From the OS ... http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20130626/vice-chairman-the-present-and-the-future_2247585_3221009 Questions and answers with Salah Nooruddin... With the players about to return to Elland Road from their summer breaks and the new season now just over five weeks away, Leeds United's Vice Chairman Salah Nooruddin answers questions from fans for leedsunited.com What is the club's ambition for the coming season? Obviously we want to finish as high in the Championship as we can and, if possible, to be in a position to be challenging for promotion. However, everyone needs to be aware that building for the Premier League involves a long term strategy and getting things right both on and off the pitch. We have great faith in our new manager Brian McDermott. But if it's not possible to achieve our major aim as fast as everyone would like then the owners will continue to support Brian and the club. We are all - shareholders, board and management - working to the common aim of building a successful and sustainable future for the club on and off the pitch. What do you think of the fixture list? It's an interesting start in the Championship. We start where we left off at the end of last season with a home match against Brighton. Of course they will want to prove a point after going on to lose in the Play-Off semi-finals last season. At the same time they are looking for a new manager. Then we have another of last year's Play-Off semi-finalists, Leicester City, away before hosting the Yorkshire derby against Sheffield Wednesday. Is the manager being backed in the summer transfer market? Yes. Our aim is to further strengthen the squad through sensible additions which will add to the long term development of the club. Brian has outlined plans to re-balance the squad and bring in a mixture of younger players with potential and others who are more experienced, and we are backing him to achieve these objectives in a structured way. Brian has also asked for certain changes to be made at Thorp Arch, which he believes will benefit the first team. Those changes are in the process of being made. Do you see more players being bought between now and the end of the transfer window on 31 August? Yes. We are working on the targets that Brian has outlined and expect to see more progress in the coming weeks. I believe that we have to look for the long term value rather than the quick fix in everything. We also have to be mindful that all our dealings fall within the Football League's new Financial Fair Play regulations which limit the amount owners can invest in a club. We also have to make sure that the net effect of our all our transfer dealings is to optimise the wage bill as we support the club in building long term sustainable success. This means that, more than ever, success is something you have to build for and work towards. It's not an overnight thing. Do you expect some players to leave the club during the transfer window? In any transfer window it's inevitable that some players will move on as the manager reshapes the squad as he thinks fit. Our aim is to improve the squad while at the same time optimizing the wage bill. If the club sells players will the funds be used for team strengthening? Our over-riding aim in the transfer window is to strengthen the squad and to increase its value to the club while at the same time keeping wages under control. This will be our guiding principle in all transfer dealings both in and out of the club. How important is the Academy to your plans? Brian and his team will be putting great efforts into our Academy. The Academy has produced wonderful players throughout the years and some of the brightest young talents currently in our squad have come through it. The success of Thorp Arch is the envy of many other clubs. Our plan is to make maximum use of it in building long term success which is sustainable for the club and for the fans. Is the board still looking to bring new strategic investors to the club? Yes and a number of discussions are ongoing on this front. Obviously at this stage they are confidential as any such commercial dealings would be and I can't really say much anything else about them. Who do you see as being the main challengers at the top of the Championship this season? This is a really tough league, there's 24 teams competing and each has 46 games to play. Many of them will be won or lost by no more than an odd goal. It's always difficult to say at the start of a season who will be up there at the end. Clubs relegated from the Premier League come with big squads capable of mounting a challenge. Then there are the teams who made the Play-Offs last year and who will be determined to go one better this year. And there will be one or two dark horses. But Leeds will be out there competing from start to finish. In Brian we have a manager who knows what it takes to succeed in the Championship, having reached the Play-Offs before and having won promotion. How have season ticket sales gone for the new season? We have lowered season ticket prices to bring in as many fans as possible to ensure maximum home support for the team - even though this means lower revenues for the club with the consequences that entails The good news is that we have already sold nearly as many season tickets as we did last year, and fans can obviously still buy them and take advantage of the prices. I believe the club will need everyone's support to take it back to where it once was. Therefore, we urge all Leeds fans to get behind the team and support the club on the next stage of its exciting journey. How are things developing off the pitch? The shareholders continue to support the club financially and given the size of investment we have made thus far, are obviously very keen to get things right. We also understand that the success of the club is key for the shareholders to be successful. Having said that, we need to ensure we do not take unnecessary risks to achieve success, or not take enough risk. The key is striking the right balance in the context of where the club is today.
All sounds good, but nothing really new or concrete in there. Frankly not worth the time spent reading it. Hoping for the best and ALWAYS MARCHING ON TOGETHER!
That they confirm they are backing BMD in the transfer window is good news. We'll now have to wait and see who actually comes in, & just as important, who's leaving. So long as McCormack, Byram, & other major 1st teamers are not being sold to pay for incomers all will be well
Boggers that was the first thing I read(backing the manager), after that I got bored...got a sense that they could sell our better players. Wages seems a big issue as well. At least they've made a statement.
"backing the manager" is pure fluff. What does it REALLY mean? Patting him on the back and saying "go on son, go for it?"
I like the long term strategy. But that only works if it means they're going to be investing along the way, and fighting to keep our better players. Or if we have to sell them, buy adequate replacements. But like they say, the aim should be to finish as high as possible without making promotion this season a necessity. Long term is a much better plan.
