Leeds Utd

Kingp35

Ok so my beloved Leeds are doing terrible and it looks like they may be in another relegation battle this season. We are still in financial ruin even after the takeover and the players that were brought in arent doing the job.Perhaps given time they might do something but I ont see it happening.

Anyways just wondering your opinion on the state of Leeds.

Will we ever get back to the premiership and what are the reasons we are doing so bad. Post em up.

Patrick

Nuttzz

They are the new Swindon.....sorry

Big Nelly

SHouldnt have sacked O'Leary.....hasnt shown with Villa that even if he hasnt much money can still build a good team....I would say they would still be in the PL if he had stayed.....and if they where in PL then there finacial problems wouldnt be half as bad and they still would have a team!!

woosaysdan

dont be insulting swindon like that!!!

Kingp35

True we shouldnt have sacked o' leary. Dunno about this idea of selling Elland Road and leasing it back out again Semms a bit risky to me.I dont think we will get relegated but I dont think we will be back up all that quick either. its not looking good and we just cant attract top players anymore especially with no money to offer in wages

Big Nelly

Yeah dodgy selling your home ground!! they wont get relagated this season but I cant see them getting into the Playoff's either.....maybe next season when they get used to the division.....

impr0v

It's absolutely essential that they stay up this season. If they do then a few seasons consolidating and building a steady team will see them challenging to get back into the premiership. Being such a well established club with a wide fanbase has to be an advantage. If they drop another division it will be a disaster.

I don't think keeping O'Leary would have made all that much difference, except of course that the compensation money paid to him and the subsequent managers would have been used in different ways. He's probably still owed a slice of that money. I think he would have more than likely been helpless to stop what happened, the rot was endemic in the club. I also think he's improved a lot as a manager because of his experiences there, though of course that would have to be true given that it was his first real job.

The recurrent farcical takeover attempts aren't doing anything to improve the stability of the club.

Big Ears

Actually pretty much all the sacked managers(since the finnicial problems) agreed to let Leeds off without having to pay them their full compensation .

impr0v

Big Ears wrote:

Actually pretty much all the sacked managers(since the finnicial problems) agreed to let Leeds off without having to pay them their full compensation .

Actually they didn't, they agreed to defer the payments.

Kingp35

yeah every manager is being paid and the likes of terry venables are being paid hundreds of thousand but then again its leeds fault for hiring dodgy managers and then sacking them. I'm telling ya the board must have been some bunch of idiots.

We are still paying some players that have left too like robbie fowler. What a joke. I think weneed time to stabilise all of that financial stuff while keeping the team semi decent and in a few years we could come back up.

Patrick

eirebhoy

Kingp35 wrote:

We are still paying some players that have left too like robbie fowler. What a joke. I think weneed time to stabilise all of that financial stuff while keeping the team semi decent and in a few years we could come back up.

and Robbie Keane AFAIK.

Kingp35

yeah him too also harry kewell is owed some money. What the hell were the board at. A bunch of monkeys could have handled the finances better

Kingp35

6 - 1 to leeda agianst QPR!! thats a cracking result especially for leeds who cant ever score goals. hope this a turning point for the season and they have proved now that they can play well together they just need consistency now!! Looking at the tbale we are not that far behind the playoff places either and only 7 points but with a game in hand which mean it could drop to four.who knows maybe they could push em yet

Patrick

KdjaCL

Few mates wrnt over to the game i was going but was too poor, one of them is lifelong QPR fan after 2 minutes he was happy as a pig in **** after 90 wouldn talk to anyone for e 5 hours..


isnt football great like that

kdjac

impr0v

Healy seems to be doing the business thus far, fingers crossed that it continues.

Kingp35

yeah fair play to healy i hadmy doubtsabout him but he is doing wel.loks like the eam has figured out how to score goals now so if we can keep the defense solid we'll have a chance

Nuttzz

Normal service resumed tonight I see......

Boro

Apparently they were quite unlucky not to go about 5-0 in the first few minutes - Clark Carlisle hit the post 3 times by himself in the first few minutes and then got injured - bad luck all round it seems.

quarryman

After 10 mins the game was set to be a rout, Leeds should have had 3 on the scoresheet. Then Carlisle hit the post with a header and fell awkwardly. Got his ankle wrapped up and braved another 10 mins before going off. He was a big loss and as the game wore on Rotherham got back into it.

A late goal was always likely and it went against Leeds with a scrappy, nervous few minutes for the home team. Rotherham's first win since last since last season. A disgraceful result for Leeds.

