Tag Archives: TOMA

Corporate Clowns Fighting Over Leeds United as Fans Suffer – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 28/01/2014 | 25 comments
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The interested parties

Finally, the silence has been broken – what we have been waiting for in terms of hard information, or at least a statement from one of the main protagonists, has at last come to light.  It’s a breaking of the impasse – but not in a good way.  What we have heard is an unedifying tale of wrangles over the terms of an agreement apparently struck last November.  It seems that the Flowers/Haigh/Un-named Others “Sport Capital” consortium found something, or maybe several things, not to their liking after the initial agreement for the sale of 75% of the GFH holding.  Various elements, it is said, were “not as originally described”.  Sport Capital therefore made a “revised” (i.e. lower) offer, which GFH have turned down, seemingly preferring to listen to other suitors, with a certain Italian prominent among the names being noised about.

In other words, it’s a mess.  In fact “mess” is really far too kind a way of describing the utter shambles, the embarrassing pantomime, that has been this takeover so far.  Quite apart from the humiliating spectacle of watching our great club being fought over by a bunch of incompetents, there are a few odd matters arising out of all this.  Not the least of these is the Sport Capital statement “We were fully justified in revising our bid because a number of things have come to light which were not as originally described“.  Now that does seem bizarre, because – let’s not forget – the Sport Capital Consortium and the existing GFH ownership have David Haigh in common.  So if Sport Capital have uncovered something nasty about the club, something that would justify a reduction of the offer which closed the original agreement – then why and how wasn’t Haigh aware of this before?  He was, after all, a senior figure in the running of the club this past year.  Even Andrew Flowers, big wheel in the club’s main sponsors Enterprise Insurance, should have had some level of knowledge.  There’s a rotten smell here, somewhere.

It’s a little odd too that Sport Capital, having (as some might say) reneged on the terms of the original agreement, are now accusing GFH of “breaching their covenant” in talking to other interested parties.  GFH are also accused of breaching their covenant with the fans – whatever that means – but it’s unlikely after today’s revelations that those fans will be confining any expressions of displeasure to GFH alone.  To the fan in the street, sick to death of being messed around by a series of chancers playing fast and loose with Leeds United – an institution of the English game, by the way – it would appear that all parties concerned are conspiring to make of our club a laughing-stock, an embarrassing soap-opera which does little but heap shame and humiliation on the heads of its loyal and fanatical supporters.

It’s difficult to take sides on the little information available, even since Flowers decided to speak out.  But the impression that goal-posts have been moved is not easy to avoid.  Flowers also said  “This boils down to much more than money but GFH have chosen to ignore that”.  But isn’t that slightly disingenuous?  To the selling party, it’s always going to be mainly about the money, surely?  Even though GFH were intending to retain a 10% stake, they will still have an interest in realising what they can for the chunk of the club they’re selling.  For Sport Capital to reduce their offer – and then cry foul and scramble for the moral high ground when the sellers refuse to lower the price – seems, to say the least, a little naïve.  And after all – if it boils down to much more than money – why have Sport Capital reduced their financial offer after an agreement had been reached?  There is much more here than meets the eye, much that we still don’t know on the basis of Flowers’ statement which – let’s face it – is only going to represent a one-sided point of view.  So when he, and Haigh, dismiss rival bids as being bad for the club and the fans – can we really trust their objectivity in a matter where they indisputably have a vested interest?

Meanwhile, hard on the heels of this new storm, Brian McDermott has had the task of trying to field a team that will stop the on-field rot by getting a result at Elland Road against Ipswich.  To say that the prevailing circumstances are not conducive to team preparation is a masterly feat of understatement.  I will try to raise the enthusiasm to write something about the Ipswich game later, but it’s hardly my prime concern right now and I freely admit that.

McDermott has been looking and sounding distinctly glum this past day or so, and all you can feel for the guy is deep sympathy – the sympathy you’d feel for any professional trying to do his job hamstrung and hindered by the manoeuvres of the crass amateurs in the chain of command above him.  Brian wants the matter swiftly concluded and, he emphasises, in the best interests of the club.  Give the guy an award for common-sense, a quality notably lacking elsewhere in what’s going on.  Reading between the lines, you can tell that Brian is half-expecting to be a casualty of whatever outcome we eventually get.  But he’s got his head down, doing his best in a difficult situation and he deserves the support of every true Leeds fan for as long as he’s at the club.

