Its now beer o’clock and I’m sat on my sisters veranda overlooking the 8th fairway at Las Ramblas golf club, it’s now dark butI arrived this afternoon and here for 3 weeks without Mrs Doc who is left at home decorating. First time abroad for a few years due to cancer and exactly 1 year and 1 week since I was discharged from Christie in Manchester. Going to try and remember what sun, good golf courses and getting leathered is all about again. Massive weekend for the club and I believe only 6 points from the next 2 games will do. This is how bad things have gone in a wasted year for the club under Jesse Marsch. Its not all down to Marsch though is it. So lets look at the debit and credit columns: The club invested heavily in bringing in Marcelo Bielsa The club were losing money fast but didn’t win promotion in Bielsa’s first season The club then went on to smash it the following season and won the league by 10 points The club then invested heavily to the tune of £100m for our first season back in the prem The club finished 9th and were every football fans second fav team and box office to watch After sacking Bielsa the club supported Marsch with £100m of talent. The club then mishandled everything until January 2023 when they invested heavily in support of their coach. So a comedy of errors and silly board decisions took place, plus I may have missed something from the above credit side. In the debit side: We can argue about sacking Bielsa but my opinion is he wasn’t supported in the transfer market Bielsa’s 2nd season only saw Harrison signed along with Firpo and nothing in the previous January window. Jesse Marsch was given a contract to 2025 and was sold to us as the ideal Bielsa replacement The club struggled through the last 12 games of the season and managed to to survive, just. After a whole year of Marsch the fans saw no improvement even though he had a bigger and better squad. The football was dire and results were shocking but the club failed to act. When the club finally acted it was too late Victor Orta had convinced Radz that a new head coach would be in place within hours of sacking Marsch Radz yet again boasted on social media about white smoke ‘tonight or in the morning’ It soon became apparent that our top list were Andoni Iraola, Marcelo Gallardo and Slot. None of the targets were willing to take over without having a pre season The club then invited a not very good Ten Haag substitute to the club and were about to anoint him until fans kicked off Alf was sent packing but time was running out, so Skoobs our U21 coach was given the job as Interim boss The last 2 seasons can only be described as a total clusterfuck and that is all down to decisions the board took. The club are yet again in a perilous position and have to pay millions in salary to a failed US coach who is now a multi millionaire and almost walked into more money on the south coast. In business the board would have been replaced and if the 49ers do take over you can expect heads to roll, we just have to hope that the next crew make the right calls when they need making.
Well deserved holiday doc. Hope Leeds results can add to your good time. I agree with everything there in your opening salvo. Except I’ll add that even when Bielsa was backed his signings could be suspect. Remember we blew 45m on James and Jka with Bielsas blessing. Sadly we’re a bit of a laughing stock among fans of other clubs. I’m tired trying to explain to lads I’ve met this week why we’re in such a mess. I just explain it as it’s down to the board
Brilliant weekend thread Doc and there's a lot to get stuck into there, however I'm keeping my powder dry until we see how things play out at Goodison tomorrow. Have a great 3 weeks, with some sunshine on your back and a chilled beer in hand
Enjoy your hols, beer and golf doc. Not going to get involved with the blame game, the club, team etc need our support right now. MOT
Have a good time Doc I’m confident about tomorrow’s game. If we win it will seem so much better, Radz will be gone this summer, we’re at a pivotal point
Let's see how many are as supportive as they should be after tomorrow Este. Things are going to go ballistic in my view if we get turned over.
Skoobs is in a win win position because if it goes wrong it’s not his fault and if it goes well he takes all the credit. I would say he has enhanced his career already with his air of calmness and the football played in his two games
Saw bamford interview where he discussed being taken off ‘early’. He was full of praise for how scoobie handled it afterwards with him. He also said it felt like the atmosphere was good and it felt like the pressure was off a bit. I typically take a lot of this sort of stuff with a pinch of salt… I’ve never heard a caretaker manager get negative feedback whilst still in the job - but the ‘less pressure’ bit was interesting. I think with an incumbent manager when results aren’t great there is a build up of pressure. Now the ‘table pressure’ is still there but as you say Doc, scoobie is in a win-win situation So whilst there’s pressure of ‘the step up’ for him - there’s no pressure of expectation. So maybe that’s helping behind the scenes. Regardless, it’s a credit to him so far that he’s apparently been able to get the players behind him. Let’s see if he can work some magic today.
Good post milky and sort of what I've been saying with the comparision to Burnley last season. Players feel engaged in the decision making process and so are fully on board. However there's been no tough selection calls yet with Cooper, Roca, Rodrigo and now Sinisterra all unavailable. Let's see how long the ' all together approach ' lasts when there are few noses out of joint. Also found the Bamford comments interesting, he was only subbed off for 30 mins and yet needed a full explanation and his ego massaging as well no doubt.
Completely agree on all points jambo. You can read ‘player’s engaged’ as ‘senior pro’s trying to do the managing for him.’ Paddy: “Keep me on a bit longer next time boss. Oh you will? Did I mention what a great job you’re doing’ As you say, would he be quite so full of praise if he was sitting on the bench watching Rodrigo? Big test for scoobs today. The Man U games were a free hit against a side that allows you to play. Now he has to find a way to beat a side that will set up to stop us. No Calvert-Lewin is a plus.
And in further developments, the scummers are set to join the filthy rich clubs with a shiny new stadium. Every one of these deals that go through, I lose a little more interest in top level football. The super league has arrived except it’s in England and confined to the elite clubs with no promotion or relegation to or from it. Scum will fire 300m at next transfer market same as Chelsea in this one. City have made and will continue to make a mockery of ffp. We’ve all different views on where we want to see Leeds. Which was more enjoyable, our last two seasons in the championship or last two in a ridiculously lob sided pl. it’s a no brainier for me, it’s the former. Winning 20 plus games a season will always make me a lot happier than having to settle for six or seven whatever the level. I watched a league of Ireland game last night. Refreshing really. Wasn’t about obscene amounts of money, no plastic fans, players giving it their all for little financial reward. Proper football. I suppose these days I’m simply a Leeds fan who’s not bothered about the crap the pl brings. Just the thoughts of an old fan and don’t expect anyone to agree in all honesty
Bamford needs to shut the **** up and stop talking to the press about managerial stuff and get on with his job as a player. I'm sick of hearing the **** talk. Always someone else's fault. Just put the ball in the onion bag and go home.