Kingp35

i couldnt beleive it watching that game.how in the name of god we didnt win that match is beyond me. Its a terrible result one of the worst leeds have had in a long time. We should have been 3 up after ten mins and then we are on top for the whole game passing it around well creating chances. Ricketts missed a sitter but i suppose thats expected and lennon had good chances too.

The longer the game went on and we didnt score i could feel rotherham grabbing a lucky goal and thats what it was just a goal-line scramble. Bloody awful result but to be fair there isnt much more the team can do bar taking their chances. I couldnt beleive it and thats gonne seriously damagemorale with 4 tough games coming up.

Patrick

quarryman

....and Carlisle will possibly be missing during those games.

How Ricketts is allowed near a football pitch is beyond me.

Kingp35

yeah carlisle has damaged his ankle ligaments and will be out for anything between 4 - 7 weeks. thats a huge blow for us as he has been playing really well lately. Yeah I gotta agree ricketts is terrible but giving that blackell had to put practically an entirely new team together there was bound to be a few hits and misses. Ricketts is definitely a miss!!

Kingp35

whenever leeds start to look anyway decent they go and lose a stupid match to rotherham and now lose again to leicester. They looked a good side for couple of weeks now they are back to their usual self.What the hell is going on at that club?

Are the take-over talks having a bad effect??

Zaph

There were talks earlier in the week of some consortium of local businessmen taking over tomorrow, but I haven't heard any more about that. I just wish that Sainsbury would stop pi$$ing about and f*ck off under whatever rock he crawled out from. He and his "partners" have no interest in the club whatsoever, if they had they wouldn't want their identities kept secret and they'd actually reveal their motives for buying the club.

kilkennycat2004

As a Leeds supporter since the glory days I cannot believe what is happening to the club.
Yeah the 6-1 v QPR looked like the start of something, we were unlucky v Rotherham but today, well ,from what I can gather we were outclassed by Leicester.
The team is too lightweight by far & when you see a veteran like Brian Deane as our best strike hope it shows how far we have sunk.
I gather the West Ham away game is on Sky Saturday evening. We urgently need 3 points but the Hammers at Upton Park & the way we are playing at present it is hard to be optimistic.
The only good news is that Seth Johnson & Gunnar halle may be back from injury in January.

Zaph

Gunnar Halle???? I presume you mean Eirik Bakke? If not, we're in even more trouble than I thought...

Kingp35

Gunnar Halle?? God we are sinking low now. Yeah i cant really see us picking up much at west ham now that confidence is low again.A draw would be a good result there. I think the defnce is starting to play alot worse than they were at the start of the season. The problem then was that we couldnt score. There is alot of sorting out to be done but yeah come january we might have johnson and bakke back who are needed badly plus our new icelandic international signing Gylfi Einarsson who for some stupid reason is not allowed play until january first can come into the team. Leeds have been scouting him for a while now and beat alot of other good teams to his signature. He is a midfielder who scored 15 goals last season. Im looking forward to see what he can do.

As for the takeover there is still talk of a local consortium and gerald krasner was speaking on LUTV and he said that talks were in an advanced stage and there would be an announcement between 7-9 days. I have heard this before tho so ill believe it when i hear it. Sainsburys I think heard about this deal and made another bid basically just trying to jeoperdise it. Krasner has not taken it seriously and wont unless they prove they have money. as far as he is concerned the deal with sainsburys is off and thats that.

So I guess its just up to the ocal consortium now which in my opinion would be a much better deal considering they are all die hard leeds fans and would have the clubs best interests at heart. I think the off pitch stuff has got to be sorted soon because it is definitely affecting the players. Still tho they are professionals and are just not performing at the moment.

Patrick

The_B_Man

bring back harte!

Kingp35

nah i could crawl faster than Harte runs

Kingp35

Leeds against west ham tonight live on sky. cant really see us picking up a win here although we have been playing reasonably well recently withot winning.Leeds have some kind of jinx when it comes to their games being live on tv they rarely win but its starting to look a bit ominous again this season with us being i 19th place. a win is needed pretty badly.

I think the players no that so I reckon tonights game could be a draw. we need someting from it anyway.

How do you guys think we will do???

kilkennycat2004

1-1 v the hammers & a much better display from the lads.
Got a bit lucky in the end but Deane missed a few good chances & we could have had a penalty at least twice earlier than the one given.
The huddle at the end hopefully showed the lads are together at least & that last night will start the club moving upwards again.

Kingp35

Yeah Leeds played very well again in this game and did deserve the draw. perhaps we got a bit lucky with the penalty at the end coz to be honest dont think it was one but to be fair we should have had two before that one when pugh was fouled and one for handball. I think this was in the referees mind.