You honestly wonder how much more the fantastic fans of Leeds United are prepared to take.  If you got a couple of the more cynical type of satirical sitcom writers together, and asked them to pen a series about a football club setting out its stall to take the mickey out of its large and loyal fan-base, then they wouldn’t even be able to imagine or approach the farcical reality that now confronts us.  We deserve a lot better than this; but it’s a situation that has gone on now, with a few changes in the principal cast, for quite a few years.  In this time, we have seen clubs that suffered alongside us in the bowels of League One go on to comparatively great things.  Southampton, Swansea – even Norwich.  For heavens’ sake, Norwich have managed to prosper with three-quarters of our League One midfield and our top-scorer of last season warming the bench.  Reality would be funny if it wasn’t so utterly sickening.  For many, of course – the sad acts out there whose chief pleasure is to see Leeds United wounded and suffering – it is funny, in fact it’s riotously amusing.  And this all adds to the depression and misery for our fans, people who live and breathe Leeds United, people though who seem to be the least significant factor in the thinking of those who are wrangling over a great club.

It has to stop, and stop soon.  Clearly, this transfer window – despite the lies we were told last month and for most of this – is not going to be of any real help to us, and therefore this season is yet another write-off.  The only realistic aim now is to make sure we stay in this league, hoping that the ownership issue can be sorted out to leave us with a regime that can support the club’s immense potential and the fans’ justifiably sky-high ambitions.

That should be the bottom line, but right now it appears nothing more than a pipe-dream.  The clowns fighting over Leeds do not deserve any more of our faith or patience.  They don’t deserve to be associated with such magnificent support.  So step aside, clowns – and let’s have somebody in who knows their football, loves the club and has the will, imagination and financial muscle to take us forward.

There must be somebody like that out there, surely.

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Respite, Paranoia and ITV – The Good and the Bad of Leeds United’s “Lost Weekend” – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 26/01/2014 | 28 comments
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Chiles and Keane – fatal attraction

A lot of Leeds United fans find it very difficult indeed to negotiate a whole weekend without their “fix” of the Whites – no matter what form our heroes currently happen to be in.  Lately, the fare has been quite poor – to the extent that the most recent defeat, a somewhat harsh and narrow affair at home to league leaders Leicester last weekend, was hailed as “refreshing” and “encouraging”.  Clearly, when we’ve drawn a blank again and lost, and yet we seek comfort from this, a break is not a bad idea.  There was no choice in the matter anyway; after our humiliating Cup exit to lowly Rochdale, we were without a game this weekend – so it was a matter of filling the time as best we could.  Leaving aside those unfortunates who would have been dragged out shopping, the options seemed quite clear-cut: discuss the mess and confusion at Elland Road with like-minded sufferers on the internet, or watch other, more progressive teams do battle in the 4th Round.

I’m among the number that quite welcomed a Leeds-free weekend.  There’s definitely something missing, but at least we don’t suffer another loss and the bleak down of depression that follows.  There was also the small matter of continued lack of progress on the TOMA and transfer fronts to chew over and, in the absence of much in the way of information from the suddenly tight-lipped United owners, the various social media platforms were abuzz with debate, with plenty of virtual rocks being flung in the direction of the suits in the boardroom.  That kind of thing certainly fills some time and – given a wide enough circulation – it can prompt some defensive tweets from various of the protagonists.  But it doesn’t do much to cheer up Leeds fans who are starting to suspect that our bright new start is becoming more of a dull old continuation of the same, depressing story.  As things stand, TOMA 2 (or 3, depending on how you count these things) appears to be in doubt, and incoming transfers appear to be a tantalising but remote prospect.  In other words, it’s shaping up to be a January no different from the last few.  Not a happy thought.

So that’s the mixture of respite and paranoia that dominated the mood in which all things Leeds were discussed, argued over and complained about over this lost weekend.  The net effect was negative; we might well have enjoyed some Leeds-free time a little more if other matters were looking up, but they aren’t, so we didn’t.  The main source of diversion from all of this gloom was the FA Cup, which was having somehow to stagger along without us.   The offerings at #LLUUE Towers were limited to good old ITV, as BT Sport is just too kitsch to contemplate.  The best games were reserved for highlights anyway, though I did watch Bournemouth against Liverpool when our Championship fellow-travellers did well against one of the top teams this season, without enjoying much luck.  There was a slightly grisly sideshow too, as Martin Skrtel had to have his head stapled back together at pitch-side.  If they’d have let him bleed a bit, then that godawful Liverpool away shirt might have ended up looking a bit more familiar – but you couldn’t fault the lad’s stoicism.

