Ken Bates is not seeing the bigger picture, if he continuous to run the club on a shoestring, we are going to lose Becchio, Gradel, Snodgrass, Howson and Somma. All decent players want to play at the highest level, lets face it, its a very short career, especially if the club where they are playing shows no ambition. If Mr Bates had put his hand in his pocket, and splashed out 6 or 7 million on a decent defence, and a couple of holding midfielders we would stand a good chance of automatic promotion; as it is, today id settle for mid table. Lets face it, Ken is not getting any younger, if we got promoted into the Premier league, how much more would Leeds United be worth? Then would be the best time for him to sell to a rich foreign owner, whereas as a championship outfit, we would not be worth anything like as much...
he doesn't care about that. He only cares about his families nest egg, which will continue to profit and make him money even if we get relegated. The cost of survival in the Premier League just about outstrips the financial perks of making it there, and it seems he knows that.
Marko, spot on fella While Ken Bates view of Leeds United is of 'one last challenge' many Leeds United fans view is that it is one last chance to increase his family inheritance.
If you moaning mob seriously believe that Bates is making money out of Leeds United then you are seriously deluded. Whatever makes you people think a football club is a good investment.? Speak to the Reading Chairman - a thoroughly decent honest man. He can,t wait to get out but at this moment cannot find a single buyer. And they are not in debt & actually own their own stadium
We aren't in debt, and are one of the clubs in this country that have made a profit for the last 3 years. We sold Fabian Delph in 2008 for a 7 figure fee and Kasper for £1million, and barely any money has been invested in the players. We are currently spending £7million on redeveloping a stadium we don't own. The reason this is - we don't own the stadium but have a lease with a buy back clause that doesn't change for the next 20 odd years - so if Bates wants to sell, the stadium is a better prospect to buy because the corporate addition to it will increase profits and value. Whatever Bates' intentions with Leeds, he's slowly increasing the profit year on year but the club should be concerned with getting promotion and then increasing corporate stuff in the future. We pay our ticket prices, so we have a right to be pissed off at the lack on money spent on players.
5 stars to best fans. Saintsalive Its alright for you with your rich deceased suger daddy, but today we stand on our own two feet. Unlike you, we are a sleeping giant, we are proud to have been the best club in England for a while in the 90's and once you've tasted success like that you want more. We have the 12th biggest stadium in the Country, and I dare say the biggest fan base in this division. Congratulations on winning for first two league matches, I'm sure you think ur Barcelona, not the sorry excuse for a team that used to fight for there lives year in, year out to finish 4th from bottom in the prem...
Of cause Bates will wait until we are in the prem to sell the club to a rich foreign owner. All the rich people in the world just can’t wait to get their hands on Leeds United. They are all outside Ellen Road right now, knocking the door down. But no, Bates wants to hold on until we are in the prem to sell. Bates is out there fighting for his life fending them off one by one, shouting it is mine, only mine, my precious. Or something like that
You post sarcastically, but to be honest if I were a rich businessman looking to get into football, I'd want a club who were: A) a bit of a challenge B) strongly supported around the country/world C) not as expensive as a Premier League giant D) had a big ground which could potentially be filled every week E) had a rich history of success and top-flight stability So Leeds United really. The only thing stopping these figures from getting their wallets out is the detested Bates. He doesn't want to sell and every time someone like Lowy or Parkin emerges and looks like they have designs on a takeover, he immediately criticizes them in his programme notes and demands to know how much money they've got (like they're completely stupid and don't realize that once they show their hand, he'll immediately jack the price up as high as possible). He also apparently values the club at a ridiculous GBP 40m which is a bit rich considering all we really own is the players and management. That said, it still wouldn't be too expensive for an investor to rebuy Elland Road and Thorp Arch. You look at how much the Thais are throwing round at Leicester, the Indians at Blackburn and even on a smaller scale just in this division, how Ipswich, Forest and Hull are spending, and you wonder why one of the biggest names in European football couldn't attract this kind of investment. The only logical reason we aren't attracting the investment is that we are getting the attention, it's just that those people are then put off by the repulsive Bates and his aggressive posturing whenever potential takeovers are mooted.
Reading can't draw crowds of 27000+ despite charging premier league prices for middle-standard championship football. Leeds are not in debt either. That money is going somewhere, and it's not into the hands of the manager. If you genuinely think that he's running the club well, yet we can't afford to spend as much as Championship clubs with half our revenue (and that's just the ones that don't have outside investment)... Managers do not refuse money if it's available. I'm sure Bates has made comments in the past about how well Blackpool did getting into the PL and it's clear as day that he wants Leeds to go the same route, even though it's not really a plan more of a "we'll spend **** all and hope for the best" approach. Larry has now stopped talking to the BBC. We've had Ian Miller start doing post match interviews. This is clearly because of the pressure Grayson is under. It's not coming from us, all the fans are backing him (I say all... you know how it is). It's coming from his inability to get the players he wants because no ****er will play for us when we won't compete with wages. Won't pay transfer fees? Might as well have a tannoy installed around Elland Road that just plays Ken Bates saying "We have no ambition" on a loop. 24/7.
