I think the top whack then would have been 250 quid a week for a top player at Leeds. Myself and my family watch a match together every week and my wife pointed out one day that joe hart and a few others had had their eyebrows done. I also remember reading about England and Chelsea hardman john terry paying 150 quid for a manicure for fecks sake AND he’s got a trout lake in his back garden,his housekeeper needs an Oyster card to hang the washing on the line. They’re on another planet.Fans are from earth footballers are from venus.
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Rob how can it not be affecting them (that’s intended as irony not a real statement) when it’s the only thing their manager has talked about every week since we started losing.
We get smashed by Rochdale he blames it but will go away and learn, we get battered by Wednesday it’s the takeover but he will go away and learn. Bolton, Reading, Bournemouth, Burnley, etc etc
It is all McDermott ever talks about, it seems he is incapable of operating in out current situation so get him out as he clearly isn’t learning is he.
Will Gfh suddenly become great owners? no, will the Fl accept Cellino? no. Will anyone else come in with millions? no
So Brian needs to man up to the challenge even if it’s not fair on him, stop talking about it and manage his workers if he can’t he needs to go end of. Currently he isn’t making a positive difference he is part of the problem, as for the players I despise them more each week, weak spineless losers who take our money and can’t wait to escape as soon as they can. Howson, Gradel, Varney, Peltier et all.
Ultimately ALL of this is our owners fault, where are the FL on these idiots, utter silence
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Morning Rob what a cracking article I totally agree the players should take a pride in what there doing and for the money they get performances like last night are not acceptable what really concerns me is the apparent lack of coaching for example the fourth goal last night left back not in sight both centre forwards unmarked at the far post free header into the net and no disrespect to Ross by far our best player we are lacking a leader on the field this has certainly been a season to forget but as us Leeds fans say there is always next year. Did Don Revies son not show an interest in acquiring the club a few years ago?
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We’ll said Rob! I am one of the few very lucky Leeds fans because having had my own sporting aspirations cut short with a double knee injury at 15 I decided to pick up Leeds seriously when Don Revie took the helm having been introduced to my club by my brother in about 1954 when players came to training on the bus and lived up the street.
Cometh the hour, Cometh the man, the great Don Revie who rather strangely was off to manage Bournemouth before Harry Reynolds had a eureka moment. So, the point is how sorry I feel for the young and not so young fans of today who have to cling onto passed down memories and statues at ER together with poor quality videos of one of the greatest club sides ever assembled.
And yes, we could rush down at lunchtime to see them training at the back of the West stand and they were all just approachable somewhat better off versions of the bloke next door for whom defeat under any circumstances was anathema.
Will the hour come again and will the man ever come again for Leeds United?
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Footballers exist in their own little world devoid of reality. They here of the likes of Rooney earning £300k and feel sorry for themselves only receiving their several thousand pittance! They need to be shocked into the real world with their recent performances some should be on job seekers!
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Since Christmas this has been the worst run that I can remember for many years. Ian Baird was being diplomatic about Brian McDermott,saying that if the club was on an even keal he would have been sacked a month ago,comparing it to Billy Davis.he was lost for words about the players,unacceptable,no passion.He said when he played for leeds United the would accept defeat if you had given your all. See what the next few days brings for us
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As footballer’s, they should be aware that the League rules state the footballing debts get paid first, before any creditors, like the cleaners, pie supplier etc. get their cash. So where’s the worry.
And what does it matter to them who takes over? They’re on a contract. So whoever takes over cannot just sling them on to the streets without settling up first.
They should be playing their socks off in preparation for their next contract, whoever it may be with.
No one really seems to be playing for the badge or the fans
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Rob – well said and spoken from the heart. Putting the smokescreen of potentially not getting paid to one side – I just do not understand why, given the appalling performances of the team over the last 4 or 5 matches (I could easily have inserted 4 or 5 months !), Brian McDermott has not given the likes of Brown, Tonge and Diouf a chance to stem the tide in midfield. Listening to the despairing commentary from LUTV, it’s as if we are playing without any midfielders – surely there has to be a rotation and use of the rest of the squad for the game against Doncaster. It can’t get any worse, can it ?