The real down-side of the ITV coverage is having to endure the burgeoning bromance between Adrian Chiles and Roy Keane.  It should be said that this appears largely to be a one-way love affair, with Chiles clearly smitten with unrequited adoration of the alleged tough-guy Keane.  Royston’s “hard” image seems to be something that all ITV staff are contractually obliged to big up; the references to “ooh, I’ll let you tell Roy that” bespattered the commentary of the match as well as the studio exchanges, during which Roy sat there, trying his best to look appropriately tough.  Adrian does appear to have it bad though, and it must be said that his is not a face designed to show hormonal devotion to its best advantage.  When you look, as Chiles does, like a warning for what may happen if cabbage patch dolls are allowed to breed, the last thing you should be doing is simpering foolishly on camera.  Every time the lens focused on Keane, we were treated to a trademark glower, and Chiles swooned anew.  It was hideously uncomfortable stuff.

Jermaine Pennant

Jermaine Pennant

There’s more of this unedifying spectacle to come, presumably, with Chelsea v Stoke lined up for us later on.  Stoke City have just released former United loanee Jermaine Pennant, so there’s bound to be speculation as to whether we might be making a move for him at some point in the remaining days of the window – or are we all wingered-up now?  In any event, the subject of incoming transfers is likely to remain on the back burner while renewed bids for our skipper of one week, Ross McCormack are still likely from West Ham.  The Hammers seem to have deduced from their 0-9 reverse in the League Cup semi that more firepower is needed, and there are whispers that the next effort to recruit Ross might involve a bid not unadjacent to £5 million.  David Haigh has said that our position was made clear in the summer when we refused to sell despite months of nagging from Middlesbrough.  But £5m is a LOT of money, and the next seven days might be just a little too interesting for comfort – particularly for anyone with a memory for United’s tendency to sell a vital player or two at this time of year.

Any weekend without Leeds United is liable to be less fulfilling than normal, and this one has certainly felt like that – even without the sting of defeat that has become so familiar.  The discontent out here in fan-land, the relative silence from the club, the speculation over Ross and the conflicting stories in the press over whether our saviour might be Italian or simply non-existent – all of this has conspired to make it a respite without much in the way of relaxation or comfort.  Things will get back to something more like normal on Tuesday when we meet Ipswich at Elland Road.  A repeat of the performance against Leicester might yield a better result, particularly if Jimmy Kebe continues his improvement in form and match fitness.  Depending on that result, and on other developments – who knows how things will be looking seven days from now?

Whoever does know – they’re not saying, for the moment.  Tune in again throughout the week, for the very latest on the tragicomic Leeds United soap opera.

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Vita, Leeds United, l’Universo e Tutto? – di Roberto Atkinson

Posted on 22/01/2014 | 36 comments
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Massimo Cellino – Leeds takeover??

Reports coming from out of Italy tonight, notably in the La Gazzetta dello Sport and the Corriere dello Sport, strongly indicate that Leeds United AFC has been taken over by Cagliari president Massimo Cellino. Both papers claim the deal for the Championship club is essentially complete, although news outlets in the UK are being somewhat more cautious.

Nothing has been heard from Leeds United FC so far, nor from GFH or David Haigh himself. Doubtless more news and reaction will follow tomorrow.  There have been suggestions that Cellino would not find it a straightforward matter to pass the “fit and proper person” test – but at a club for whom Ken Bates was deemed fit and proper, nothing is impossible.

Meanwhile, reports that David Haigh woke up this morning to find a horse’s head in bed next to him are reckoned to be exaggerated.

TOMA or no TOMA – Noi tutti amiamo Leeds!!

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Drip, Drip, Drip as the Water Torture Goes On for Leeds Fans – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 22/01/2014 | 35 comments
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Dear Mr Haigh – some answers, please

This blog has posed the question in the recent past: what exactly is holding up the latest Leeds United takeover?  But however earnest that enquiry was, I did think that by now there would have been some clarity, some answers – maybe even some of the oft-foretold good news after the dotting of i’s and the crossing of t’s. And then, we could move swiftly in the transfer market with still almost two weeks to go – and perhaps resurrect what is turning into another season of crushing disappointment.

But no. Instead of things getting better, they appear to be on the point of becoming worse.  Instead of some welcome clarity, all is obscured confusion, with rumour and counter-rumour flying about like lost souls in some Leeds fans’ purgatory.  After everything else that has gone on since our last real high point – promotion from League One in 2010 – this drawn-out continuation of unresolved anguish and uncertainty seems almost calculated to cause the maximum stress to anyone out here who loves the club, exposing us to ridicule after we’ve been heard to express optimism in the wake of this or that promise or optimistic smiley tweet from one or other of our prospective owners.

