Leeds should remain a British owned club. Ken bates gets alot of stick from fans but he has eliminated all debts and restored Leeds to a viable position in Championship. Why is their a need to sell Leeds to potential middle eastern crooks who could leave the club with all their own debt? Leeds should adopt the philosophy of clubs like Blackpool and Swansea and develop a playing style that will get us into the premiership on limited budget, we need produce our own players and coaches and do it the hard way, not go for cheap success
you are doing it the hard way you change your squad at the end of every season wheres the team building ? it will be the same again at the end of this season your top players will move on and another load of cheapies will arrive. first things first you need a manager on a long term contract not a one year wonder, someone to stabalize the squad and build around your top players. Warnock will be gone and you will have to start all over again,and again,and again,
Morning Mighty. Haveyou lot been naughty boys again? According to Twitter yesterday, you'd attacked a load of disabled fans at Hillsborough. Not seen anything anywhere else.
I would love to see us follow the mill wall model. Playing nothing but talented youths and tearing the championship apart rather than languishing on a mere six points like we are
The only thing wrong with your premise is that you believe Bates and the current cronies can do thiswhen they have shown that all they want to do is milk the club and the fans dry without giving two hoots about the football.
As for eliminating debts, that is a new one on me. We currently have debt - couched in preferential share and season ticket agreements - of some £9m, while the club is having to be sold because there is no money and we don't know the extent of the latest problems until next year or administration. There is a failing business model, less customers year on year, and a high level of costs built in to the infrastructure of the club. Your argument in so many ways is too simplistic and naive, although the overall idea of slow progression and building from the inside like Swansea have done is one I completely agree with
Agreed but let's face it, Leeds fans have higher expectations than Swansea, whether right or wrong. The majority want instant success and are unwilling to wait for any kind of rebuilding. The slow progression won't work till Bates is gone because as we've seen, as soon as we get our hands on any kind of talented player, he'll be sold. Absolutely no chance of building anything until the cancer that is bates is gone
Welcome to the forum buddy You might find it tricky converting or persuading anyone on here that Bates is good for the club but then that is what forums are for, good open and honest debate. Changing the subject slightly and your mention of Swansea, I watched them this morning and can only dream at the moment of when Leeds Utd will get back to such an attractive passing display and managing to keep hold of the ball.
What makes you think we are a British owned club now. We are owned by a tax exile who in the past has swindled cash from investors here in Ireland through setting up a "bank". Has removed endless amounts of cash from Leeds United, one way or the other. Attempted some sort of takeover of a foreign country I believe. If this is a typical "British" owner, I never want to see another at Leeds. Btw welcome white rose
Good question, but you need to be aware of a few points. 1. Ken Bates is not British, he is a tax exile who has no rights to claim he is British until he pays his tax returns. 2. It is impossible to keep your best players on a budget, Premiership clubs turn their heads and take them. 3. I too fear the unknown its human nature. However Leeds are been destroyed from within under Ken Bates so the risk must be worth it. 4. Middle Eastern owners will invest in the club to make the Premiership, this is where the money lies. 5. Blackpool & Swansea both received greater financial backing from their Chairman. Lets home the takeover continues to stall and that the fraud squad arrest Ken Bates before he can make a profit. Hopefully then the licence to run Leeds United is passed to someone worthy.
Oh how clueless are you? Open your eyes. bates is nothing but a blood sucking leech and he's left Leeds in a horrendous financial position. If we're in such good financial shape, why can we barely compete at the top of the Championship? Developing a playing style and a team that will do it on the cheap is good in theory but then the talented players quite rightly start asking for more money from a Leeds United that should be able to afford it from its own turnover. Then bates gets pound signs in his eyes, sells them and we're back to square one.
No need to get personal with a new member Marko everyone is entitled to an opinion. While I disagree with white-rose-york in regards to his opinion of Bates he does raise a good point... How do we know these potential middle eastern guys are legit, how do we know how well they will or will not run the club? My opinion is that it is worth the gamble and that Bates is a crook anyway so it is a no lose gamble as far as I am concerned. Going nowhere under Bates unless it is eventually downwards so on a personal level I would welcome any new owner...