In all fairness we could have won the game if we put away our chances. its the same old story so far this season we cant finish our chances. Deane missed a couple again that he should have scored.

I think this result will bring back some confidence as it has ended the losing streak. Leeds have been playing well in all recent games they just having been taking their chances and got punished or were unlucky. If they keep playing like this they can match anyone in the league but I hope they can keep it up and start taking their chances.

Watching the game on friday has reassured me that leeds are going in the right direction and will start to move up the table.

Kingp35

ok its time for my weekly leeds round up:

Again we were unbelievably unlucky. Anyone who the game would say that leeds deserved to win the game and win it easily. It was the same olkd story as leeds had chance after chance to score but just couldnt do it. Danny Pugh missed a glorious chance and so did the likes of Brian Deane and David Healy and John Oster. Oster was the one who scored for leeds though and rumours are going around that leeds are going to sign him on a permanent deal. I think that would be a decent signing for the club.

Anyway as is leeds luck millwall got a penalty when kelly tripped up paul ifil although ifil clearly handled it before he was fouled. Jody morris scored abd leeds confidence dropped again and couldnt reply. To make things worse gregen and walton both got booked and they are suspended for the match awat to sunderland. Thats a pretty big loss coz sunderland are a decent team.

Anyway the way leeds are playing they should be much higher in the league I dunno whats going on. I think at this stage its a bit late for them to get into the playoffs but you never no.

As for the takeover stuff sainsburys lawyers met with the board and supposedly had a vey productive meeting but plans have been put on hold until after the christmas holidays. Leeds also got an extension from the inland revenue to pay their £1million tax bill after christmas.

Anyawy to sum up leeds were unlucky again. Surely its gotta change for them at some stage.

johnor

Always seem to be unlucky dont they? Unlucky all of last seaosn too....

Zaph

Nah, crap last season, but have been a bit unlucky this season. Should be higher than we are, but still outside a playoff spot.

Zaph

And just to make things a bit worse, this from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leeds_united/4111897.stm

FA probing Elland Road violence

Leeds 1-1 Millwall
The Football Association will launch an investigation into the violence that marred the Championship game between Leeds and Millwall on Sunday.
West Yorkshire Police made 10 arrests after the 1-1 draw at Elland Road and riot police were called to quell fighting inside the stadium.

An FA spokesman said: "We are making inquiries and will speak to the police.

"Some of the incidents appear to have occurred outside the ground and they would not fall under our jurisdiction."

A tense atmosphere was made worse when Jody Morris, who had an unhappy eight-month spell at United last season, equalised with an 86th-minute penalty.

Morris, who had been goaded by the home fans throughout, responded after his goal by running 70 yards with one hand cupped over his ear in a mocking gesture .

kilkennycat2004

Kingp35 wrote:

ok its time for my weekly leeds round up:
Anyway the way leeds are playing they should be much higher in the league I dunno whats going on. I think at this stage its a bit late for them to get into the playoffs but you never no........
Anyawy to sum up leeds were unlucky again. Surely its gotta change for them at some stage.

Still no win since the 6-1 victory at QPR that was to be a turning point.
The games are going to come thick & fast now. We have Sunderland Stephens Day & 3 more all in the 8 days afterwards.
As for Jody Morris . Just w**ker will do for that unnecessary length of the ground celebration.

Kingp35

Yeah I dont think the Jody Morris celebration helped the situation but still no excuse for the violence followed. Christmas will either make or breal leeds season. With the amount of games that are coming up they need to string a few results together or could see themselves droppig further. I still think the team is good enough to do it but whether they will or not remains to be seen.

Kingp35

Forgot to mention tat john oster is out of the sunderland game too because sunderland wont let him play. the squad is suddenly starting to lok very thin. I think a draw will be a good result their with the players we have available

kilkennycat2004

A couple of good wins pre Christmas & then we go & lose at home to Crewe.
Paul Butler was send off for according to a mate of mine who was over at the game was an assault on A crewe player. Some morons applauded him off but after viduka last year this is not the kind of stuff we need.
Fans getting on the back of Gary Kelly but then again he is carrying a weekly 26K salary with him which is bound to slow him down!!!
Hoping for the best this afternoon at Coventry.

kilkennycat2004

A 3-0 cup loss at Birmingham & at least one was down to a gift from that waster Michael Duberry. He was taken off straight afterwards but how he was brought back from a loan spell for this one is a mystery.
We still need to offload Duberry along with Gary Kelly, Seth Johnson & Eirik Bakke before the millstone of massive wages allows us to finally move forward.
Would a premiership club be interested in kelly £26k a week or Seth £35k or Duberry & Bakke reported £25k??
Would anyone here that supports premiership clubs be interested? Thought so.