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You’d hope not. But how confident can we be? There seems to be a cancer of the “Me, me, me” culture among the squad. With very few exceptions, it seems they couldn’t give a toss about the fans.
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In mitigation the players like everyone will have financial obligations to meet. Most people live up to their income and although I agree they are well paid worries over getting paid would be there. My concern is B McD has commented on all these issues so often he’s as culpable as anyone for putting these worries foremost in their minds. As a guy comes over well as a football manager an abject failure.
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With respect, there’s a limit to the understanding due to people on such a massive wedge for playing with a ball. Clubs encourage players to save, and most do. It doesn’t take long to pile up a couple of hundred grand – and that’s quite a feather bed to fall back on if rainy days come by.
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And with respect how many players have you heard complaining? Only the evermore hapless manager saying they are. Team is very poor but how many of those. Brought in by B McD? He’s added nothing and whilst he’s in charge we are as he wishes all pulling in one direction the problem being it’s the wrong one.
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So it’s all a big blame-shifting exercise by the manager, is it? Dear me. Wake up and smell the coffee for God’s sake.
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Rob,
Everyone is clear that the number 1 culprits are GFH they account for at least 80%…. but Brian McDermott has had money to spend & inherited a few decent players.
He has to take some responsibility also.
He still picks Austin week in and out when Brown is better or Green.
Its too simple I think to blame everything on behind the scenes events.
My worry is that he clearly is incapable of handling the current situation & next season isn’t going to be better. I expect Ross, Mowatt & Byram to all be sold & possibly others like Peltier or Pearce moved on.
If he can’t cope now with the best striker in the league what happens next season?
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No players care about anything other than playing once they cross the line ,its just BMCD has put over the line a heap of crap,can’t believe there are still people supporting .him.I Played good standard amature football ,and I hear more sense from those type than all the top pros,it doesn’t mean they know anymore because they had more talent & were lucky to get the chance Most of them don’t watch half as much football as the amatuersi,listening to most of them they are like BMCD they havn’t got a cLue,
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While i doubt whether many Leeds players are paid 15k a week (does anyone know?), it disappoints me that we have players (with very few exceptions: Smith, McCormack and a couple of the kids) who use the crisis at the club as an excuse for failure. Why not use it as a motivational tool? Whatever happened to resilience, defiance and all those other time-honoured Leeds United traits? Sadly, the example from the manager (who otherwise seems a personable guy) has been feeble. He has been bleating for weeks now and sending out shambolic, unbalanced, unmotivated sides. And let’s not forget this slide started in December, long before anyone was talking about not being paid and needing to ship players out on loan to cut the wage bill. To the guy that said ‘that’s me done after 40 years’, I say ‘don’t give up, keep fighting and supporting’. I’ll be there on Saturday. Right now the fans are Leeds’ greatest asset.
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I think some of them are paid £15,000 a week. Ross probably gets more than that, but Warnock, Pearce, Peltier, Pugh and a few others may be around the 12-15 mark. Depressing.
I can’t help noticing that, like others, you don’t say who McDermott should pick instead. He’s played every credible 11. Unless of course you think that playing Ross and 10 debutants would fix this mess.
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I dread to think how there going to preform if they don’t get paid I’ve heard of fair weather supporters wich where not but a whole team of fair weather players and back room staff where’s the Dunkirk spirit backs agains the wall come out swinging no they just curl up and cry about how hard it is. as the saying goes if u ent part of the solution then your part of the problem maybe we could find new investment if we where performing on the pitch who would invest in a team full of roll over monkeys.if u don’t get paid you should look in the mirror and u will see part of the reason why.birmingham city have been going through hell but you don’t hear there manger crying about this and that just focus on football and hope for the best it can be done but it ent easy easy is blaming all and sundrie MOT
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all i can say rob is that the players must have been worried about wages since xmas , cos they’ve been shite since then
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If this sorry bunch of Leeds players and a poor excuse of a manager, had all been at the club when Leeds started that season on minus 15 points, they would have got Leeds relegated into League 2.
That Denis Wise team also had to put up with a hell of a lot going on in the background and could have felt sorry for themselves, but instead they used the 15 point deduction as a tool to motivate themselves to go on a winning run.
