i love leeds very much indeed---but i dont think we will go up again this season the reason is to me ----bates wont spend and graysonis a lapdog sorry u great leeds supporters like me ----hope i am very wrong ---sorry
We were in sniffing distance of going up last season and blew it. I can't understand the mentality myself. The money you get for being a premiership club is huge. I really don't buy into the bullshit that we are building for the future. If you ask me, Bates is just pocketing as much as he can for himself and hoping someone will come in and buy the club at a later date when he can convince them of the 'potential' that we have. So if I am right. It is in his interests to keep costs to a minimum and have a lapdog for a manager who does not rock the boat too much. Not once last season (at least to my knowledge) did Grayson come out and say in public that we were really pushing for promotion and that was when we were second! The squad could and SHOULD have being strengthened. Now this season Bates said in an interview that we are going to sign 4 players and go for promotion. Well I hope I am proven wrong but I think we will do well to finish in 8th or 9th place. There is an old saying in poker that goes along the lines that if you don't know who the sucker is at the table, then it's you. I think that applies to the mugs buying into the 'slow' approach. Bates and Lapdog Larry out in my opinion and get a manager with some balls and an owner that understands that a club like Leeds can be a better investment by playing in the premiership and not as a mid table championship club.
Bates didn't buy Leeds United to make money - he has enough already. No-one buys football teams to make money, because virtually none do. Football isn't about money, it never has been and never will be. People like Abramovitch, Bates, "deady Doug" Ellis, Mike Ashley...they buy football teams to support their egos. Rich men do things like that - they want to be seen at FA Cup finals, European cup finals ...they buy race horses in the hope of making into the winner's enclosure at Aintree or Chletenham. If Bates just wanted to get the club on an even keel and sell for a profit, why sack MacAllister? He wants us in the EPL but doesn't want to spend big to do it...with good coaching, why should we have to buy players for big bucks? It's not like there's a shortage of football players and if they're not quite good enough - well that is what coaches are for!!! Remember we're still on banks' **** list when it comes to borrowing...so unless a multi billionaire wants to take us over and spend a LOT of his money, we're going to have to do it the hard way. Sweat and hard work. If I have a gripe, it's not that we're not spending enough, it's that our scouting system and youth program isn't producing like it should.
Agree Bates isn't in it for the money - Leeds is a vehicle for him to publicly spew his bile - but take a look at what Venky is doing with Blackburn and what the Thai owner said upon buying Leicester City and tell me that no football owner is just in it for the money/advertizing power for their company. Because you practically have to spend some money to get promoted. Last year, each of the teams in the playoff positions had spent at least 4m that season and the season before. We'd spend 1.2m; now 1m if you count this pre-season and last season's spending. It's simply not enough; you need tough defensive players, leaders and winners to get promoted. It can't be done on the cheap unless you're a serious exception to the rule like Blackpool, and they still invested smartly in Charlie Adam et al. Or we could have scrapped them 7m East Stand redevelopment's first phase and pretty much secured a promotion-standard squad. It is; we unearth attacking gems left, right and centre, and our youth system continues to produce players who are unfortunately poached by scumbags like Man City looking for the next Micah Richards.
If he were in it for the money, why would he spend 7m on an East Stand project he knows won't make any money in the short, medium or long term? He's in it to give him something to do and to provide a platform for his slander and bullshitting which will get his horrible old face in the papers.
We'll finish 9th this season, weaker goalkeeper, 1 new defender and he's injury prone. Killa and Johnson replaced by Brown Clayton and Nunez which is hot and cold, no Somma or Becchio. Its gona be a hard season, Gradel, Snoddy and Nunez are vital
No football owner is in it for the money - not saying they won't use their new club to assist other business ventures but no, football clubs don't make money* *Possible exception of Man Utd. You need good players and more precisely a good team to do well - most managers see a good player and look to sign him. I believe that clubs should be able to produce the majority of their own players - at the top end of the scale the big money clubs have to spend big all the time because they can't afford the time to develop players in the team. Last time we were promoted to the top tier was 88-89 and Wilkinson made two key signing: Vinny Jones and Gordon Strachen. Had he not retired, an ideal short term signing would've been Paul Scoles. So much to spend money on...Thorpe Arch? I firmly believe that Bates wants Leeds United in the EPL...however I'm not sure there were that many players available who would make a difference. 10 games into the season I might be agreeing with you, until then I'll trust Grayson/Bates judgment. We lost a prospect to Barcelona a while back...but no, the academy should be a conveyor belt of young players. We need to produce and promote more youth team players.
