Cardiff fans turn up in “blue seat” fancy dress – or are they welshing on their team?
Sadly, the decisive victory indicated in the title tells the story of the differing levels of support enjoyed by the two teams – not the pallid battle, deservedly edged by the visitors, on the pitch. Leeds United did little to show they merit such loyalty and patience from their unfailingly magnificent support – while Cardiff City showed enough to make them feel that their fans have been a little uncaring, sending them alone into what is normally an intimidating arena at Elland Road.
In summary, naive defending and a lack of ideas and execution up front cost Leeds dear – as has too often been the case in the last few seasons. A bright spot was a home début goal for young Kal Phillips as well as his promising performance, one that gained him a generous round of applause when subbed shortly after the hour. There was, quite frankly, little else to shout about.
The away goals were greeted by an eerie silence, with none present inclined to celebrate them; mute reproach for the en masse decision of the Bluebirds fans to stay home. An odd occasion altogether, one that provided far more questions than answers.
One particularly burning question has to be about the wisdom or otherwise of getting rid of an assistant manager in SteveThompson, who had been doing well in the job and who had been pursued vigorously and recruited by Neil Redfearn as the very chap for the job and the right hand man he wanted. Thompson appears to have gone for the crime of using a disrespectful word about one of the United hierarchy, Nicola Salerno, a man who has also, apparently, since departed. So Leeds have ultimately cut off their nose to spite their face, not for the first time, isolating their manager, frustrating their long-suffering fans and generally screwing up big time. The man who will ultimately carry the can for the team’s performance, the unfortunate Redders, was not consulted and remains thwarted and disappointed. Such is the crazy and unimpressive way of things at a world-famous football club which is slowly dying for lack of care.
At the moment, Leeds do not deserve the loyal and fanatical fans. They do not deserve the jewels now being polished in and around the first team after the Academy unearthed them – and they don’t deserve the professionals trying to do a professional job – while hampered at every turn by clueless amateurs.
It’s difficult to say, right now, what the future holds – as this season fizzles out into yet another damp squib of mediocrity. But it’s clear enough what we need. Someone who cares for the club, someone who will do what is right for Leeds United instead of pandering to their own ego. Whether we will get that, or anything like it, has to be an area of immense doubt.
Time is not on Leeds United’s side. The legacy of glory and global renown will not sustain the club’s profile forever. Already too long in the shadows, a renaissance is urgently needed and somewhat overdue. A couple more humdrum seasons of empty promises, crudely-practised expectation management and barefaced lies – and it will probably be too late to salvage that big club aura.
One day, scarily soon perhaps, Leeds United might be a club whose fans think, “Sod it – we’ll not bother today. We’ll boycott it and browse the aisles in B&Q instead.” It can happen – we saw that yesterday.
If Leeds United are to be saved from becoming just another Cardiff, Huddersfield or Blackpool – things need to change, radically for the better. And soon.
Before it really is too late.
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
I guess that sums it. More to the point, get rid of Cellino please, please please.
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Very disappointing Rob. Totally agree with all above and thanks fer giving us a laugh. If it’s all right with you Gaffer I’m trying to get other real lads blogging on here as other than Kalvin’s goal, the only other bright spot for me re football this weekend is that I haven’t wasted hours spitting and swearing at that shitty YEP blog. Time for us all to rally and you are good at doing that. Mad Hatter defo out and agree that the Thommo decision tupped us all big time. Scared the youth will be sold and that the gypsies are winning big time…MOT/YRA muckers and hope we stand against the bog people from Norwich. Deliverance or wot!
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Rob,
Definitely lost faith in him after the Red Bull debackle……now Nicola has he has’nt he saga?…….which has seemingly split us into them and us camps
Absolutely no wonder we are getting hammered…..4 for 9 against?
which tends to spoil the gloss of young Kalvins efforts, unsure why at present he’s persisting with Belusci and Bamba we’d probably just as well drop the pair and give young Coop’s and Del fabrio a go together, I dont think as at present they coulde be much worse? Could be a godsend at this point ine the sceme of things. I drop Bamba because he looks like he could do with a break?
