In my view, the worst thing we can do as a fanbase is be divided. Now more than ever, we need to hammer the message home that a buyout is needed for the good of our football club. Ken Bates clearly wants some kind of control over the club, and he knows his best tactic is to divide the fanbase in two - into the Members Club and the Supporters Trust. He wants one to turn on the other. He can claim one group are matchgoing fans and the other are hooligans. Divide and conquer - his simple persuasion tool which will work wherever he goes and there are still easily-led people who he can poison with his propaganda. When he creates a war, he distracts from on-field issues and creates an excuse to authenticate his chairmanship. An excuse to stay here longer. One last battle. At a time like this, we CANNOT separate into two camps and fight among each other. There is only one body which can unite Leeds fans, which has the fanbase's best interests at heart, and which is government-approved and democratically-run. That group is LUST. If you have quibbles, qualms or doubts, ask yourself where the evidence is. Question yourself. And if they still persist in your mind, email the Trust, join them for free and come along to the next meeting to get a face-to-face answer like a man. But don't snipe from your keyboard and play into Ken Bates' hands, creating a rift which only serves to further his interests and secure his stranglehold over our club, spreading his cancerous effect deeper and deeper into the heart of our once-great institution and our great city. Leeds UNITED, not DIVIDED. Be strong - trust LUST.
Jerel, I honestly don't think Bates is that clever that he even thinks of the fans. He is a man with a personal ambition and feels he knows best, his desire is to both make himself wealthy and pass on the ownership of the club to someone he feels he can manipulate when/if required. The issue with the takeover is perhaps business, but underneath Bates will be desperate for a person he can control, even after he has gone. I don't think there is a split between fans, we just have a passion that some can control and others see it as life and death.
There isn't a tangible split yet, but it's emerging. Old Peacock and chip van on here, the ja606 element and others are all slamming LUST for basically knowing more than they do and very little else. Bates is a conniving man, and turned fans on each other at Oldham and Chelsea to his benefit. Why do you think he created the Members Club and fought so hard against the old Supporters Club? Because he wants a subservient fanbase in a group controlled by him. War and conflict always creates an excuse for draconian leadership, and to some people's minds validates it. Rationing, economic protectionism and government control over factories on a national scale. Selling off players, buying cheap replacements and club control over the East Stand project on a football club scale. Then when he turns the fans on LUST, it's a matter of 'what's good in war is good in peace' and he charges off into the future with millions, leaving the club desolate, having fully known what he was doing. I agree that it's passion which has led to these original anti-unity rumblings, but it's essential that we stick together or things are going to get a lot worse.
You should either commence uni or go back, this is equal to a pretty good dissertation on the economical changes of professional football on the punters.
Only problem is I believe the takeover is now closer than at any time. Bates thought by ending the exclusivity period he would force Sheikh yawallet to cough up more dough. he didn't expect the potential buyers to threaten to walk away and now he has blinked. Talks are continuing and the dice just rolled slighty against Bates. If I am right can I become a LUST spokesman?
Think you're right with that analysis. More detailed response on the 'everything LUST' thread. To be fair, it wasn't long ago that LUST were openly inviting people to dedicate time and effort by becoming board members, so it's not like they're some kind of secretive cabal deciding which information gets out to the normals and which doesn't.
You're right, we need to be UNITED throughout this phase. There may be cracks appearing within Leeds fans, but at the end of the day we all now share the same wish in that we all want to see the end of Bates (aka President Assad) at our club. And love or hate LUST, at the end of the day all they have ever done in this is force the club to make an official statement to 1) inform us that there is potential investment in the club and 2) to let us know that it actually broke down. If they hadn't have done this speculation would have been even more rife over the summer and us mushrooms would have been kept in the dark. MOT
Jerel, don't assume to know my thoughts & intentions, I fear you have to always know best and therefore assume my actions are decisive purely down to the fact that they differ from your own. Elland Road is already slit into 2 groups, but we are not at war with each other: Group One have already left Elland Road for the good of the football club, these fans refuse to fund Ken Bates destruction of Leeds United. Group Two believe that we should continue to attend Elland Road and support the team through Bates reign, even if this funds Ken Bates and allows him to continue.
OP - my view is that both those groups need splitting into more detail Group 1a - left ER because they could no longer afford it (ie priced out of the club) Group 1b - left ER because they are no longer prepared to pay the prices (ie can afford it but they do not see it as value for money) Group 1c - left ER because they are ideologically opposed to Ken Bates (ie for the good of the club) irrespective of price (caveat:any of 1a and 1b may also be ideoalogically opposed or ideologically in line with Ken Bates) Group 2a - ideologically opposed to Bates but believe that protests inside the ground while the game is on (ie singing Bates Out) is the best way to register their concerns Group 2b - ideologically opposed to Bates but believe that when they attend ER they should be focused solely on supporting the team and leave the regime issues to other times because anti-Bates songs "affect the performance of the team" Group 2c - claim to be ideologically opposed ot Bates but are just not prepared to sacrifice their short term pleasure Group 2d - quite happy with Bates or believe he saved the club so we should be eternally grateful or don't believe that the corporate regime has any influence on how the team plays (ie they blame players and manager solely for performances) or have that much money to spend they are not affected by ticket prices or any other reason which means they are not interested or don't care about the Group 2e - too young to know anything about any issues and mummy or daddy pay anyway Group 2f - the group who know nothing about football anyway and just go because they are gragged there by their partner or it looks good or it is a corporate thing There's probably quite a few others So yes, there is already a complete split group. The only thing we all want is success for the team. How we get that is why everyone argues. And no-one has to be chums with someone else just because they support the same football team