Once the players get onto the pitch they should not be worrying about getting their wages, instead they should be wanting to win the game for the loyal, long suffering Leeds fans, who also have their own troubles.
Do any of the current Leeds players actually realise that some people are struggling to find work and have to live on £72 a week.
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Spot on again! Couldnt have put it better myself. How did we as fans deserve these spineless players, management, and owners.
Im a season ticket holder, and i wont be going again this season. Im embarrassed by this garbage, and refuse to waste £100 a game to take myself and my son. Never in 20 years have i felt so divorced from them.
New owners, new manager, new players, new attitude needed – same fans please though.
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I’m a closer to 60, than our defence is to a clean sheet, and would like to add the following point.
Many years ago I was out of work and absolutely skint with a young family. My one period in the week when money was not weighing heavily on my mind was crossing the white line to play Sunday league football. For 90 minutes I could forget money worries and play football. Why can’t they!!!!!
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Very, very well put. The fans are all we’ve got going for us at the moment and they/we deserve so much better.
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Utter shite on the field of play I half expected another spineless performance …. Disgusted in their attitude where are they supporting the shirt and the club and the manager. Complete bollax gutted …… Again !!!!!!!!!
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I totally agree Rob. One thing that made my blood boil at the Millwall game was the “warming up” of the subs. Stewart and Poleon clearly couldn’t give a flying one. They were virtually motionless on the touchline near the Kop end, and nonchalantly chatting and laughing, with no regard to the knife edge struggle that was going on on the pitch. A disgrace. Having said that, I was also disgusted that they were allowed to do that. MOT
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If I go to work and sat in the corner with my arms crossed I wouldn’t expect to get paid. Our manager and players have effectively withdrawn their labour, surely they should not get paid?
Just a point
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young kids cast-offs uncle colins old guard all been told GFH NO LONGER BANK ROLLIN LEEDS Cellinos 5-10million pumped into club n what still no plan be statement from GFH waiting on cellino apeal so between now & the apeal hearing whos paying the wages yada yada mcdermott should walk
hm lets look at it hes 1 year into a 3 year contract would you walk out of your 15k-24k job because the firms in financial difficulty n they may be redundancies surely youd wait until your pushed then you get paid up
back to GFH if they aint putting any more money in then it wont be ho crap administration it would be insolvancy just like comet staples jessops woolworths but if things were heading that way GHF would put us into administration then 10-15 deduction then its bid a club KPMG accountants take over running the club trying to find a buyer
1. walmart £60mil for Elland road site building new distribution center easy access to m/ways
2. big mr money bags worth £340+ billions buys stadium back n training ground starts redeveloping the ground 50-60k capacity
3. togeather leeds wait bide there time untill after cellino’s apeal goes down the shitter togeather leeds bid 15-17.5mil for club this includes figure to pay off cellino but this is the only propper bid on table
whos guna chuck some big bucks at leeds
hope its not another set of camel jockey chancers who throw a few mil into transfer kitty hoping we get promoted whoops we didnt we need to sell leeds ASAP
but 2 pikies have offered £500 for the 2 bronze statues of billy n the don
theyll get £5000 the the bronze at the scapper
SHAME THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIDNT DO THE SAME ON GFH AS THEY DID ON CELLINO WAS IT LIKE THIS
HO YA WANA BUY LEEDS OFF PAPPA SMURF FOR £25MIL HO GOOD YOU GOT THE MONEY
DID THE LEAGUE ASK/ASSATAIN THE BUSINESS PLAN GOING FORWARD 3-4-5 YEARS IN
WELL WE ARE A BUNCH OF CHANCERS HOPING TO GET LEEDS PROMOTED N GET ALL BT/SKY SPORTS BIG BUCKS
THEN SELL CLUB FOR £50-£80MIL BIG MULAR PROFIT
BUT IF WE DONT GET PROMOTED WE CAN DO SOME ASSET STRIPPING MR SMURF TEACHED US THAT
N THE SILENCE FROM GFH IS DEAFENING
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It is a surreal situation just now.
Because the ownership is in limbo, Brian is keeping his job!!
He should be on his way back south, with his pockets full off pay-off money.
This team is so bad – SO BAD!