And as I know he’s(Redder’s)said he wont play too many youngsters, it would’nt hurt for one or two matches? but obviously not against Naaarich, one surprise in the press lately is they havent been named as one of the potential buyers of the academy kids!! seeing as they tend to rob ours instead of developing their own!!!
cheers
Don
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The season was over once we hit 50… Come on now though, true fans support their club through thick and thin! MOT
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You are so right Rob. ‘Something is rotten in the state of…well, Leeds’ actually. Tho we have as many skeletons as Hamlet & MacBeth put together. And more lies! We need Childs far more than Umbers & Thompson far more than Salerno. And as for Cellino – please, please, please leave the ‘deputies’ to form a different posse.
The new fan group wanting to buy club shares say they have been approached by at least FIVE groups. Surely ONE of them could come up with both the nous and the money to run the club properly.
Meanwhile, over the summer, how do Leeds fans show Cellino that he is very welcome to return asap to the warmer climes of Italy or Miami? Answers on a postcard or excellent blog please.
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We,re crap and you know we are.Bob,three losses on the bounce,nine goals conceded, fifteenth in the table ( As per last years finish) poor,poor defending.Stood still is a compliment.Poor old Redders seems baffled at the moment.One step forward and six back.Thousands of disgruntled fans pissed of again.Its a continuing nightmare,will someone please wake me up out of it!!!!
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Crap and we know we are Phil…get yer lyric shiiiite checked lad. Who do you support!
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Whilst I totally agree (as usual) with most of your sentiments I do however disagree with you about the Cardiff fans boycott. They were in fact boycotting Leeds for the paltry 500 tickets they had been allocated and in that I admire them. To not follow your own team must have been a hard decision to make. For a club as big as Leeds to limit an away team to this amount of tickets when we are usually allocated in the thousands is disgraceful and should not be allowed to happen, a full away end with a vociferous support leads to a much better atmosphere. Without the support what is the point of the game. As a supporter of over 50 years I pay for being entertained and a good atmosphere is a large part of that win or lose.
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But last time they came, they only brought about 450 – just saying…
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Fans were still singing same as John until the second goal. After that, the silence was the sense of bewilderment that when we were doing so well the owners managed to flook it up again…MOT/YRA
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I don’t WYP (not Leeds united) restricted them for a reason
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Yer right Ste…did you and yer family get piss chucked at you. Whole bloody thing, including those WYP are a disgrace. They tried to entrap me on Leeds station against Wolves this season when i was calming lads and having a laugh. Me bruv who is a fireman got me out…bloody been done all ways round and fuck the Qatar WC. Hope no Leeds player is in the England team who disgrace our country by turning up to that…c’mon lads and lasses/YRA
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I feel like the little kid staring through the toy shop window at the big car wishing there really was a Santa.I don’t have an optimistic bone in my body. How on earth Redfearn gets out of bed each day and comes to this place is beyond me. This is not a transition, this is not part of some building programme, a regeneration, this is an illness, a cancer and right now from where I stand it looks terminal.
How can you not have an assistant coach? It beggars belief. This is a deliberately act of sabotage and it has Cellinos name written all over it. Under normal circumstances in a well run club and given that the manager is allowed to manage or the coach allowed to coach then yes, you can lay the blame at his door when things go pear shape, but to heap all the pressure, direct all the criticism and subject a coach to verbal abuse and insults when he has to carry the can for blatant incompetence by those who run the club is disgraceful.
Direct protest, open demonstration or boycott will not solve anything, and would be totally unfair on the very people who are in at the deep end. Cellino has to be made aware in no uncertain terms that the fans and those who love this club want change and will not tolerate this shamble. As a start I suggest the YEP gets off its backside and get right behind the fans an give us a voice.
This cannot go on. Just praying for the end of the season is not enough as it won’t go away. How the hell can you keep your rising young stars in a club run by a bunch of amateurs. Does Cellino think he is going to just walk back in and everything will be fine.