It wouldn’t be so bad if some of this incessant to-ing and fro-ing wasn’t avoidable.  If, for instance, we were just dealing with the inevitable complexities of due process that go along with any major deal, we could perhaps smile bravely and deal with it.  But it’s the coy little hints, the periodical hints and promises that elevate the situation from the mundane level of irritation and disappointment to a needless peak of exquisite cruelty.  Did we really need the Red Bull comments to tantalise is?  Do we really need to know about morning coffee with a billionaire if coffee is all it turns out to be??

Now we are getting indications that the whole thing might be about to collapse, having been previously assured that it would all be done early this window and that, in any event, any delay in completion would not hamper Brian in the transfer market.  And there’s the old refrain striking up again: “business is difficult to do in January”.  That, and the new doubts about the takeover endgame are vying with each other as to which negative piece of information can best sicken and dismay the loyal fans out here, waiting for something good to happen.

It seems likely now that this will drag on, until another transfer window has been safely negotiated with no inconveniently expensive signings, just a couple of loans.  Once again, the suits will be able to heave a sigh of relief.  The most significant announcements from the club lately have been of a sale in the club shops of cut price winter woollies.  Ring-a-ding ding.

It’s difficult sometimes to say – which is the worst aspect of this situation?  Supporting a club that has no apparent ambition to compete with the other clubs in the same division, smaller clubs that are forever out-stripping us in investment and the will to win?  Or being made mugs of time and time again?  Leeds United do not even appear to bother finding new excuses; refinements of the same old ones we’ve all heard before will apparently do, as far as they are concerned.  It’s enough to make the most loyal of fans angry.  I’m loyal, I have Leeds United engraved on my heart – but I’m spitting feathers at what the fans are being expected to put up with.

It’s time some for definitive statement to be made.  Clauses requiring discretion and confidentiality are all well and good, but they don’t address the morale of the fans, and they do nothing to ease the growing unrest and annoyance out here.  Players and staff come and go, even the stadium isn’t forever.  But the fans as a body are the continuous thread running through the history of the club.  We ARE Leeds United – so show us due respect and sort this embarrassing mess out – or at least treat us like adults, end this maddening drip, drip, drip water torture situation – and tell us what’s what.

That’s surely not too much to ask for, is it?

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Could Glenn Hoddle be the Man for Leeds United? – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 21/01/2014 | 67 comments
Hoddle for Leeds?

Hoddle for Leeds?

These are confusing times – even distressing, perhaps – for Leeds United fans.  Results have been poor of late, to say the least.  We have arrived at a point where, after deeply humiliating defeats at Rochdale and Sheffield Wendies, a late and narrow loss to league leaders Leicester has been hailed in some quarters as a triumph of sorts, restoring some pride if not yet belief.  The display against the Foxes was certainly much-improved – but when the best source of comfort and encouragement is a defeat cherished for its battling qualities and narrow margin, then you know that expectations have sunk to an unacceptable low for a club with the history and tradition of Leeds United.

It’s not as if all the misery is on the park, either.  TOMA II is starting to assume the epic proportions of its humongous forebear, TOMA I – echoing swathes of silence are punctuated with a few hollow-sounding reassurances about dots and crosses for neglected letters of the alphabet, but the days drag by and nothing of note has happened, other than the club’s 999th and 1000th loan signings of this depressing century – or at least, that’s how it feels.  This current transfer window, just like the several preceding it, was talked-up as THE window in which we’d be flexing those big-club muscles and getting that squad strengthened as we’ve all known for ages it needs to be.  As January wanes towards February, it’s starting to feel like the old, old story – but we’re still being promised good news, so you never really know.  It’s just that it always seems the same at Leeds United – there’ll be pie in the sky, by and by.  Yet it always seems to turn out to be humble pie, and we’ve swallowed plenty of that this past decade or so.

It wouldn’t be Leeds United, either, if there were no speculation over the manager’s position – even though our Brian hasn’t been in that uncomfortably perilous hot-seat for a twelvemonth yet.  This blog is on record as stressing it’s firmly behind Mr McDermott, steadfast in the belief that all the guy needs is time and backing of the munificent fiscal variety (we’ve had all the platitudes, thanks).  But with TOMA II dragging on, and on, and on – pending approval from some higher authority that seems determined to sit on its arse and prevaricate until our transfer options have disappeared completely – what real chance does BMcD have to get things sorted as he doubtless wishes to do?  Instead, he’s reduced to the soundbites we’ve heard before from other managers – McAllister, Grayson, Warnock – whose one common factor is that they’ve all ended up sacked.