They disgust me!!!
BM is on the lies trail, that all manager graduate to before the get the boot.
He cannot stand listening to his crap any more!!
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Blind faith continues because Brian is a nice guy. He is the manager, look it up and see what that means. It doesn’t mean say all the right things to the fans, put on a sad look to gain sympathy. What has this take over stopped Brian doing ; he brought in 4 premiership players. Hands up time brain, look across at you counterpart last night and see how much cash he has had to spend, or if Bournemouth are ever a million miles from administration. We have been poor for 80% of the season. If it wasn’t for the inappropriate sacking by Cellino you’d have been sacked anyway.
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And what about the PR disaster of the official web site telling the fans “you’re arse holes”. Oh no, wait, it’s just been pointed out it said You’re Our Sole. Panic over.
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Agree with everything you have said about the players mentality and what is even more sickening is that we all know that in the event of administration the first rule is that football debts are paid off before any others, so even if they don’t get paid this month – they will get paid – so what is there to worry about??
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Exactly.
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Just goes to show what a load of self centered low lifes footballers are nowadays 34 years behind leeds utd and i cant remember a shower of shit as bad as this, surely there cant be anymore excuses from manager or players that are well over paid for mediocre to poor skills on the pitch. With exceptions of mccormack,byram[injurys] and smith who is actually putting a shift in to warrant being paid. players including stewart kebe,douf,and hunt are a serious drain on money we have not got at the moment what have they done since arriving [nothing].The manager seems to be clueless at the minute, out of his depth in every way wonder what his wage packet is Now i dont like the man but we need someone like dilly davis who will put the fear of god in them and light a fire underneath them,dont get me wrong i like mcd as a man but has no balls as a manager he is a great scout but thats it. It has been a seriously bad 3 months for our beloved club and as a long suffering fan i think things will get worse before they get better,there must be some sort of takeover curse on elland rd, ever since it started we have gone downwards spiral [thanks fl].On another note thank f..k sicknote has retired ………..damd good truths again rob………MOT forever
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I’m repeating myself here on two points,but why didn’t he move on those that weren’t going to get a game? He could have reduced the wage bill significantly. It boils my piss that norris and diouf are still handsomely rewarded for doing bugger all. Also hunt,on what planet would he be a decent acquisition? Is he a mandatory care in the community signing from a home for the confused and bewildered? As for the other passengers,BM needs to speak to the parent clubs of both kebe and stewart and tell them he can’t play them as they’ll get dogs abuse if he does and it will affect them mentally. I saw through BM a long time ago and its on record,i thought he was a good bloke but a poor coach. Now i’m struggling to find a good thing to say about him. We need to be less sentimental as supporters and i know thats a paradox at the moment,but he’s survived this long purely on the platitudes to the fans. Unfortunately some are continuing to believe it,for instance that trapped fart in “Lee Chapmans sofa”. I’m afraid BM is like a dead hamster in its cage,he was loveable once but he’s stinking the place up now and yes i know gfh are far worse but situations like the one we’re in now should galvanize a squad with a decent leader. It’s galvanized the support and we’re the ones losing money,more-so on a pro-rata basis. There’ll be less than 20k for the Doncaster game and who can blame folk for staying away?
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Because he can’t! You have to pay the sods off; most or all of the remainder of their contract. It’s all very tempting to say we should offer 75% of what Norris and co. would have earnt on the rest of their contracts, but that means finding a huge lump of cash up front.
McDermott does listen to offers for players. Look what happened this week – “Sorry Pelts, it all happened in a second and I’ve locked you out and lost the key” said our manager, displaying a ruthless finishing instinct worthy of Allan Clarke. Do you think he wouldn’t do that to others if he could?
Hunt has been carrying an injury. I reckon it’s finished him. Kebe looks as if he isn’t bothered. Both of those did the job for BM at Reading so we know he can motivate them. I thought Kebe was a good player there and Hunt – who was cheap – a useful one, and BM was their manager.
Stewart – I’ve said this about 10,000 times now – doesn’t have a parent club, he’s a Leeds player until summer 2017. Sending him back now would be pointless.