We are a very poor, championship side. Our position in the league is flattering. Morale is a joke, and being optimistic we may just win another game, just, but more likely a humiliating drumming is on the cards. Sorry, but the truth hurts.
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It will be interesting to hear what Cellino says when he returns in May. I’ll guess it will be the equivalent of a guilty child claiming “a big boy did it and ran away”. Whatever he actually says won’t be believed and he knows it. He is guilty but doesn’t care. Leeds will be sold by June and Cellino’s main concern is packing the last lightbulb before handing over the keys to LUFC.
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I really hope you’re right, and that we get someone with some integrity and vision this time.
Pass me my 12 bore, I fancy a bacon buttie and I see pigs flying over yonder…
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Flook him and all the bastard landlords…MOT/YRA
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You’ve hit the nail on the head rob ,, last time they came they brought 450 so what’s all this teddy out of the cot bullshit about ,,,
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I had to tune into Radio Leeds Rob and I didn’t realise Cardiff had scored as it was so silent thank god for Noel Whelan shouting out.
I dread to think of a day any Leeds fan decides to boycott a match. We are the best fans in the world and are there through all the Ups and Downs .
I am praying for a few more ups though.
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Amen to that 🙏🏻
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Never thought I’d see myself writing this but Red Bull PLEASE, PLEASE come & save our club! Football has changed (at the top level) and if we are to ever compete again something has to be done and soon. Yes we have a history to be proud of but it is time to look forwards rather than back otherwise we will be sat watching a ‘feeder club’ for the rest of our lives
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Rob, that fateful day has indeed arrived and Andy and I have said sod it (for this season anyway).
Yesterday we travelled from the vale of glamorgan passing numerous Leeds mini busses and cars on the way, chatted to a man from Aberdare at Tamworth services going to ER with his wife.
Fans like us are loyal, we’ve been LEEDS since we were kids and we will always be so. BUT it is hard to justify the expenditure of time and money when there is so little reward in terms of enjoyment, entertainment etc.
We won’t be back until next season and we are praying for a proper takeover by anyone ( including red bull) who can bring stable professional management to our club, thus allowing Redders the chance to develop the squad and push for promotion.
I JUST DON’T GET IT, THAT THE BUSINESS WORLD CAN’T SEE THE POTENTIAL OF THIS CLUB.
MOT
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We can keep the hope and keep the faith – without keeping on being made mugs of. You do right brother – stay away until they show they deserve your support.
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its already happening. My kids are more into the egg chasing. Can’t say I Blame then, rhinos are a well run outfit, united are a fucking circus.
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Keep going lad…the club needs you and it would be great to send the Rotters down last day…MOT/YRA
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this is all very worrying,which in itself is an understatement. I have two grandsons both play for tadcaster albion juniors,they both have Leeds united strips , here is the sad part one supports Chelsea the Manchester city . I am afraid this will be happening through out the leeds base of young potential supporters. if I am making sense with this post. we need desperately to start moving forward and upward. we are stagnating.
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Rob, I doubt that this post will be read by many, coming at the end of your comments section. However, I’d like to express sympathy for the Devil: Cellino. He is probably no more than he appears to be: a fool. The real dark force at Leeds United is its present Chairman, Andrew Stephen Umbers. This guy was, allegedly, brought in by Bates in 2011 to find a buyer for the club. Umbers negotiated an exclusivity agreement with GFH, that saw Bates (not Leeds) paid £4m, and also. carried out the Due Diligence – failing to declare the club’s hidden debts. He then did the same when Cellino bought the club from GHFC. The smoking gun is knowing that Umbers and Bates have worked together (on questionable enterprises) from as early as 1997. You’ve produced one piece in support of Umbers. Now maybe you could write one that balances the books, so to speak.
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I may well do in due course. I’m dizzy with having to do so many about-faces in a short spell. And it’s depressing, too. But when I’m so minded, I shall dip my pen in poison and rant on.