Zaph

Duberry as brought back because Butler and Carlisle got themselves sent off recently and were suspended. Personally I'd have preferred to play with 10 men than include Duberry.

Töpher

You'd have done better!

Ardent

zaph wrote:

And just to make things a bit worse, this from http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/leeds_united/4111897.stm

FA probing Elland Road violence

Leeds 1-1 Millwall
The Football Association will launch an investigation into the violence that marred the Championship game between Leeds and Millwall on Sunday.
West Yorkshire Police made 10 arrests after the 1-1 draw at Elland Road and riot police were called to quell fighting inside the stadium.

An FA spokesman said: "We are making inquiries and will speak to the police.

"Some of the incidents appear to have occurred outside the ground and they would not fall under our jurisdiction."

A tense atmosphere was made worse when Jody Morris, who had an unhappy eight-month spell at United last season, equalised with an 86th-minute penalty.

Morris, who had been goaded by the home fans throughout, responded after his goal by running 70 yards with one hand cupped over his ear in a mocking gesture .

Why does this not surprise me. Any time Milwall are involved, you're guaranteed violence.

I feel sorry for Leeds. It's not that long ago they were in the semis of the Champions League and then, the following season, top of the Premiership for a while. I don't know how Peter Ridsdale sleeps at night.

Zaph

Ridsdale went on to become chairman of Barnsley, but has recently stepped down from the position. Looks like they may have had a lucky escape. Personally I think he should have been up on some sort of charge for criminal negligence for what he did to the club, but I don't think there's anything in UK company law that covers this. Shame.

Originally posted by Einstürzende

You'd have done better!

I probably would have and I've dodgier knees than Paul McGrath!

Kingp35

I dont think leeds will be able to offload any of those players their wages are way too high and to be honest I dont think they are good enough.However if bakke can get himself fit again I would keep him as he is a good player and despite clubs such as aston villa showing interest in him he refused to leave leeds and its commitment like that that the club needs.

Yeah duberry was drafted in because of a mass of suspensions but to be honest sean gregan should have been put in centre back and leave duberry where he was.I dunno how much of his wages stoke were paying but considering he is back leeds are now definitely paying them all again.

All in all tho 9 points from a possible 12 over the christmas period was a good return and it should have been 12 as losing to crewe at home isnt exactly the greatest result. I think the team is starting to get a bit of luck now in that they are playing well and also winning now too.

Losing to birmingham cant be taken too badly as they are a premiership side who were at home so were therefore expected to win easily. maybe the manner in which we lost was disappointing bit now all concentration can be put in the league and with just under half the season to go if leeds xan keep this run going and moving up the table who knows what could happpen. A couple more players in would certainly help that cause and im glad to see young lennon in the side coz I think he is showing a graet deal of potential.

All in all not a bad christmas I just hope they can continue this run into the new year.

kilkennycat2004

It just gets better for us long suffering fans.

Here's the latest from SOURCE - Independant Newspaper (UK):-)

Ken Bates, the irascible, outspoken former Chelsea chairman, wants to make one final foray into big-time football by investing £10m to buy a majority share in Leeds United.

In a move that is likely to stun Leeds supporters and arouse curiosity much further afield, Bates, 73, is understood to have offered the money to become part of a takeover at Elland Road being attempted by Sebastien Sainsbury.

Sainsbury is the only remaining bidder still involved in talks with the Leeds board, who have been looking to sell or find new investors for the past six months. Although a deal is still some way from completion, talks between Sainsbury and the Leeds chairman, Gerald Krasner, are ongoing about a £25m buy-out. The next round of talks is scheduled for tomorrow.

Bates and Sainsbury, accompanied by brokers and agents, were seen lunching together at The Dorchester Hotel in central London last week. According to one source, Bates told Sainsbury he would invest £10m in Sainsbury's consortium in exchange for 51 per cent of Leeds and the role of chairman.

"Ken said he had one more footballing adventure in him," the source said. "He's absolutely serious about it."

Bates could not be reached for comment last night. Sainsbury declined to discuss any of his business partners or potential partners. "I've got no comment to make about this at all," he added. "I'm just trying to concentrate on the important task of taking my plans forward."

Bates stepped down as the chairman at Stamford Bridge 10 months ago after being effectively ousted following Roman Abramovich's takeover.