Not a chance this year........ sorry just being realistic.... hope im wrong buit we have missed out on some great signings... Johnson is a prime example....he wanted to come but we would not pay...... we have been shortsighted and tight in the market and it will cost us.
Just because clubs spend money like it's going out of fashion doesn't mean they will go up. Cardiff got loads of people in last season on loan and they fell short and we all know what happened to Boro!! Look at QPR last season, no one thought they would go up but they had a hard working team with a bit of quality here and there and they took the leauge by storm! I actually think Leeds will reach the play offs this time round (at least) and think some of the big spenders will fall flat on their faces I think Leeds have a better keeper and I think Kisnorbo will make the difference at the back!! Brown will help break play up and Snodgrass, Gradel, Howson will create chances for our forwards and even chip in with some goals!! I am pleased with how the squad looks - remember good teams are built not bought
Wasn't there a report out when Bates first purchased the club that he was doing so in order to get back onto some footballing chairmans board? Obviously he didn't expect us at the time to drop another division but I am sure I read somewhere that we were a platform for him to 'buy into' some board?
This is exactly the point I have been tying to make for a while now no one seems to listen. Don't write us off we will be right up there all season challenging
Bates is here to stay for the moment. No one really knows what he's up to or where the money is going or even how much money there is. IMO he showed his intent when we didn't get new faces in the transfer window in Jan. Especially as we were up there. Maybe the players weren't available. I think(and I hope I'm wrong) it'll be a long hard slog this season and reaching play-offs would be good.
Look at QPR last season, no one thought they would go up but they had a hard working team with a bit of quality here and there and they took the leauge by storm! ......................................................................................................................... QPR have made a £50m trading loss in the last 3 seasons (biggest outside the top flight by a very very long way). Think most teams would have gone up if they had spent the money they have!!
The Leicester owner said the sole reason he bought the club was to peddle his wares. It might not make him money, fair enough, but it's being used as mothing more than a tool; a propaganda platform. Same with Blackburn, similar with Leeds, except we're being used as a vehicle not for advertizing but for Bates' cringeworthy exhibitionism. And we actually do make money. Loads of it, just look at our accounts. Shame it's offset by bullshit property schemes and rates for mates. Agreed on this. Bates has spoken of his desire to have a team of 'Yorkshire boys leavened by a sprinkling of international talent', which (while probably being bluster as per) is one of the few things he's said at United that's made me feel a twinge of hope and belief. However it's obvious that with the vultures circling, that's not going to happen. I'll deal with that further below. The only way for us to acquire really good players worthy of promotion is by spending a bit of money, unless we really do get lucky like Blackpool did. And like I say, even they spent 500k on Charlie Adam, an amount apparently alien to Bates. Promotion cost at least 4m last season, fact. How much will it cost this term? O tempora, o mores. The only way we'll find players of that tenacity these days is with a huge amount of money being spent on transfer fee and wage. Again, unless we somehow become the exception to the rule, which is always a rather stupid gamble when you have had the money sitting in the bank but chucked it down the East Stand ****ter instead. OK, fair enough, six of the 7m (or whatever Delph cost) should have gone on that, but let's not forget all the money from cup runs, compensation, court cases, Mark Taylor and Yorkshire Radio that was utterly wasted or never seen again. The East Stand project will make us no or very little money at any point. Bates' tenure has valued off-the-pitch vanity over on-the-pitch sanity. Jonathan Greening and Michael Johnson, for two? Aron Gunnarson. Jack Cork. Andrew Taylor. Don Cowie. Just look down the list; there's loads. Don't get me wrong, I still hold hopes for the season ahead, but the division has got a lot stronger and I'd like to see some determined investment on real permanent transfers before the window closes. Ideally at left-back, centre-midfield and on a utility man. You can't promote more youth players when they're being poached at the unplayable ages of 14 and 15 by these vultures. The Academy's doing fine, probably producing as well as any Championship or lower Premiership outfit could muster, but the sad fact is that it's beyond our control whether the youngsters are stupid, whether the vultures are circling, and whether they take up the offers of gold-paved streets at Man City, Barcelona, Tottenham, Chelsea or wherever. Until something's done about that, the Academy is pretty much doomed to fail with the exception of those stars who stay who tend to be local lads who support United. I'm similarly optimistic, but in order to cut out the defensive mistakes, I think we still need a couple of stand-out signings to complete the squad. Like I say, we might become another of the very few exceptions to the rule, but is that really a gamble worth staking the club's future on when you consider we had 7m in the bank - much more if you consider the stuff that's been squandered - just before the window opened?
Don't worry boys - that just isn't going to happen - six points from your lot will help us on our way!