I do think that a takeover is best for leeds united but I do and always have felt that Ken Bates has always been looked in a bad light by the fans and regardless the fans were never going to like him. The only real reason that I think a takeover is best for leeds united though is because once fans decide they don't like someone there is no coming back and a change is required. I think he has been the right person to have control over the club for the last 7 or so years to steady the ship. We do now need someone that is willing to keep the club going up rather than stagnating The only issue and I am not reading into Bates' too much is that fans will scare potential investors/buyers away by protests. While it is only because of specifically Bates' it does show how easily fans can turn
I never did like him much I admit but he overstayed his welcome when he took us under, gambled with our 'golden share' and then by hook or by crook managed to regain control through his 'offshore' unnamed owner lark. There were bigger and better offers on the table and that is when he should have stepped aside.
Maybe so, but I still don't hold that against him tbh The issue now is his 'vision' that he is obsessed with for leeds united
What is the saying, 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't', just because the new investors have lots of money doesnt mean they will be good for Leeds, look want the yank investors did to Man Unt and Liverpool. It would be better for Leeds to be a British owned club, with people who care about the club. QPR were promoted to the premier league under Warnock, and now their foriegn owner is now panic buying to keep them up, if they get relegated it will be the administrators for them. Do you want the same to happen again to Leeds? People give alot of stick to Arsenal for not spending money, but their owners are financially responsible, they get them into the champions league every season playing beautiful football and spending little money, the way it should be. Personally I would like to see Leeds owned by the fans, or a billionaire Leeds united fan rather than Bates or these foriegn investors Do Swansea's players ask for more money, or Blackpool's, Middlesbrough's? Their players aren't even that talented, they have just developed a system of playing that runs right through the club not just the first team. It would be possible for Leeds to do the same. Teams like Spurs, Arsenal have also done this.
Believe whatever you want. Norwich yesterday and a terrific midfield made up mainly of ex Leeds players. What have all these players in common, Bates paid **** wages, made no attempt to offer improved contracts and then sold them off and swindled the transfer fees into his own accounts. Add to that Gradel and Delph and you have five midfielders that would walk into our current squad. Not a penny reinvested from any of their transfers. But dont let me rain on anyones parade, believe what you will regardless of how deluded it is
A truly dismal, poorly-thought opening post. Based on this thread, please don't feel obliged to stay. 1. 'Why do Leeds need a takeover?' -- Because, as it stands, we are hovering over administration according to football finance experts and don't have enough money to build a top-half squad, let alone a promotion-challenging one. The club can't attract investment under its current ownership. That's why we NEED a takeover, not to neglect the many reasons we still WANT one. 2. 'Leeds should remain a British-owned club' -- I agree this is the ideal, but nationality means little to me (arbitrary lines on a map, woohoo). Anyone with Leeds and Yorkshire in their hearts, no matter where they were born, will do for me. 3. 'Potential' (i.e. 'potential crooks' and 'better the devil you know') -- Better to opt for potential evil than opt to stay with proven evil. At least that way, there's a chance of avoiding evil in the future. Bates is evil. As people have mentioned, he has ruined thousands of lives in Ireland and the Caribbean (and some in the UK with his laughable litigiousness). If we choose to stick with that, we choose the worst chairman in the Football League. It can't get worse, even if there is a small gamble in any buyout! Though I do find it funny that the thing most people pull him up for is tax evasion which I admire him for. Well done if you can have less money stolen off you by the criminals at Westminster, I say. 4. 'Blackpool and Swansea' -- Both of them spent more on their promotion squads than we have in our last two attempts. They had more money than Bates has. Yes, they are a good model, and they had a long-term vision which they are now implementing, something Bates is not concerned with since his major interest is personal profit and egotism. Cheap success is what he wants. I don't want an Arab multi-billionaire to come in and **** our club up like Man City, scum and Chelsea where Elland Road is full of tourists; far from it, but the Bates Effect is achieving the same thing, just in a far more insidious way and with no success on the pitch to compensate. 5. 'People who care about the club' -- Laughable that you claim you want this and then support Bates. He said we should be disbanded in the 80s and threatened to liquidate us in the 00s if he didn't get his way. How on Earth does that **** care about Leeds United? He cares about himself and his bank balance and his media profile as a shrewd, cheeky old bastard who you don't mess with. Our club gives him a platform to refine that image, which he exploits with relish, to my disgust. See sense, mate. You're right about us not needing a billionaire, and make a great point about fan ownership which I also think is (ultimately) the way to go, and about the need for a long-term vision, playing style and ethos, something I think should have its root in our famous Academy. But this Bates arse-licking gets no-one anywhere except that vile old Chelsea **** who's been kicking our club in the guts and ****ing over our resulting screams for nearly a decade. The only alternative is NOT to become (even more of a) a plastic club. Get real.
