I really don't understand. I'm only a youngster, still in my teens. But this isn't the Leeds United I was told about. *I grew up being told tales of Leeds, how we dominated English football in the past. How we had always been famous, if not always for the right reasons. *Elland Road was described as a fortress, crowds of 50,000, frightening the opposition, even being described as being as good as a goals start! We had the best away support in the country, packing out anywhere we went and then accordingly smashing it up. I heard tales of great games and legends, scoring 4 past giants such as Liverpool, locking horns with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the finest competitions. 7000 fans travelling to the San Siro and witnessing a 1-1 draw. I hear tales of Revie and Billy, Norman Hunter and the wizard that was Eddy Gray.* *Tales of how everyone hated Leeds, but how we thrived on it and loved it, the whole image of the club, I grew to love it.* *My Dad took me to the Arsenal match back in 2003. Confused by how I had been told not to celebrate, I sat unaware of the importance of the game and was in awe of what happened before me. I was 8 years old, only a month before my birthday with this being the present I had asked for. When Harry Kewell scored what still stands as the best goal I have ever witnessed, I remember sitting with a huge grin on my face, looking down at the corner the corner in which the Leeds fans were situated, pure euphoria. I asked why they were so crazy, my Dad said we needed to win to stop up, again confusing me as I thought we were the best team in the world.* *I still remember the rest as clear as day. 88th minute, Matteo charges out of defence, slides in an offside Mark Viduka, a moment of magic and *we were infront. I went mental, Arsenal fans around me giving me horrid looks. Viduka could hardly breath whilst trying to celebrate!* *The following season, me and my Dad tuned in to a game against Manchester City. James Milner was in. He sprint towards goal, my Dad was up shouting at the tele so I copied. He was hacked down, nothing given! He went crazy and I again didn't understand! He said to me that that decision would send us down, it did. *So now, at an age where I can attend the matches alone, I travel when possible to watch the Mighty Whites, but the thing is, we are not. We aren't a force. Elland Road isn't a fortress. There are no legends. There are no heroic matches. Just the same broken promises and bullshit churned out week on week. My 'boyhood heroes' have gone. Beckford, Gradel and now Howson. My three favourite players have all walked away. But I don't get it.* *What on earth happened to Leeds United?
I'm only in my teens as well, been told the same stories about our great club...only we're not that great anymore. I'd love to blame Bates for it, but realistically, you can't blame him for everything. Yes, we should strive to keep our best players at the club, but if the money they're asking for is unreasonable, or they're seeking assurances about promotion, we can't necessarily offer them that without risking financial difficulty on any level. Just look at Leicester, spent a good £5 - 7m more than us plus a much higher wage budget and yet we're still above them! Fact of the matter is they can get away with it, we can't. If we spent that much money and didn't get promotion it would backfire a hell of a lot worse than selling our captain with 6 months left on his deal and finishing in mid table. Gutted about the way things are going, but I'll never stop supporting the club.
I've lived a similar story. I don't come from a massively passionate football family, but I used to sit there with my dad and watch us when we were playing the biggest teams in Europe and winning. Stay up till 11 O'Clock on a school night and tune in to Radio Aire to listen to us playing away at Real Madrid, and I remember that great night when a certain Dom Matteo scored that legendary header. And I remember Peter Ridsdale being the man who was going to make us the greatest force in the world, and David O'Leary, the quiet man who talked sense when he was interviewed, and David Batty and Eirik Bakke who were my favourite players because they were dirty bastards like I used to be on the pitch on a Sunday morning! And I remember the first games I went to at Elland Road where it was absolutely packed out, and commenting that even if someone was stood with a machine gun on the pitch, they couldn't shoot all the fans in the East Stand. What a morbid little ****er I was! And I remember all the exciting signings that used to come when the transfer window came around, and luxury players like Robbie Keane coming in with his cartwheels after he scored and the brilliant shirts we'd release every year and wanting to collect all the players to put in my sticker book and get as a Corinthian replica, lined up there on the shop wall along with Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Man U players, because we were brilliant then. But the thing that hits home to me the most is that I remember banter around the school playground where we'd taunt the scum fans about how we were better than them all of a sudden. And about how they were supporting a club that were not only not from Leeds, but were **** to boot! How times change. And now, a decade down the line, that great team left in a cloud of anger and dissatisfaction, and that cloud has returned. Back in 1919, we auctioned off all our players at once after the financial circumstances at Leeds City forced the club's demise, and it was described as "humiliating" by the press. Well in my eyes it's just as humiliating that this dismantling of Leeds United, and the rebranding of it into a hotel group with a football club attached - a football club who auction off all their players just the same as we had to do on that day in the Metropole Hotel in Leeds - that's just as humiliating. And even more painful because it's happening so agonizingly slowly. There are still ups to go along with the downs, as there always will be at Leeds. I still feel that buzz when I'm off on the train down to away games, and home games for that matter. We still get the odd cup tie which brings some excitement to the city. But the only time you get the whole of Leeds talking about football now is days like today where our captain is sold, and the cloud starts to piss the rain down on us as hard as ever. We still have players like Clayton, Lees and Snodgrass who are great to watch and wear the white with pride - but for how long? We've gone from a man trying too hard to make Leeds great, who made the club explode, to a man who doesn't give a **** about us fans, only about his wallet and his ego and his filthy, scummy property developments. He's making the club implode. You might say that the transition from childhood to adulthood is always going to have you putting on the rose tinted glasses a few years on, but it doesn't have to be like this. I WANT MY MEMORIES BACK.