Norris is still injured, and who’d want him even if he was fit? Loaning players out isn’t as difficult as selling them, but if the players are so past it or lazy that no one wants them, or they choose not to agree to sign for a League One team, then BM can do nothing, just as he can do nothing about many other things.
And you’ve overlooked something. How many names are on your list of players BM should magically remove? Mine has swollen to include Fat Paddy, Peltier, Pearce, Warnock, Drury, Austin, Brown, Norris, Tonge, Diouf, Hunt, Poleon, Kebe and Stewart. Those are just the definites, I also lean to chucking out Murphy, Lees, Wootton, Zaliukas and Pugh. Certainly the first 4 of those don’t deserve to play (judging by appearances. I suspect Murphy is innocent.)
Is everyone else’s list as long? Let me think – Pearce and Poleon wouldn’t be on everyone’s, but Pugh probably would and even White would be on some. So we all agree on a list of at least 14. Drury is on 28 days somewhere and Peltier is hopefully gone – the implication seemed to be that his move to Forest would be permanent. Taylor is out on loan. Even Aribyi is out getting some experience.
That doesn’t leave enough players for McDermott to pick, unless you go for Cairns (regarded as not good enough); Byram, Killick, Pearce (his inclusion would make me sick), White; Thompson (also regarded as not god enough), Dawson (regarded as not strong enough yet, but valued), Mowatt; McCormack, Smith, Walters. I suppose you’d stick McDaid, Lenighan and Grimes on the bench, but Christ knows who else.
Personally, I don’t want to watch that lot get crucified, especially as I’m pretty sure that Lenighan and Killick are out playing non-League football anyway, so you’d have to include kids who haven’t even signed YTS forms before you even pick the bench.
Someone wanted the Turnip twins back. Well they’ve been at the club longer than the pitch, have never threatened the bench and are on loan at a non-League sife (as may be one or two of the players I named).
And now, hopefully, you see McDermott’s problem. Some of the players who are already here seem to be lazy, as do some of those he’s signed, even though 2 of them were fine at Reading. (How many times was Kebe mentioned in comments fields and forums as a player we should sign? 1000s?) and of course the culture created by the older players is bad.
All McDermott has been able to do is patch things up, get a few results, then repeat when we’ve been found out. That produces diminishing returns as everyone knows how to beat us now. For a result at this stage of the season we need both luck and an on-form McCormack.
Some will scream that Wickham shouldn’t have been on the wing, but who do you drop? Ross? Smith? And the formation should have been more flexible, but while we have Pearce, Lees and Austin in the spine of our team flexibility just isn’t going to happen (Or with Brown, Wootton or various kids).
The same unobservant people will moan about what a great goalscorer Wickham is and how he BM is incompetent for not playing him up front anyway, and conveniently omit to name the player to make way, forgetting that the bloke’s hardly scored a goal in his bloody life (apart from when at the Wendies). Look up his stats, he gets less than that cnut Varney. Wickham is a maker more than a taker, a Blackstock type (only a bit better). In a decent team he would have done better even on the wing.
McDermott DID try to get 3 or 4 more players in during the summer and at least one had the right experience, but mostly he’s only been allowed to sign cheap kids. That’s hit and miss anyway. You take a Wootton to get a Smith. At a decently funded club that wouldn’t be a problem, as Wootton would have been dropped to the reserves and either given another chance after showing some improvement or released at the end of the season.
So I still think the manager is mostly not to blame, and hasn’t had a cat’s chance in hell to manage us properly. It’s hard to take, but we don’t have to put up with it. We don’t have to go each week. Unlike our rotten directors, poor McDermott does.
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You’re missing my point John. During the summer BM DID have the chance to move a lot of players on. He could have sat them down and explained to them that they weren’t going to feature and that he was going to list them. As for hunt,if he’s been carrying an injury why was he playing anyway? Poleon could have had a few games instead,he couldn’t have been any worse. The fact that BM tied stewart down to a 3 year contract providing we get promoted illustrates just how inept he is as a manager as stewart isn’t even Championship standard. Now however limited a managers resources are he has to work with what he’s got and play to a system then have back up systems,George Graham did this and so did Sgt Wilko when funds were limited,all we’ve seen from BMs sides is chaos. I agree with the majority of your list but i reckon Poleon should stay, i would keep Austin for the time being as he’s a trier and has a high tackle success rate. It’s obvious he’s playing too far forward though. We had good grounds to cancel Dioufs contract as the last time i saw him he was bloated and running around aimlessly.
