Our new Chairman has been interviewed by Ben Jacobs. He's tweeted these interesting highlights .... Ben Jacobs ‏@JacobsBen 16m Just a few highlights from my interview with #Leeds chairman Salah Nooruddin, with audio to follow soon... 1) Red Bull, Saudi prince and Bahraini royals sponsorship is false. 2) Long-term aim is to buy back ER, but club in "no rush" 3) Called fans "de facto" owners of the club and says once he's settled in he'll take their questions. 4) Wants to get into the PL in three years, but says it would be "unrealistic" to expect promotion this season 5) Reiterated GFH chose to get rid of Ken Bates (and also confirmed he isn't a Foxes fan :s). 6) Finally, on transfers: "we have told Brian to get one or two more players before the window shuts and will support him financially" 7) Stressed, in particular, the need to find a defender and a winger 8) BTW,on Yorkshire Radio:"Was good to outsource. BBC is a well known name. We didn't want to manage it ourselves since it wasn't making money"
Apols for doubting the provenance of what you've written Jock, but if this is accurate, its all good news, particularly the bit about bmd being able to buy 2 more players
Ben Jacobs is a reliable journalist, working in Middle East. Gets a lot of Leeds scoops due to where he's based & the contacts he has. Check him out on Twitter (he mostly does golf, btw, but a good journalist never refuses a scoop!). Edit: further posts .... To clarify on the ER front, the point made is buyback is "sentimental not urgent" since Leeds will always have the option I think this means if a substantial investor comes in ER will still be immediately re-purchased, but not without one
Clever words, methinks. Although the Chairman's words differ from the Managers, I think you'll find that they're both bound by the necessity that is 'one out, one in'!
Jacobs has been very reliable throughout the whole gfh buyout. Looks quite promising mcd has gotten the green light for a winger and centre half. Wonder have the extra attendance at the weekend influenced them to loosen the pursestrings
Full interview (haven't had time to listen to it yet, so no comments) ..... https://soundcloud.com/benjacobs-1-1/ben-jacobs-with-salah
Maybe that is the case however I get the impression that Leeds are perhaps not prepared to match this "fourth signing's" wage demands. I remember a while back that McD said the club had agreed a fee for a fourth signing.
There was an interview with BM on LUTV yesterday. I listened while somewhat tired and emotional late last night, so might have misunderstood, but I got the impression the player wanted a bit too much and BM was close to giving up on the deal. H also agreed it had dragged on too long. I read into this that maybe originally the issue was GFH could not stump up enough, and wanted players out, that that might now have changed but now the player was asking more than BM thought reasonable. (But, as I say, I was the wrong side of several containers of liquid when I listened to it)
Ben Jacobs was the source that GFH used to announce everything to do with the takeover highly rated but a Leicester fan lol
Cheers for this WhiteJock, I'm pretty happy with what he said in that interview. Putting aside the part about bringing players in (because that could be a little dash of smoke and mirrors), I was particularly happy that he acknowledged the need for more of a relationship with the fans. That's something that has been discussed a lot on here since the takeover and I largely agree with the stance that we can't expect them to be completely transparent with us, because that can be bad for business. But for them to come out and do an interview where they talk honestly about a longer term plan and what fans can expect from them as owners just felt completely refreshing compared to all the misdirection and abuse that came from Bates. If they are to keep up doing interviews like this every now and again, I'll be a much happier fan.
If we're not getting a player in because he's asking for more than what BMD is willing to pay, that all seems preetty reasonable to me. Can't have a newbe upsetting the wage structure applecart. We'll end up being in the same state as we were in the "living the dream" era. Strikes me all of this just helps to show that slowly but surely the club is moving in the right direction. Acceptable success this season would be a top 6 finish. In BMD/GFH I trust. MOT