There are conflicting messages emanating from the United support where Brian’s own prospects are concerned.  A vociferous if less than convincing minority seem to want him gone, and will argue that the recent run of results is sufficiently bad to have seen most men out of the Elland Road revolving door.  What I see as wiser counsel argues for patience, continuity, stability – basically to write this season off in terms of promotion ambitions, get the takeover sorted – and then attack the squad re-shaping job in the summer.  Because surely, one day we’ll have a transfer window that doesn’t end up as a bleak disappointment?  Even last summer’s was no great shakes, the major high points being the signing of Luke Murphy (ahem) – and the getting-rid of Ken Bates.

Brian's our man

Brian’s our man

I ran a poll a few days back, and it’s evident already, as can be seen from the illustration here, that the vast majority of the contributors to that, when asked the straightforward question of “Keep Brian or get rid?”, are opting for the stability and security option.  A massive 90% want to hang on to Brian, dwarfing the measly 10% who would have a change less than a year after appointing him.  If this is representative of the support as a whole, then the owners – whoever they are – should feel secure enough in their choice to keep their faith in McDermott.  But it’s notoriously the case that patience runs short very quickly in football and that, especially when new owners come in, they frequently bring with them a new broom to sweep clean.

All of which laborious preamble brings me to the point of this article.  Remember – I support Brian, I think he deserves time and backing to do the job he so clearly and passionately wants to do.  But if the powers that be DID decide to get rid, then I feel it would be time to think big in an effort to restore some faith in the way the club is being run.  I watched the Chelsea v Man U match the other day and a studio guest was one Glenn Hoddle.  I have to say, I was impressed by his evident deep knowledge and understanding of the game as he dissected the mistakes the Man U defence had made.  His is an impressive CV blotted by one unfortunate episode of nuttiness.  A little nuttiness is surely not a factor that should debar any candidate from the Leeds job – we’ve had Clough and Warnock in the past, and I’ve even heard some call for di Canio.   And deep down, if the worst came to the worst, I just feel that Glenn Hoddle might be the man for Leeds – and Leeds might just be the challenge to tempt back a high-class coach who is still young enough to make a renewed mark on the game.

Madness?  Perhaps.  Remember please, my first option is to keep Brian McDermott.  But IF he’s dismissed – and history tells us that for any manager the sack is just a few crap results away – then why not Hoddle?  Wouldn’t we enjoy his style of football?  Might he not be the man to reinvent Leeds as a classy footballing machine motoring back towards the top?  What do people think?  I await your opinions, however derisive, with interest.

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Looks Like Today is Leeds United Takeover Day – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 15/01/2014 | 7 comments
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TOMA complete?

The protracted second takeover in a year of Leeds United looks as if it will be made official today, according to a story carried by Reuters.

According to the news agency, Bahrain-based investment firm Gulf Finance House (GFH) has agreed a partial sale of its stake in English football club Leeds United   The firm said in a statement on Wednesday that the sale was agreed with British investors, whose details the firm did not specify in a bourse statement. The investment firm did not provide details on the stake value or the size of the stake sold.

No confirmation was made of the necessary Football League approval, though it would be highly unusual for the above announcement to be made if that were not now a foregone conclusion, and further developments on this front might well be expected later today.

Leeds United meet Championship leaders Leicester City on Saturday, fresh from a dismal run of results after several poor performances.  The club has been linked heavily with Reading’s want-away striker Adam le Fondre this week, as well as free transfer prospect Luke Moore, formerly of Swansea and Aston Villa.

Despite securing the loan signings of Cameron Stewart and Jimmy Kebe last week, Leeds suffered an embarrassing 6-0 defeat to local rivals Sheffield Wednesday in a televised game on Saturday.  The TV cameras will again be present for the Leicester City clash.

It remains to be seen whether any completed takeover will loosen the Elland Road purse-strings for more team strengthening.  Boss Brian McDermott had ruled our further incomings ahead of the Foxes match, but that has not stopped intense speculation surrounding Moore and le Fondre.  It may well be that other names will now be put forward, but McDermott likes to have business completed before making any comment.

Leeds United stand 11th in the Championship, only a few points outside of the play-off zone.

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That LUFC Investment Update in Full – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 07/01/2014 | 21 comments
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News you already know update

  • Good Evening
  • We’ve been working hard and hope it’ll pay off
  • Andy Flowers is on board after his chastening Ashes winter
  • Erm….
  • That’s it, with regard to this one
  • Look, stop nagging OK?