Under the terms of that deal, which saved Chelsea from financial meltdown and netted Bates a personal windfall of £17m, Bates was due to remain as the chairman until the end of this season, when he would have become a life president.

The appointment of Peter Kenyon as Chelsea's chief executive led to conflict, however, and Bates also cited "a clash of Eastern and Western cultures" as he made an earlier exit than planned. Bates has since made an attempt to take control at financially troubled Sheffield Wednesday. But his offers of investment have been rebuffed.

It is not known whether Sainsbury intends to pursue Bates's offer, although any rebuttal might lead to Bates making his own independent attempt to take over at Elland Road. It is understood that Bates has not yet made any direct approach to Leeds.

Sainsbury has yet to reveal any of the fine detail of his own plans, including the identity of his backers or the precise nature of the technology-based business plan that he hopes will make his takeover sustainable. He has, however, already earmarked the person he wants to become the next manager at Leeds, if and when he succeeds in taking over.

"There's only one man for the job as I see it," he said yesterday. "And that man is Iain Dowie. He has all the abilities I'd want in a manager and all the experience and skills to take Leeds United up from the Championship to the Premiership."

Until Sainsbury actually completes any deal, Crystal Palace fans can rest easy, although the vehemence of his admiration for their manager might be of some concern. If Sainsbury does complete his buy-out, with or without Bates's money, he would be in a strong position to make an approach.


Today Leedsunited.com has put a story on its board to counter this


Cold water is being poured on reports that former Chelsea supremo Ken Bates is to become part of a consortium looking to takeover at Elland Road.

TheIndependent newspaper has reported that the 73-year-old wants to invest£10m to take a majority share in the club as part of the SebastienSainsbury group.

Leeds United today confirmed that nodiscussions between themselves and Bates had taken place, and Bateshimself is understood to have also denied the story.

Bates, who recently failed to take control of Sheffield Wednesday,stepped down as Chelsea Chairman at Stamford Bridge 10 months ago afterRoman Abramovich's takeover of the west London club.

Kingp35

Leeds desperately need someone to take them over but one man I definitely do not want as chairman is Ken Bates. Any approach from him or a consortium including him must be rejected or tbh i can only see matters getting worse!!

Kingp35

well all we could get this weekend was a draw after giving away another penalty. Leeds seem be giving slot of them away this season and something has to be done on the training ground to combat this. I dont feel a draw was good enough at home to a team 6 places below us. They are the games we really need to be winning to move up the table. Disappointing result really.

It seems that the Sainsbury deal has finally been pulled as he couldnt raise the funds needed. This is seriously bad news for leeds because as Gerald Krasner says leeds will now eventually go into administration, not in the near future but they will unless another buyer can be found. Im not feeling too confident about this.

On a better note both Seth Johnson and Eirik Bakke made their comeback this week in the reserves and neither suffered any problems. Its all about building up match fitness for the pair now and they will be a big boost to the side as they have bags of experience and i think bakke is a very good player. Leeds willbe spoilt in midfield with those pair back.

So a bit of a mixed week for leeds lets hope they can at least maintain an unbeaten run for the next few games

galactus

Its still early enough in the year for Leeds to make a late run of it - look at Palace last year.

This season, as has been the case for the last few seasons, its hard to say which clubs have a good chance of making the play-offs.

In some ways, is hard to see anyone stopping Ipswich as they score so many but I wouldn't put money on either Wigan or Sunderland to go up automatically either. Both should make the play-offs though. I've a feeling that if Wigan drop out of the top two that their form might suffer.

Of the other teams up at the top half of the table, I'd nearly put money on Sheff Utd and Preston to make the top 6. Both have great home form. Sheff Utd have a good manager in Warnock, even if he is a bit of a tool. Preston have showed great form of late and if their away form picks up a bit they'll be serious contenders.

As usual, West Ham are completely unpredictable but I think they should make the play-offs and possibly go up automatically. Derby, Burnley, Crewe? Don't think so, but would like to see Crewe make the play-offs.

Wolves are another team worth mentioning. Is the arrival of Hoddle another false dawn? Have they money to spend? Has *anyone* in this division money to spend?

Top 6 prediction: Ipswich, West Ham, Sunderland, Sheff U, Preston and Leeds.

Before you ask: No, I don't support Leeds or West Ham!

quarryman

Top 6 prediction: Ipswich, West Ham, Sunderland, Sheff U, Preston and Leeds.

let's not get carried away here. the best i can see Leeds doing is getting enough points to survive administration and relegation. Start a clean slate in the Championship for the 05/06 season. It will take years just to get mid-table in the top-flight. That might even be optimistic.

-leeds supporter.