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Re what you say below my reply, Mick, I think BM did tell some of the players that they might be out of contract in the summer. Was it Brown who said so? I don’t remember.
Stewart is with us regardless of promotion, it’s Kebe who stays only if we go up. (So thank God we aren’t). Stewart looked Premiership standard when I saw him play, he just doesn’t do it for us. Attitude, I reckon.
I think I have to agree with you about BM preferring Hunt to Poleon at the start of the season, but not about Austin, as that was actually tried. I can’t agree about the systems either – BM is onto something like Plan F now with systems. I think the problem is that the players can’t handle them – or just can’t be bothered.
I’m not sure we can sack Diouf, which is what your suggestion amounts to. The real problem with football today is that it isn’t like any other job. If you employed people in any other industry and they behaved like our players they’d be out.
For me it’s all back to that comment of BM’s, “What can I do?”
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Hi everybody.
Ross McC was interviewed last week and he said the takeover (TMA) was NOT affecting the players. I agree that they are financially pretty secure whatever their individual wages may be (and some of the figures quoted above are a bit OTT) so I tend to think he’s right.
In which case; what is the problem?
Unfortunately, it is plainly BMcD. His complete lack of putting together any sort of coherent playing strategy has caught up with us. His inability to spot who is an effective player and who is a passenger costs us dearly in every game. For evidence of his ability on player effectiveness just consider who he has brought in since he said we would only sign players who would “improve the team”; it’s Wootton, Zaliukas, Kebe, Hunt and Stewart, such an improvement that none of them get a game!
Much as I like him as a guy, he’s got to go
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Followed my beloved LUFC for 50 years and will always continue to do so, but to watch the gutless performances of our so-called footballers led by bewildered management is shameful. I am 61 and still play football twice a week enjoying working hard against much younger players. I still want to win. This lot with the odd exception are a disgrace. Grow up and get to work you lazy, unfit, lethargic money-grabbers.
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I stopped going to Elland Road during the final few seasons of Bates’s reign, as I was disgusted with the ‘business model’ and being called a moron.
Then we got new owners and I went to a game, but have stopped again – why ?
Because the club are just as rudderless as before. I want to return when I know my time and cash is appreciated, not when it is merely ignored !
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I commented yesterday Rob and said ‘Icant wait to support my team tonight’ . I and another 1300 or so supporters took holiday from work , 2 days in my case as I knew I wouldn’t be home until around 4am and having to get up at six for work , I couldnt contemplate . Some probably took unpaid leave. We all make sacrifices to follow our team. Best part of 6 hours on the coach but we as ever had hope in our hearts ! . What we were served up by our TEAM , if that’s what they call themselves was nothing short of embarrassing . No guts , no effort by the vast majority no pride in waring our shirt . I will not name you as you know who you are . You’re worried you won’t get paid states Brian . It must be so hard getting out of bed for 10 grand plus a week . That’s 6 months wages for alot of people and more for others . You earn around half a million a year . Please get real….. Within 67 seconds we were losing , I noticed alot of our lads and lasses still coming into the ground already with the team in deficit. Two then three within 28 minutes. Some fans couldn’t take any more and headed for the bars and local pubs. Who could blame them it’s heartbreaking to see our club torn apart by with respect an average championship team , AGAIN . The majority who stayed , clapped and sung their hearts out not for the majority of the players who do not , quite frankly deserve to ware the shirt , as we reminded them after the third went in but for our own pride and respect and for the great players and legends who made this club what we are , what the world saw as the mighty Leeds . After all a visiting team , where if they were playing at ER next week , would tread the hallowed turf in fear of taking on that white shirt and thanking their lucky stars if they escaped with a point.