I guess people will interpret things differently, but my take on it, was that it was a cooling of expectations exercise. The first point made was to temper expectations for next season... This was followed by repeated comments on balancing wage budget, comments on financial FairPlay etc. Sounds to me like we don't have a pot to p*ss in. He couldn't say, we won't back McDermott, so he said we will back him, provided he get can get us free transfers who'll play for peanuts. Just my take, hope I'm wrong.
Fantastic. So basically we needn't expect much from next season as its a long term plan to get promotion. They won't be around if it ever happens. As for it being a cooling of expectations, nobody genuinely has any. A little hope maybe. Considering we haven't heard from the board in ages, I find that one pretty underwhelming
All in all pretty uninspiring - I don't think there'll be a stampede for season tickets after that statement
At least Eire doesn't disapoint. Gloomy as ever. I didn't read all the interview but at least they've said they're going to backmcd. I'll judge the summer on Sept 1.
Of course it's not what the fans want to hear, but look what happened under Warnock - we tried to plan short term, bought in a load of 28+ championship journeymen who, we were told, had what it took to get us promoted. As things transpired we were far closer to the relegation zone having played some truly diabolical football. Lessening expectations and planning long term is a much better strategy. I would be quite happy if we buy some promising young football league players, blood them in along with our own promising youth team players and aim for a top half finish this season. It's not a particularly exciting prospect, I know, but compared to the previous two seasons, I'd take that.
A team that looks dangerous, is winning convincingly and is losing games on errors that young players tend to make is more promising than another season of the trash we saw last season. Expect most of warnock "foundations" to be shown the door
Hmmm ... as has been stated, at least they are trying to communicate something, even if it says nothing. The thing is, it's one thing saying "long term strategy", but what does that actually mean? If you sat down with a CEO (and I often do) and asked them about their plans, they wouldn't just say "oh, we have a strategy, in fact it's a long term one", because they'd sound stupid and get shot down in flames. What they do say is "we have a plan to increase production by X over Y years, which will realise revenue growth of Z for the company. We expect to achieve this through investment in tow new factories and seven new Fangly Dangly machines". I would have expected GFH to at least state their vision, for example, "we are taking a long term view on our investment in Leeds United, and as such we have discussed a viable plan with the manager. Our goal is to bring in some exciting young players with potential, and mix them with experienced talent. This should place us in a great position to gain promotion to the Premier League in two seasons' time, and help us to sustain a place at the top. We will achieve this through working within the Fair Play rules, supporting the manager financially to get him the players he wants, managing our debt effectively and also focusing on making sure our academy is delivering the type of players who can go on to contribute to the success of our club. If this means that in the short term we have to sell some players then so be it, however we will endeavour to make the majority of any incoming transfer funds available to the manager to help him achieve our goals on the pitch".
If they announced the club was being wound up some of you lot would find something positive in it. They've basically written off next season, should I be partying. I think problem is, I remember the great Leeds teams of the past and find these chancers very hard to stomach
I'm not particularly keen on them either, and I'm just as frustrated as you are with the last few years and our apparent inability to finance signings this year. But I think if we won promotion, going unbeaten all season, scoring 140 goals some would still be complaining. Where exactly do they say next season is written off? 'Obviously we want to finish as high in the Championship as we can and, if possible, to be in a position to be challenging for promotion.' Okay, it's not like they're saying we're really going for it, but to be fair to them, if they're building long term with an emphasis on youth, there's a very good chance we won't be right at the top, through inexperience if nothing else. Obviously they need to back up their claims, but I don't really see too much negative with their statement.
My goodness Eire We wouldn't celebrate the club going bust and folding don't be so ridiculous. We're not just throwing in the towel before the beginning of the season. We're also aware that we can not throw stupid money around in this division and expect results. Look a Leicester who have done that and got nowhere. Stop writing thing off in the summer. Yes we've only signed one player but there are many clubs (About 10) who haven't signed anyone and there are a few clubs like us who have signed one. GFH haven't written the season off. Look at who been relegated from the Prem. Wigan and Reading will more than likely get the top 2 places then there will be any number of teams trying to get the play off places. McD and the board will be fully aware of this league is bloody hard to get out of. They have their heads screwed on because a lot of fans out there would like to get promted but will be fully aware is will be rather hard to do. They've said they'll back McD and when we see the player coming in in the next few week, I'll start to judge how the season will progress but don't expect big names and £3 million signings cos that's not McD's style. He likes to scout players. I'd rather have hungry young players like Smith and if the rumour is true Forester instead of Brown who has nothing really to play for. For me O'Leary's team was great but the business plan failed and almost put in to administration. I'll take these 'chancers' and their long term business plan instead of the Chelsea, Citeh ideas of lets throw money at the situation and it will automatically bring us success. It doesn't always work like that.
Music to my ears. No more of the Warnock "we're going for it this year", no more "this is our last chance" much more of the "this is a building process and we will get there within the next five years" like the Swansea approach. Great, I'm much happier. Start playing good attractive football and build from the bottom up, everyone knowing the way we play and everyone brought in is the type of player who can do that, and every academy product has that ability or is not taken on in the first place. No more hoof-ball, no more big lumps of wood who only know how to flatten others but can't turn. Now to get some realism into some of the fans
