BIG THINGS ARE HAPPENING ....................... please log in to view this image A new dawn for Leeds Utd, at least it will be at 11.00 (suggested time) when a press conference at Elland Road will unveil the NEW owners of Leeds Utd football club, GFH Capital. Months and months of speculation, black tape and smoke screens have been cleared, meaning a lot of truths regarding the takeover may come to light shortly. Hope the champagne is on ice ladies and gentlemen. This is by far the most positive news to come out of Elland Road in the last 10 years, and will put many ghosts to rest. The days where we had to rely on free transfers or selling our best players to balance the books are hopefully behind us, and we can dare to dream again............ Don't expect us to be a Chelsea or a Man City, but sufficient funds will be made available to ensure we can strengthen our squad and have a fighting chance of at least making the play offs. We cannot afford to drop too many points at home. Nothing will give us and the players more confidence than if we can bounce back from our midweek drubbing and take three points off Middlesborough. Do you think the midweek game would have knocked the confidence of our players? Do would you pick for Saturdays game? Who needs to leave the club in January Any positive stories about Ken Bates whilst he was in charge? Hope for the future?
It could be great times ahead, hard to tell at least right now but its still looking up. In answer to your questions though 1) I don't think it should knock the players at all, as long as Warnock keeps them focused and motivated it shouldn't do any damage whatsoever 2) My team would probably be something like this: -----------------------Kenny--------------------- Peltier-----------Lees--------Tate-----------Drury Green---------Norris---------Tonge--------Thomas ----------McCormack--------Becchio-------------- I know that won't be the team that he will pick though, more than likely Byram and Diouf will be in the team. I think we should rest Byram though, this is not the way to bleed youth players into the team. Also we need Ross firing and he is such a confidence player, he now thinks he is ready to be back in the team and I agree. 3) Rachubka, Kisnorbo, Pugh and Varney 4) Yes I think so, he balanced the books. He did what he came here to do and despite the anger from fans I think the club has the ability to move forward now because of his era. Many didn't like the tactics which he imposed to do this but we could be in a far worse position without them. So he maybe stayed at leeds for a couple years longer than he should have and didn't have the ability to take leeds to the next step 5) Always
Mornin all. A truly historic day for us surely. Josh's point about balancing the books is partly correct. Bates did but ran out of funds probably two years ago. He should have sold after promotion to the championship as we have stagnated since. As I have said continuously, what happens from now till feb 1st on and off the field will tell a lot about GFH. At least though, they seem capable of encouraging further investment, something bates was clueless about, with his multiple shady companies. Bad day for the Millwall boys though after all the doom and gloom predictions throughout the summer. I'm sure they'll come up with some insane twist on today's news. Will watch out for that
Guys Hoping for a brighter future after 11am today, so lets hope it's all good news. I think the players bucked up as soon as the takeover deal was confirmed, and we went on a good run, which is still happening if you discount the match before last. New owners today should focus the minds of the players, because they'll expect new players coming in shortly, and will want to prove that they deserve to be still here. Hoping for 9-points from the next 3 games which are all toughies, and if that happens we're back in the running. I'll never forgive Bates for the way he's milked the club and fans. Yes he steadied the ship on a financial basis, but went too far and syphoned off much needed funds. he sold our best players and didn't replace them. he promised to by TA and didn't, even though he had the cash, plus the Delph money which vanished, and we knew it was at least £8m because he turned that sum down from Newcastle. He let Beckford, BJ & Killa go on frees because he didn't want to give them a pay rise. he dragged us through courts and it cost us millions in legal fees. He stole the club out of administration because of a supposed £18m debt that even the administrators were not aware of until the deadline. He got us a 15 points deduction because of the way he came out of administration, which meant we didn't get automatic promotion. he mortgaged the club to redevelop the east stand which is still a white elephant and losing money, when that same money could have been used to get us promoted to the prem 2 seasons ago. Why develop something you don't own (Allegedly) No I for one will be glad to see the back of the old bastard and I truly hope he resigns because I'm hoping the new owners will say and do things that he won't like. Imagine the owners telling us whats going on and spending money on the team and buying back ER and TA, and canceling Bates program notes. Have a good Xmas everyone and lets hope for a fantastic 2013 on the pitch