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No More Dexter Blackstock for Leeds; Who Next? – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 10/12/2013 | 25 comments
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Dexter makes his mark for Leeds

Dexter Blackstock has apparently been ruled out for the season by a knee injury, which is particularly hard luck on the lad himself, but also obviously for Leeds United.  Dex wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea in the white shirt, but as was said in commentary for the Watford game, he did bring something to the team that we hadn’t got before, in terms of work off the ball and his movement, opening up options for others to profit rather than necessarily being a taker of chances himself – although I’m sure that would have come.

But hey-ho, he’s gone back to Forest and there’s no use crying over spilt milk.  The one thing we know for sure about poor old Blackstock is that he’s not an option for the rest of this season – so he therefore disappears from our radar altogether, and we must look forward – and it appears that we may do so whilst jingling a few shekels in our pocket.

The most likely addition to our forward line in January remains, in my opinion, one Señor Becchio.  He’s been here and done it before, and at this level too.  He’d be absolutely champing at the bit and determined to make an impact – I’m sure he’d be effective for Leeds United as the campaign enters its decisive phase.  I emphasise my own opinion here as it seems certain Leeds fans would see Bates ensconced in his old office at Elland Road before they’d accept Luciano back.  This absolutely baffles me – Becchio is a known quantity, he’s familiar with the club and the demands of playing in front of a demanding and somewhat truculent crowd – why on earth wouldn’t we give him a shot, if it really was an option?

Still, what do Brian McDermott OR I know?  I’m just glad that we appear to be of the same opinion, even if we’re wrong.  But what do others think?  I wrote an article a while back saying that the acquisition of Becchio and Gradel in January would guarantee us promotion; I still feel that’s most probably right, too.  But it’s not as if I’d be averse to Ince from Blackpool plus Doyle from Wolves, either – as long as the budget is there, post TOMA III.  What options would anyone else advance or deeply desire?  I’m seeking your views, ladies and gentlemen – please chip in with them below.

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Why Leeds United Still Needs a Bit of Bates – by Rob Atkinson

Posted on 29/11/2013 | Leave a comment
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Bates – “The Enemy Without”

In recent times just as in the Glory Days of the past, Leeds United have always been at their best when there’s a bit of adversity flying about, some mountains to climb – maybe a few unfair obstacles to overcome.  This is what is sometimes referred to as the “siege complex”. It’s what S’ralex Fergie used over the years at Man U to help them – with the valuable assistance of refs, authorities and media – to achieve honours and dominate in a way that teams of their relative mediocrity would not otherwise have managed.  The not-altogether-likeable Taggart was a past master at this – it was his greatest asset, much more effective than the tiresome “mind-games” which the gutter rags so loved to harp on about, but in which he was consistently out-manoeuvred by the likes of Wenger, Dalglish, Mourinho, Wilkinson and Benitez.

In a smaller way, and in humbler circumstances, Leeds teams over the past few years have benefited from this sort of togetherness, forged in the white heat of hatred and contempt from outside the club.  The “sod ’em, chaps – just get out there and fight” approach was never more clearly in operation than at the start of the 2007-08 season, United’s first in the third tier, when they began their battle to return from obscurity with the penalty of a 15 point deduction hampering them. We all know that they started that season on fire, despite the scratch squad assembled cheaply and at the very last minute, due to transfer restrictions imposed by the Football League.  A sort of “Dunkirk Spirit” bound those players together as they fought to recover from 15 points behind at the foot of League One, to actually top the table just before Christmas.  Overcoming such monumental calamity brought out the best in Leeds United.

So it was back in the sixties and seventies, when Leeds United swiftly became the most hated team in the land.  Possessed of some world-class players of devastating skill, capable of the most beautiful and effective football, the team nevertheless suffered from the media labeling it as “Filthy”, a tag that has never quite gone away.  A bond grew between those lads, a brotherhood nurtured by Don Revie, simply the best manager there ever was.  The Don, partly assisted by this early example of “siege complex” transformed an ailing provincial club with virtually no history by giving them, ultimately, the finest team in the world.

More recently than the Minus 15 era, we have had still further adversity to overcome, and this time it has brought out the best in the fans as well as the players and the club itself. The malign influence of Bates created a different atmosphere around Leeds United right from the start.  All of a sudden we had a despot at the head of the club, and not one of the “benign” variety – someone whose extreme personal charmlessness infected the way United were perceived outside the club.  There was a strong feeling as well that Bates was here to pursue his own agenda; certainly not one that was favourable to the future prospects of the Elland Road outfit.  In 1984, while chairman of Chelsea, Bates had responded to some freelance demolition work carried out on his Stamford Bridge scoreboard by a gang of contractors from Leeds by saying: “I shall not rest until Leeds United are kicked out of the football league. Their fans are the scum of the earth, absolute animals and a disgrace. I will do everything in my power to make sure this happens.” On the face of it, these are not the words of a man determined to restore Leeds United to former glories, and the fans twigged the subtle shades of meaning in the quote well enough to suspect that Papa Smurf meant us harm.

