Morning Leeds Fans Delph will be back in a Leeds top this week. He is returning from injury, lets hope he can start with us, where he left off... (he is not the only Villa player) Does this mean Bates is showing some ambition for our great club at last, or do we think the Villa will be picking up most of his wages? Whatever this means, Townsend, Clayton, Delph and Snodgrass must be on the best midfields in the division, surely !!!! Parker is making good progress towards full fitness, surely, this must be his last chance??? Eric Lichaj IS ON HIS WAY BACK..... Thoughts??? Lots happenin folks, Im feeling really optermistic, are you? I'll try and get on asap, though difficult at the moment with bosses in every day.......
Morning Elland, welcome news if true but the pessimist in me says is Bates spouting off & letting his sources within our club leak news like this in an attempt to appease season ticket renewals? Funny how we only do transfers in private when it suites old Kenny boy. Can’t argue with that midfield, if they cant create chances for our forwards then something is really wrong! One Centre back to come in as well please & lets give the rest of the league a run for there money. Morning all
Morning all. Hope you're right Elland but I read somewhere this morning that Villa want to keep Lichaj and he is no longer available for loan.
Morning Wickers http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co...._deal_for_delph_and_lichaj_in_doubt_1_4148890 Theres your link
Thanks Bucks. Interesting to read that we have not made any formal contact with Villa about Delph either. Hmmm..... I wonder how many season ticket renewals Bates will need before he says "Well we did everything we could to bring the lad in on loan, but <insert excuse here> so it couldn't be done".
Good morning all. Not sure how I feel about Delph, but Lichaj being a doubt is a little disappointing, he was a class act. Whether he's a walking sick note or not, I'm not sure. For all your amusement this morning I decided to channel my frustration into creating a new Leeds United specific meme. Enjoy!
good work Marko! Wickers I said the same thing mate. Lets hope the formal approach doesn’t come a few days before the window closes & we get fed the usual spin that we were let down at the last min etc. Either way, Lorimer leaked the news & if you listen to him on LUTV or at an on the road event everything he says is pro the current set up (he is being paid by them after all) so for him to come out and say something like that surely there must have been contact or they have told Gray to say it & he thinks its the truth. Dont think Peter would blatantly lie so its come from somewhere, lets just hope its not a seed Bates has sewn to buy him some time in the transfer window & boost renewals!
So you did Bucks ! I must remember to read all previous posts before I submit mine ! I used to be a glass half full sort of bloke, but Bates is not only making my glass look half empty these days, it's completely dried up.
I think this Delph nonsense has tipped me over the edge to be honest. Lying to try and get me to renew my ST? Nah, don't think I'll bother now. 31st of January deadline to try push me into it? Cretins. I've been called a moron by the club for having the tenacity to say the worst chairman in our history; the worst chairman in the Football League should leave. He still fails to get any investment because of his **** record, pointless intransigence and unpopularity. Can't be arsed with it. When I saw they'd introduced student prices in the Kop, I thought I might have changed my mind and renewed. But say goodbye to your half-a-grand from me after this patronizing wreck. Membership only next season.
Sad situation to be in though. You have to cut your nose of to spite your face in this instance but I dont blame you or anyone who does the same. Whos the real loser here? Is it Bates? Nope hes made his money IMO. Is it the team? In a way yes, they are losing valuable support & possible lower wage cap will probably be introduced, but the real loser here is the fans. No investment in the team, no trust in the chairman & constantly stung in the pocket. Is it any wonder our away following is one of the best in the country & our away form (away from the pressure cooker of a half empty ER) is up there with the best in this league. Its truly is a sad time for our club & without any investment in the squad we are going to go backwards sharpish. Wickers, Bates smashed my glass a while ago!
As footballers they would be nuts to not consider there future Kissa. The club doesn’t appear to be moving forward & it wont until fans are prepared to pay premiership prices so we can get premiership football. No wait........
Everyone knows we're still one of Europe's biggest names and one of England's biggest clubs. But Bates and Ridsdale have absolutely ****ed us. As a Leeds United fan, what do I expect? A good team and a good atmosphere. Now I understand that modern football has conspired against anyone who's not in the Sky Elite which we used to be part of, but the Chairman is holding us back way further than the TV money ceiling would. Property development? Wooooooo!!! That's got my bum on the seat. And I understand that atmospheres at home grounds aren't going to be as good as they were, but at least if we had a chairman, manager and team we were in favour of, there'd be some sort of unity and some sort of will from the Kop to make some noise. There's no feeling better than watching Leeds at a full Elland Road where you're squeezed in like a sardine and it actually feels like a proper football match at a proper stadium. But there are gaps around me in the loudest part of our most popular stand, for Christ's sake, never mind the East and West Stands. All Bates would have to do is offer cheaper season tickets and market the club properly like Norwich etc. have and we'd have 25,000 season ticket holders without a doubt. Well, that and not be a massive cock all the time who's destroying our club. I still look forward to going to Elland Road, and even on Saturday against one of the most boring, non-entity clubs we could play with an atmosphere which will no doubt be crap, I still won't regret going. But next season will cost a lot of money and I'm not comfortable putting it straight into a project that will put us into almost as much debt as Ridsdale did. I hope others do the same and boycott merchandise as well so that Bates is forced into finding new investment, a new CEO or getting his wallet out himself and improving the team and that stadium if he won't leave. I'll still go to a few home games and hopefully a few more aways, but fans shouldn't be put in this bloody situation. As it stands, we're looking more and more like a selling club. I'm not going to endorse that with my cash.