Fantastic!! Your story serves as a reminder that its not just us old 'uns who are suffering at the hands of this awful chairman (I've followed Leeds since 1965) but that these ridiculous decisions to let our best players leave also affect those young fans who have not experienced our glory days. You should send this to the matchday magazine...but they probably won't publish it.
I wish people would stop quoting Leicester when talking about money. Sure they have spent and failed but rest assured they'll be back in premiership before us. The point about players looking for unreasonable wages is also wrong we don't pay reasonable wages because we're too busy paying Nunez, Sam, Bruce, Paynter and co to play reserve football year round. We are where we are but the ball is in our court. Boycott Elland road, it's the only way to hurt bates. It won't affect Leeds cos we hardly ever win there anyway.
Im also a young lad from a family which arent into football in any way- apart from my grandad who i am thankful for as he introduced me to leeds united. the 1st games he took me too were when we were doing well in the prem. my very first game was v chelsea at ER. if i remember rightly it was 0-0 and jimmy floyd hasselbaink missed a peno for us. then the next season we qualified for europe and suddenly as a very young lad i was watching the likes over roma, spartak moscow come to ER and get turned over. things were getting even better and before i knew it i was witnessing immense champions league nights against real madrid, laziio, barcelona, ac milan, deportivo, valencia etc. the atmosphere in a packed ER was something il never forget!. in particular i remember radebe scoring a very late winner in the uefa cup to send us through on away goals. nobody left the ground for ages after, everyone stayed and the place was buzzing. then the **** hit the fan, my grandad lost his job so we couldnt go to as many games in the last few seasons in the prem, or the championship years. but it was still heartbreaking to see us fall. by the time we dropped to league 1 i was old enough to take myself to games- and the thing is, i think i enjoyed alot of games in the -15 season just as much as the chamions league games!. i mean who couldnt enjoy oldham away that year, winning in last minute in front of 6000ish whites at boundary park. and even last season i was enjoying the resurgence of lufc just as much as the living the dream days. always believing that this was just a blip and we'd return soon to where we belonged. now though we have had 7 years of bates and gone nowhere!. and that belief that we'll return is being sucked away by the old leech. piss off ken and let us breathe life once again back into this once great club!
Why do we have Sam, Bruce, Paynter all on our books? Oh that's right, because we can't afford to risk paying bigger money for better players! The point is entirely valid. If Howson came in and said I want £20,000 a week, even without all the reserve players, could we really risk paying him that much? If we got promoted, fine, it would probably be okay. If (which is more likely) we don't get promoted, we then have a player on £20,000 a week, which is ridiculous. And about Leicester - yes, I'm sure they will get promoted before us, but only because they can afford to pay players stupid wages without the fear of it back firing!
Wow That was an excellent post ! & it's terrific to read these from the genuine Leeds fans who clearly are hurting at the position you find yourselves in at presant. But you can surely take heart from the fact that you have made progress, i can remmember reading from you all on here when you were languishing in league 1, failing in the play offs each year. But you did get up, and you have improved from that side. Last season only just coming up short for the play offs towards the end of the season. Players will always come & go, thats football, for every hero that moves on another then gets his chance to come through. Yes in the past Leeds were a masive club, and im sure to you guys, still are, but the real fact is that no club is to big to hold onto players in this country, even Man u couldn't stop Ronaldo from moving on, Newcastle couldn't hold onto Cole when Man u came knocking. We have had our fair share of selling in the past, and it doe's suck, but bottom line is its a business now first and a sport secondly, the money has spoilt our game its no longer a level playing field and clubs like OURS will always be at the mercy of a bigger fish when ever we have success. We are under no illusion that the success that Lambert has brought to us will ultimately cost us in the long run, as will our players when next season bigger teams than us come sniffing around. In short its great to remmember your club as it was ,but you need to start living in the presant. Good luck for the rest of the season.
Is that what he asked for then because on another thread Norwich supporters are claiming they have the lowest wage cap in the premier league at between £12k and £15k a week... Yes we could and should be able to pay £12k a week to the club captain aged 23 years of age and who one day might command a lot more than 2 million.
I dont think that any one can know what the wage cap is for sure, but i would hazard a guess its not to far away at between £15 - £20k a week? Last year there was a rumour we didn't sign Lansbury from Arsenal because he was on £25k then...thats Arsenal reserves!
I don't have a clue what he asked for - to be honest I think it was purely about the desire to play in the premiership and he didn't think we were getting there fast enough. The only way to convince players that we are serious about promotion is to spend money, bring in marquee signings, etc, which would be like the Risdale era all over again if we failed! I agree though, we should be able to pay our 23 year old captain 12k a week, but there's obviously something deeper to it - I doubt even Bates would refuse to pay him 12k.