This led to the most concerted campaign of publicity and action by Leeds United fans in living memory.  They wanted Bates out of the club – and from a position of no representation, little power and organisation and zero support from the media (who you suspected found it quite funny that Leeds-hater Bates held the destiny of United in his gnarled hands) – they rallied round, gathered support, organised and hit the streets with protests and campaigns aimed at achieving a power shift in the Elland Road boardroom. Out of these beginnings, eventually, came the Takeover Saga – TOMA – and ultimately, reluctantly, Bates went.  By distinct contrast, Man U fans have gone so far as to form a whole other club, without having achieved anything like the same amount of success. After all, the Glazers are still there – despite FC United of Manchester, despite thousands of cockneys at the Theatre of Hollow Myths waving what looked for all the world like Norwich City scarves.  But out of adversity, dedicated Leeds fans helped achieve real change – that’s something to be proud of.

Now, even though Bates is gone from within the club, he’s still hanging around outside it, like a nasty smell that won’t entirely go away.  He has offices just over the road, and he’s busily plotting litigation after tasting the bitter fruits of defeat and being winkled out of his Presidency.  Seemingly, he can’t drag himself away from the club he stated so clearly all those years ago that he hated and wanted to see brought low.  Now we’re on our way back up again and he’s been forced out, he still won’t retire gracefully back to Monaco and die in the Mediterranean sun.  It’s a rum do.

But maybe, and here (at last) is the point of this article, we still need his loathsome presence, the occasional sight of him slithering his way around Elland Road, or even holding court to his favoured toadies in Billy’s Bar.  Maybe he represents that negative influence we seem to need around the club, to bring out the best in us and get us fighting fit and ready to rumble?  We had Brian Mawhinney, the Football League’s repulsively-oily agent of disaster in 2007, battering us with the points deduction and rallying support from the likes of fellow reptile Paul Scally.  We’ve had Chairman Bates, till he was forced out.  Both of them acted as a focus for the fighting spirit of this club, without which we tend to fall back into apathy and complacency.

Now, we have the right manager in Brian McDermott – and we look as if we’re getting to the point where the team is coming together.  We just need that extra spark, the anti-Leeds influence that we know we have to overcome, that will produce the flames of that United fighting spirit.  Maybe Bates is just what we need to provide that spark – a Bates now relegated to an impotent role, but still as repulsive and loathsome as ever.   He can serve as a reminder of what we had to put up with and what we managed, together, to overcome.  He can be the symbol of the world outside Elland Road, the world that still hates Leeds United and wants us to fail.  Given that, we can unite and fight, get behind the team, agitate for more and more improvements in the way our club is run.

That’s the way forward for Leeds.  We’re not meant to tread an easy path.  Out of adversity we’ve always wrought our greatest triumphs.  Given an enemy outside our gates to rally and unite us, we can do so again.

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Leeds United For Sale Again – But What Happens In The Short Term?

Posted on 20/03/2013 | Leave a comment
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Leeds United’s Elland Road Stadium

Leeds United are officially up for sale again, just three months after GFH Capital completed their “bargain purchase” of the Club from cuddly Uncle Ken Bates on 21 December last year. This news might be received with joy, despair or indifference, depending on your current attitude to the low-budget kitchen-sink drama that is LUFC these days.

The joyous ones are the optimists, dreaming that – at last – a rich billionaire (as opposed to the sort of impoverished billionaires normally linked to the Club) will come steaming in on his souped-up camel, and purchase for us long-suffering fans the baubles we have craved ever since winning the Last Proper League Championship.

The pessimists meanwhile are withdrawing their heads back under the carapace of their impenetrable gloom, pausing only to remind the rest of us that they knew all this takeover talk was bollocks right from the start last May, that no-one with any dosh would come within a mile of Leeds United, and that we’ll now probably be sold back to Ken Bates for ten bob after a second administration, so that he can fulfill his stated aim of reducing us to the Ryman League, Division Three.