Morning all. Yes the take over happens at 11am. The world ends at 11.11, Papa Smurf's final act!!! On the team for Saturday & having noted that we have plenty of games coming up, I agree that having Diouf & Byram on the bench is a good idea so long as they understand that its for their benefit & isn't a reflection their performance. Potentially tricky, but I'd also like to see Somma on the bench AND get 5 or 10 minutes at the end. On departees, it will depend on contract talks about loanees. Rachubka certainly should go. Ashdown is No. 2 & a club junior through the academy should be no. 3. I think I would hang on to Pugh because he can play in a variety of positions. Not sure about Varney. Will depend on who might be coming in & how Somma gets on. Heyho, onwards & upwards into 2013. Merry Cliffmas & happy new year one & all. MOT
I believe we need a better and more youthful #2 keeper, it is not priority but Ashdown just parried everything back out into open play against Chelsea and his kicking wasn't the best. I would like to see a clear out of Gray, Pugh, White, Varney, Kisnorbo, Brown and even Peltier (Depending on who we can get in). White while we can get some money for him and I don't believe he is going to get any better. Peltier because Byram is first choice and we have Lees who can cover. I feel Peltier is being played out of position because NW feels the need to include his most expensive summer signing. If we don't secure Tate in January maybe keep and play Peltier next to Lees as I am not convinced by Pearce. Brown because we have Austin, Norris, Green and Tonge and I would hope a pacey right and left sided midfielder were priority targets.
Ristac, White gives us something you can't buy or improve on; pace. He really should work on playing LB or LW & get into the habbit of getting to the by line & pulling the ball back to either the penalty spot, the 18 yard line or over the head of the goalkeeper. If he does that, we'll see his benefit & what he brings to the team immediately. Why get rid of Brown? He's our only genuine DM. Peltier is under a lot of pressure. Playing him out of position doesn't help. The rise & rise of Byram doesn't help his case either. But Byram is still developing. There will be changes, as some of Warnock's signings haven't quite worked as hoped. But let's see what happens between now & the middle of January.
Ristac I'd go along with all of that except Ashdown. I think Ashdown was brilliant for most of the game and kept us in it in the first half. Yes he should have had a stronger arm for the silly goal we conceded, but when you think of the conditions it would have been tough for Gordon Banks trying to get hold of the ball, so blocking and parrying was probably the way to do it. It seems GFH didn't manage to buy back ER in time for this deal, but now the deal is completed, I'm sure they are going after it in a big way. lets hope Warnock has a 'war chest' from GFH, and not the old Bates 'war chest' that had 20p inside.
I thought Ashdown was class. will someone post what is being said in the press conference? I have updated my iphone and its corrupted it so can't get on it to access twitter/facebook or anything
Press conference starting at 11.30. You picked a great time to update your iPhone mate. Youv'e had eight months to do it and you pick today ha
please log in to view this image Gary Vile Animal ‏@Gary_Calter @LeedsInScotland @officialghall @craigstewart79 Bryn Law said sky should be broadcasting live @BrynLaw
I didn't think any of the saves were spectacular, I would have hoped any decent keeper would have saved them, however on another day we could have been 3 down in the first half, we were lucky that when he parried them back into open play we had a defender handy. Why he couldn't push them round the corner beats me? He allowed one sloppy goal their first, one near post (their 3rd) which he should have had covered better and their last goal which was again parried back into the field of play rather than around the post. Just my opinion though, I don't rate him
Sky Sports will bring you comprehensive coverage of this morning's press conference from Elland Road which starts at 11.30am.
NO KEN BATES at the press conference please log in to view this image Andrew Haigh ‏@AndrewHaigh No Ken at the Press conference then. #lufc Expand Reply Retweeted Favorite [*] More
