You never see a poor bookmaker and I think the betting looks about right, I feel Blackpool, Cardiff and Ipswich have a better chance than us this year yet their prices are around 20/1 same as Leeds. http://www.easyodds.com/sports-bett...gues/championship/outright/outright-2012.html
I'm not sure about Ipswich but I feel we're in a better position than Blackpool and Cardiff. Our squad was a similar strength to Cardiff's last season and they have lost a good number of key players, as have Blackpool. With 2 or 3 good signings I could see us getting auto.
Jason Scotland towards the end of last season, Nathan Ellington, Ivar Ingimarsson, Lee Bowyer, Michael Chopra and probably Stockdale in goal, they are ones to watch.
Cardiff finished 8 points above us last season and that was deemed bad enough for their manager to be sacked. So if our squad was as good as Cardiff's then surely Grayson should go?
We spent far less money to get that squad. I feel we slightly underachieved and they slightly overachieved.
O Niell Woulda had us in the prem by now, neva mind, gota put up with Grayson picking Paynter. I fancy Derby and Ipswich to do well, Leicester to walk it with Birmingham, Huddersfiled will fin ............. wait a sec, they arent in the championship are they hahaha
QSS West ham will walk it, i think the second auto spot is up for grabs, derby will never be up there, leciester have spent too much money on average players, i dont think birmingham look that decent either. Also a lot of the teams that were up there last year have gotten weaker as well i.e. cardiff and reading. I genuinely believe we make a couple GOOD signings, we are up there challenging for auto promotion
What difference does it make how much was spent, if the quality of the squads are on a par? So you think Cardiff sacked a manager who overachieved? Why shouldn't we sack a manager who underachieved?
But our manager didn't underachieve, the players did at crucial moments. What I'm saying is Larry built a squad that was/is capable of finishing higher than they did for far less money than Cardiff's squad which IMO were lucky to finish as far above us as they did. You could blame us not getting into the play-offs on one day IMO, Nottm Forest getting the luckiest win imaginable over Leicester and us managing to thrash Reading 0-0, as it happens those breaks just didn't go in our favour last season.
Becchio was one of the top scorers, Howson got in the England Under 21 squad, Snodgrass got in the Scotland squad and attracted bids from the Premier League, Gradel was one of the top scorers and attracted bids from the Premier League, Bradley Johnson moved to the Premier League, Davide Somma had a highly impressive goals to games ratio, Kasper Schmeichel had an impressive season and left for a big money move to a promotion chasing team. I don't see a lot of underachievement there. And if the players did underachieve, perhaps they're not as good as you thought they were? If players don't perform as well as they should, isn't that down to not being managed correctly? You can't always blame a manager for the odd bad performance, but when a club has underachieved over the course of a season, or even two and a half seasons, then the manager has to take the blame. The majority of the midfield and attack, that performed so well, were already at the club when Grayson arrived. The only thing he built was one of the worst defences we've ever had. You could blame us not getting into the play-offs on us getting played off the park, home and away, by a Cardiff team that was no better than us.
I wouldn't say we under achieved last season at all...in fact most people would've accepted a top half of the table finish when the season started. The difference between Jones' and Grayson's performance was that Cardiff deemed Jones had, had enough time to get promotion. It was Grayson's first season in the Championship with us. Bates wants into the EPL...Grayson will have to deliver or get sacked like any other manager of a team that thinks it belongs at the top table. If we regress this season, then questions should be asked but not now. If the following season we don't go up or at least come mighty close, Grayson goes. So by the 2013-4 season, we'll be in the EPL or you'll have your wish and we'll have a new boss.
kasper didnt go for a BIG money move exactly, but anyway the players were not as good at the start of the season as they were at the end of the season, you'd have to agree with that. Maybe it was because grayson was just good at managing them that they improved so much
It was over a million pounds, he only had a year left of his contract and Grayson made it clear he wanted to get rid of him. He's a good player regardless, anyway. Our results were awful since January, that's why we dropped from 2nd to 7th.
Sorry clive but he wasn't a good player. He wasn't good enough for Leeds. Im pretty sure if he came off his line, commanded his area and organised his defence i would be pretty convinced he wouldn't have gone to that tin pot club
You could also say many of thos players collectively failed us at crucial moments. Becchio, Howson, Snoddy and Gradel all improved immensely this season (under Grayson).
You have had far too much crystal meth by the sounds of it. But Leeds may just avoid the drop. hahaha
not really. just like to keep an eye on the noisy neighbours. all hot air as always. still living in the 70's LEEDS WILL STRUGGLE. MARK MY WORDS.