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Agree A mate. Cellino is just an idiot not a business willy wonker. But we don\t need any more Hatters at the tea party…fan ownership or we really are done. Forever and ever, we’ll follow our team….MOT/YRA mucker…who are we…South Stand ER
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On and on, Rob! For the Leeds faithful your blog is gold. MOT
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Thank you, sir 🙂
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That should have read “pure white gold”!
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Love all you lads and lasses. I’ve taken my nephew to Leeds and he’s coming to Rotters at home, out of sympathy and respect probably, but he supports Forest and I have stood in the Trent End and SS with him. I have another nephew who is totally Leeds and swears like a good un and his bruv who is a gobby little git says he supports the Arse, but still wants to come to Leeds with his family cos secretly he knows. Got a bruv in law who is a toon but loves coming to a Leeds game. Got a bruv in Skipton who is all Leeds. Please Rob, gather us sorry lot together and make us proud. Don’t give a flook about the PL and we can get stuffed at home playing young lads, as long as the spirit is there. This is the saddest post I have seen from you, and I mean sad as in emotion, but please keep going Gaffer, and all you lads. It is way more than just a game and we and our community needs us….MOT/YRA…Champions of Europe…c’mon lads let’s have another go
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7:30pm on Sunday before I could muster any sort of enthusiasm to read or view anything Leeds Utd related. Your blog is my 1st point of call Rob, you seem to have a knack of articulating how I feel. I wish I had been blessed with an aptitude for writing and expressing my feelings so well, but the only thing I have ever seemed to be good at is being a Leeds fan. Which is why I have certain sympathies with true fans of our opponents yesterday Cardiff City. In a week where the last thing we needed was to be embroiled in yet another negative news story the club, Cardiff City and no doubt WYP contrived to make sure we were seen as the villians and petty minded ones at that too.The irony that we incurred a big Police bill yesterday for a game that saw the lowest away attendance at Elland Road for many a season was not lost on me as I walked past van after van after van of Police Officers. Those of us that follow football know that it was not as simple as that. Leeds came up with a compromise that would have hopefully suited all parties but for reasons known only to themselves, the powers that be at Cardiff declined the tickets then tried to turn it into some sort of moral crusade and a victory of good over evil. That decision was wrong for the true fans, oh and am I the only person who thought it was strange that it was made three days before the game surely most tickets go on sale a month before the fixture. Following our beloved club I have been exposed to sanctions, ticket prices that are inflated just for our visit and the detested “bubble” trips. As a normal working man who works hard all week all I want to do is have a few beers with my mates and watch whatever 11 players the manager is “allowed” to pick to don the proud white (*Blue *Gold, delete as applicable) shirt try to beat whatever opposition is in front of us. Win, lose or draw the day out with mates, some of whom I have known for over 30 years through following Leeds Utd is where the real “joy” of football is. There is no joy in watching Sky’s Jeff Stelling shriek and holler like a mad man whilst washed up ex pro’s sit with their cans on almost having an orgasm as they watch a shot sail past the post at The Hawthorns. Whether you support Leeds, Cardiff or Accrington Stanley having the right to watch your club taken away from you is wrong. You are right Rob to point out that even the year that Cardiff went up to the Premier League a little over 450 saw them triumph at ER and had there been no restrictions I very much doubt they would have brought many more than that yesterday, let’s not forget it was a dead rubber of a game regardless of any spin Cardiff want to put on it. Still the choice to attend said “Dead Rubber” was taken away from true Cardiff fans, who like the vast majority of fans just want to support their team have a few beers and wake up the next day to read the match reports and maybe leave a reply on a blog or two. Anyway now I have finally turned my computer on I will book my train ticket to London for saturdays game at Charlton and pray for a negative news free week for Leeds Utd….some bleeding hope eh Rob!! MoT
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Good comments as always but a boycott seems like the only option. It doesnt help with sections of fans on forums etc telling us how to think,but the core issue right now is keeping hold of Redders. Cellino has to either invest properly and support the manager, or go back from whence he came.
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