Five points out of last possible eighteen. I suspect most on here will be more than happy with that. As expectations seem to diminish with each passing season and the great years slip further and further into the past. Still, I'm sure we should be eternally grateful for the great team and manager papa smurf has provided us with.
Great teams always bounce back and with a one football team city and a Stadium that can be filled with 40,000 fans the hope is always there, Bates is not getting any younger
I agree with eire, first off bates could be at the helm for another 5 years at least, the club and fan base is huge but the ambition is ZERO, we have a manager who is not capable of taking us to the next level and the best we can hope for is championship survival its pretty grim
Obviously we're not happy with that but I think I'm right in saying Leicester, with all they've spent, have acheived about the same points haul as we have from the last six games. Our 16 man squad yesterday cost in the region of £1m. I think 12 players were loans, freebies or youth system derived. The blame lies with Bates & his shameful lack of investment in the team, & I think Grayson's doing as much, if not more, than another manager would.
The blame lies with Bates & his shameful lack of investment in the team, & I think Grayson's doing as much, if not more, than another manager would Maybe or maybe not. This bates thing is becoming a handy smokescreen for an average manager and team. As long as the fans continue to blame bates solely then were going nowhere. I agree the lack of investment is a disgrace but bates can hardly be fully to blame for a team that consistently concedes a goal in early stages of games and has to rely on last minute comebacks to salvage anything. I'm not sure which annoys me more, the lack of ambition at the club or the growing lack of ambition among our supporters
I know what you mean Eire, I'm ambitious & about the most impatient person around, but I'm trying to see the bigger picture. Considering the lack of player investment it's not a bad squad. My support of the club spans from the Revie glory years, through the dark days of L1, till now. Everyone used to say we were too good to be relegated in '82, but we went down & the following eight seasons were very depressing indeed. It seemed like the club had no ambition then, so the current situation is nothing new. In fact I'd say the club is in a far healthier state both on & off the pitch now than it was in say '83, & there's more stability on the managerial side now than when we were chopping & changing between the likes of Clarke, Bremner & Gray. Just trying to be positive mate, at least we can see an improvement from two or three years ago surely?
I actually think the standard of football in both The Championship and League One, has dropped in the last three years, hence this Leeds squad is about as poor as others and have been lucky that the other clubs are now equally as bad.
In transfer fees. But if you take into account the wage bill, players signed who were paid off their contracts (Bessone), players on the wage bill that don't ever play (Paytner, AOB), signing on fees and the cost of loanees, we have spent a lot. Apart from Leicester and maybe 1 or two others, find me a Championship club that have a big net spend on transfers? We have a higher wage bill than most and a large overturn of players under SG.
You're probably right re dropping standards hence hence Norwich claiming back to back promotions and likely Southampton the same. Both with minimal investment. Maybe bates master plan is to wait for everyone else to become so poor we'd get promoted by default
Try looking at the positives for a change. So when we eventually get promoted it will be because the standard has slipped & not because we earned it on merit? Some of you lot will look for negatives even in success. Norwich, Southampton....so what? The grass may appear greener but it's still just as hard to mow.