whats better 25,000 at £30 or 35,000 at £25!!!! It kills me to see elland road empty and when i see it empty I dont always feel like singing! sounds bad I know but it makes me remember what a **** BAtes is
Well I'm not sure about taking delph to be honest, he would be expecting first team football and im not sure we can give it to him especially if we play 442. Something about him and clayton give it a too attacking feel, he'd slot in nicely into a 451 though but i have my doubts about that formation. Which by the way, I have heard a few rumours that West Ham are interesting in him too I'd really love us to get Lichaj back but im not really thinking its going to happen, we need to be acting quickly in the defensive department. I know we shouldn't rush who we sign but the sooner the better., the current defense isn't getting any better and conceding fewer goals And Bates, he baffles me, honestly. Theres so much that i actually find myself agreeing with him about which I wont go over for obvious reasons but i reckon the end of this season is the time for him to go (he wont) but only to get Elland Road better crowds again. In Australia, a businessman took over Newcastle Jets who were selling tickets for $25 each and getting around 10,000 fans in a 30,000 seater stadium (which isn't too bad in Australia to be fair) and he took over and made prices $10 and got around 25,000 fans in. Thats pretty big in Australia and he isn't earning anymore money (not including fans buying food there and stuff) but the crowd is so much better and adds atmosphere. Players would much prefer to play with a huge crowd behind them
Im not saying drop them to ridiculously cheap prices (he can if he wants) but im saying make the prices fair! 20-25 quid would be brilliant.
I generally agree with the feel here, and thought I'd throw my opinions about playing squad investments into the mix. It's been said for a while now that we need a CB, RB, CM and Striker by a lot of people. I'd agree with CB and RB, potentially a CM as cover while Howson is out, because I don't think Brown is up to playing every game, and I think we need to improve the morale of the strikers and if reports that Becchio isn't training well are true, then surely that is something the club can sort out? So how to improve morale / desire to stay and sign a new contract (howson, clayton, white)? For me, if we have got Delph, fair enough he will be useful as cover for Howson, and if we've got Lichaj coming in, great as long as he stays fit. While I rate him as a player I'm getting concerned that he might be on the physio table more than the pitch. So if they're covered by loans, that leaves CB. For me, this absolutely can't be a loanee. We need an experienced (the powers that be need to understand that doesn't mean 30+) CB who can create a solid partnership with Lees, help his development, and give him a good reason to stay at the club. If we sort that out, then hopefully we will stop conceding early goals that force us to chase games. We need to move AOB, Connolly and Paynter on, and we all know that. For one reason or another these players aren't going to feature, and there is little point paying any wage, big or small, to someone who isn't even on the bench. Those wages, and any possible fees can all be used to sort out the CB position. I'd give Ben Parker until summer as he seems to be coming back to fitness, and if he isn't up to the mark we have White, Pugh and Taylor to cover that position until the next window. So this gets down to the core of what annoys me so much about the clubs ambitions in the market. We aren't asking for the earth here. We have a very good squad, particularly in attacking, and we have a solid keeper and some promising young defenders. We're just laying outside of the playoffs at the halfway mark and there is no reason we can't mount a serious push on those positions this year. That is what annoys me more. I think if we had poor players and were languishing around the relegation places, I'd obviously be angry, but I'd be able to accept the reasons for not investing more, because we'd arguably be looking at replacing most of the positions. That isn't the case. ONE good player could turn our fortunes around. I can't imagine it is doing much for morale in the dressing room when loans / average squad players come in for the positions that don't need strengthening, while O'Dea is pretty much an automatic selection, regardless of whether he has a good or poor game. Yes it creates competition for places, but I know I'd be pretty annoyed if my position was under threat, while some of the poorer players were there week in week out. Bates just can't see that a small investment is all that is needed to appease the fans (to a certain extent), just like he can't see that lowering ticket prices a bit would bring more people in, and more money in the long run.
We need a buzz about the place again, a bit of belief & a solid leader at the back could galvanise our season. Players need to put contracts to the back of there mind (easier said than done) and focus week in week out on the opposition and stop switching off, especially in the first 20 minutes!
Unfortunately gone are the days of players showing loyalty towards a club and played for the shirt not the wage. Not enough Billy Sharps around and too many Tevez'