I was proud to be a Leeds fan last night . My chest swelled and i had tears in my eyes as we belted out ‘we might be shit but we still love Leeds’ This may sound arrogant and many teams will argue that they are but we do have the best supporters in England. We never stopped singing all the game and as the game faded into a foregone conclusion for Bournemouth our fans got louder and louder . I think the Bournemouth players were shocked as a couple of them turned and applauded us after the final whistle and ian harte showed his love and respect towards us. God knows what he must have thought about how the mighty Leeds has fallen. Even after the players had vanished down the tunnel in disgace the supporters rendition of M.O.T bounced off the roof of the stands in defiance . A band of brothers who refuse to be downtrodden and will never let this club die. Not As long as we breathe . Thanks to Ross Mccormack for recognising everlasting support. M.O.T Forever Leeds.
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You and the others who travel so far for so little are the true heroes mate. You’re the best of Leeds, the element of United that gets respect from opposing fans while they laugh at our team. It’s good to hear that Hartey showed that respect too. He played in a class team, it must hurt him to see how low we’ve sunk. Ross and a few others, we know about. They’re still Leeds. It’s not ALL bad, but we have a long and rocky road ahead of us. Meanwhile respect to you and the others in the travelling army of Whites – I take my bloody hat off to you. MOT
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When we previously went into administration weren’t the players contracts guaranteed to be paid before even before the taxman could take his monies as a preferential creditor? Didn’t the HMRC pursue us and try to use this as the test case. All football related debts must be settled before any others if you wish to remain a member of the football league.
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Please please please, BMD get hold of Andy Hughes and get him back to elland road asap.
Hughesy is a year younger than Michael Brown and is out of contract at Charlton in a few weeks.
Not only would Hughesy give the side a bit of steel and discipline in the middle for a season or two, his attitude would infect the whole club again, and God knows we could do with a shot of his never-say-die right now.
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Great call!! Would love to see Hughesie back – the man is Leeds through and through.
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You mean he’s 98? Couldn’t be worse than Austin though, go get him I say!
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BMD brought in wide players supposedly with pace, and said at the time that we were on the right track, so why has he not used wide players in any recent game. When things go wrong his changes are inept. We are told that Kebe is a little temperamental about criticism. Poor lad! At work we all have to accept criticism. He is privileged, at play, doing something he is supposed to love doing – Gutless, although he does have some ability, but we would like to see it sometime. Poleon must be fed up, particularly, as when he has appeared he has shown some pace and ability, and taking on a man often creates an extra man so that we have more options going forward. I would love to see some of the coaching as I was coached for my badge many years ago by Jack Charlton, and Colin Dobson of Huddersfield Town, so sometimes I wonder what BMD is trying to do and achieve . Nevertheless, I am still looking forward to Saturday, and hope that some enthusiasm and certainly effort can be instilled in our squad, everyone included.
Terry
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As articulate and profound as ever. I couldn’t agree more. It would appear that vast numbers of fans have reached total despair. I don’t think I care any more.
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Scandalous, that’s the bottom for McD to av said that shows they av no idea at all of the graft that we the fans av to do to be able to afford sky high ticket prices, a pint cost the best part of 4 quid. Wouldn’t pay them buttons never mind peanuts the players should donate there Fat wages to charity because they for sure avnt earned it. Lazy slow unmotivated could go on and on they should hang there heads in shame mc d as to b the worst manager of Leeds ever won’t b going again till he and most of the so called players av gone n there’s a team wearing white that knows and cares what it means
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At the end of last season we looked good, ended beating Watford , should havekept most of that side,Byram,Lees,PeltierWhite Poleon Brown,Diouf McCormack etc Austin OUT inj note , We could have spent on Burke ,Danns, Waghorn instead of the crap he brought in also played Dawson &Taylor ,played with a positive not negative style, worse case sinario we are in same position being entertained with youngsters gaining experience ,but I think we would be in p.offs WE ARE ONLY 4 WINS AWAY NOW after allthis crap
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Rob, I said on another web site, we need one thousand fans to put in £100K that’s £100M enough to sort all crap out and get excellent ROI when we get to premier….I’ll start with my money on the table!
Give the club to the fans, we have hundreds of thousands of them world wide, I’ll leave it to you to get the ball rolling…..
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Really mate, good luck finding all those guys with £100k to chuck into the pot. Only 999 to go – and we’ll have over half of Cellino’s yearly income.
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