Personally, I’m languishing among the indifferent tendency, somewhere between these first two groups. I’ve quite frankly had enough of Leeds United this last year or so, especially after the battering all our psyches took with the roller-coaster TOMA* saga of last summer, and being roundly laughed at and suffering from chronic urine-extraction by dopey fans of daft little cobble-stone clubs (you know who you are.) It’s just not good for morale, and mine is shot through, thanks very much.

The thing is though, the Club has somehow to carry on its business of playing games of football with some appearance of trying to win them, and maybe in the process attracting what they are nowadays pleased to call “customers” through the computerised turnstiles. And this undertaking is not helped at all, not in the least, by any measure of uncertainty among the fanbase. Last summer was awful, and now – with GFH Capital apparently anticipating completion of a sale withing a window of between six and twelve months – we have more of the same in the offing. So another transfer window will pass without the urgent surgery needed to transform the current squad into a lean, mean winning machine. Another six months to a year during which the creeping disease of apathy will spread further throughout the body of support, once so vibrant and fanatically motivated. The manager is off, the latest boy wonder Super Sam is being tipped for a move to a proper football club and the fans are in the dark – as usual – regarding any long-term vision for our once-great Club.

Surely (you’d have thought) there must be some plan, some concrete strategy, for getting back to the Premier League, which is the only environment where a club like Leeds United – with its history, tradition, remaining infrastructure and global fanbase – can hope to survive and prosper. This has to be the minimum aim, and nobody with any ambitions of running the club should be under any illusions – once the Promised Land is reached, the support will not be content, like any old Wigan or Norwich, with mere survival. The Leeds fans will want to swagger in like they own the place, have a brief look around, and then win it. That’s what we did last time, 21 years ago, and the fact that it’s a totally different world nowadays will not stop that urgent demand for success, that imperious need to take on the game’s elite, and make them eat crow.

This demand, this greed and yearning for past glories to be repeated, can serve either as an inspiration for ambitious and visionary owners, or as a millstone around the neck of people who might want to come in, seek to have the club tick over in the lower reaches of the Premier League, and depart with some sort of profit. Obviously it’s to be hoped we might attract the former type, but they’ve not emerged as yet despite months of speculation about the shape of things to come post-Bates. The time is fast approaching when decisions need to be made for the good of Leeds United, about its strategy for success in the 21st Century, its model for progress in the new high-finance structure at the top end of the game and the picture it can justifiably paint for the fans of the type of club they’re going to have to support going forward. GFH Capital told us that they were here for the long haul, but now they’re jumping ship faster than the scarediest rat, making some of us wonder just how quickly that ship is sinking. What leadership can we expect from them now, what confidence can we have in them when they’re already yesterday’s men? Meanwhile we all remain firmly, blindly in the dark, where we’ve spent the bulk of the last decade, wondering what’s to become of our beloved Leeds.

Now that’s far, far too long a period of unhappiness and uncertainty for a group of people who have – mostly – continued to shell out their hard-earned, buy the tacky merchandise and roar their support from over-priced seats during a period of sustained failure and mostly crap football. The fact is that the Club is bang to rights on accusations of gross complacency and mistreatment of its prime asset – the highly vocal, passionate and still predominantly dedicated support, both immediate and match-going, and more generally in all parts of the globe. Fans want to know what’s going on at their club; quite understandably they want to be involved, they want to feel part of what’s going on. The Club have callously disregarded all of this for ages now, recent cosmetic gestures towards “fan engagement” notwithstanding, and despite welcome moves towards a more realistic pricing structure. There just hasn’t been enough transparency, and now we’re going to enter another disturbing period of uncertainty, to emerge eventually – well who knows in what shape we’ll emerge? Treat any group of “customers” (if we really must so term fans) with such blatant disregard and such arrogant refusal to consult them and address their concerns, and eventually – even with fanatics and people who live their lives through their obsession – you’ll lose them. I’ve been a fanatic, for 38 years, at some cost to my financial and social well-being, and yet they’ve damn nearly lost me. I’m starting to prefer my football wrapped in a film of nostalgia – it’s less painful than the current reality. But whatever defiant noises I might make, and however much I might warn of erosive apathy – I still care. Too deeply for my own good. And there remain thousands like me.

But we can’t carry on like this. It’s got way beyond a joke, and the jibes from opposing fans – all too well aware of our history, and nursing the standard anti-Leeds chip on their shoulders – are far less worrying than the grumbles of discontent from the ranks of the still-faithful. Get your act together, Leeds United, and do it soon, or preferably do it NOW. We’re still with you. But for how much longer?

*TOMA – For the uninitiated, this is an acronym referring to the perceived unlikelihood of Leeds United benefiting from a buyout to its advantage. Take Over My Arse.

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