Dear Mr Bates I am writing to you to express my concern for the way Leeds United Football Club is being run. For a long time now I have suspected that the club is not being run in a manner that is in its best interests, instead serving other interests that may not be apparent on first inspection. At first I thought I would write about how you might better run the club, providing suggestions for things that could be done differently to ensure success for the club in the future. After a short time of thinking about it, however, I decided it would not be worth my time making suggestions, as a man as arrogant and obnoxious as yourself would simply disregard them, with an "I know best and you're an idiot" style response. You'll notice I have taken the time to write and format this letter in a manner that makes it easier to read as I systematically go through every reason why you should never have been allowed to gain control of any business. I'm not going to dig up your business history, but I have had a brief look over it and have seen that you have not once left a business in a better state than you found it. Chelsea's £80 million debt from building Chelsea Village is as good an example as any. Oh by the way, if you've forgotten, Chelsea Village was a financial black hole. You nearly ruined a club you supposedly support. Well done, Ken. Well done. So anyway, instead I decided I would write to you and express how I feel about you. I am tired of the way you are running the club. I am tired of seeing you put a higher priority on your own vain interests than on success on the pitch. As fans, after seeing the accounts released by the club a few weeks ago, we have all concluded that something doesn't add up. Money is vanishing from the club for reasons we can't explain. Put aside the fact that season tickets for the next two seasons have been sold as collateral for a building project that the club did not need, and I am quite confident will never provide a worthwhile return on investment (in fact, I expect it won't have a return on investment), and we can see that the club is spending millions of pounds keeping afloat other failing businesses. The Centenary Pavilion, that not only was paid for using club money, is now failing as a business, is a financial black hole, and is sucking money out of the club to keep it afloat. The same goes for Yorkshire Radio, which I still don't see the point in, match day coverage is poor and clearly just a propaganda machine for transmission of your own, vain opinion that is, quite frankly, worthless. I should clarify that your opinion is worthless on the basis that you do not respect opinions that differ from your own. Lack of respect for the opinions of others to me means you don't deserve an opinion. It no longer matters how much effort you put in to deflecting blame away from yourself, Simon Grayson's comments today have confirmed, in terms of facts that cannot be argued, what we have suspected for a long time - that the current playing squad is piss poor because he was backed into a corner and forced to sign his third and fourth choice players. The corporate line that your colleague Mr Harvey has been spinning was that "we tried to get these players and they were going to sign until they got a better offer from the Premier League" - we now know this is not true. Jack Cork (Southampton) and Kaspars Gorkks (Reading) are both playing in the Championship. Reading confirmed promotion to the Premier League tonight, and Southampton are 5 points clear of third with two games to play. These were targets for Simon Grayson, targets that didn't turn us down to go to the Premier League. They turned us down because they weren't offered good enough contracts. One of these is a club that you take every opportunity to sing the praises of how they are run and how they have gone up having not spent much. So the line that "well he wanted more than we could afford" is not going to work. I have to respect Simon taking the high road for the last 10 weeks, after the slanderous, inaccurate and downright insulting comments you have made about him at every opportunity, but I am glad he has finally come out and admitted that he was not backed as much as he'd have liked. While the proof was in the pudding in that all our signings were awful, loans and freebies late in the transfer window after the season had started, it's nice to finally hear Simon stand up for himself. On top of that, you are a liar. You are a bare faced liar. Thanks to your idiocy, I now have proof, factual evidence that you cannot wriggle your way out of. Attendance at Elland Road and fan interest in Leeds United has dwindled significantly in the last few months, not least highlighted by the significant drop in season ticket renewals. Oh but wait, we've sold the same number as we had this time last year haven't we? Just over 10 000? We broke 10 000 at the start of April so we're on target to match last years figure, having sold the same number as the same stage last year? Wrong. Taken from your Yorkshire Radio interview on 23/3/2011, regarding season ticket renewals: "Everything is looking good so thanks to the fans, the season tickets we have now sold 11,200 for next year, compared with 13,000 this year." So, we had made 1200 more season ticket renewals two weeks earlier last season. To me that is nowhere near having match last years figure, so I'd appreciate it if I wasn't lied to. It is insulting to my intelligence, although at least it's proof that you're a bare faced liar who will twist anything to avoid admitting you're wrong. For good measure it's worth noting that you've failed to deliver on every single promise you made in the 7 years since you gained control of Leeds United. Buying back Thorpe Arch and Elland Road were the highlighted ones, something which still hasn't been done and we're being fleeced for the thick end of £2 million a year for the privilege of using Elland Road Stadium. A famous quote of yours, "If you want Premiership football, you pay Premiership prices", I'd like to add a little something to that. We're paying Premiership prices, so why are you paying lower mid table Championship prices for players? Why is the money that we're paying to go see Leeds United every week getting spent building executive boxes to keep a few corporate snobs happy (boxes that aren't even getting filled), instead of spending it on the team to provide a better entertainment service, which is what we're actually paying for? It's because you're a terrible businessman. If you want to improve the corporate facilities, there's no point doing it while we're still in the Championship, because we don't have the quality of football, the high status visiting teams or the attention to get any customers to use our facilities, which is why all these business ventures are failing. Don't try and argue that they're not failing, the proof is in black and white in your own poorly audited financial report on Leeds City Holdings. Subliminal messaging, something I suppose I should expect from someone so snide and manipulative. You've started buttering us up and trying to get us used to the idea of what you're planning to do in the summer, trying to lower expectations so we won't be as disappointed when it happens. "The problem is our large squad size". What large squad size? I haven't seen a single team at Elland Road this season who didn't have a bigger squad than us. Not one. So where is this large squad? Also it wasn't a large squad last season, in fact the problem last season was not enough players to rotate. That was down to a small squad, which is why Simon brought in so many additions and inflated the squad size. As for expensive, hard to have an expensive squad when it's both small and filled with bargain bucket players. "We're planning on cutting down the size of the squad and using the youth players more". Sounds like a long term plan, something that has been non-existent during your tenure - bring the talent through the youth! Except that's not what we're intending to do, it's just the cheaper option. Use the youth players because they're cheap, then sell the good ones for more money. It's not a long term plan to develop a team, it's a short term plan to cut costs. "Why are all the fans angry?", I hear you ask, followed by "we're turning a profit! You're never happy". Maybe because we find absolutely no entertainment in turning a profit. And I mean that entirely. Absolute zero is the entertainment value I find in the club turning a profit. Turning a profit is only entertaining to businessmen who reap the rewards of those profits. We are merely fans who want to be entertained by a successful football team. This is why I have stopped going to Elland Road. This is why I will not be renewing my membership, something which is a complete scam in itself, pay money for bugger all service that we should really have anyway. Loan players. Yes they cost money, thanks for that Captain Obvious. Do they cost as much in wages and sometimes in fees as a permanent signing would? Perhaps, but rarely. The main reason you get such a massive hard-on over the usage of loan players is no commitment. Even if they cost the same in wages and command a loan fee, we don't have to commit to them. Get a player on a permanent and they are here for a few years, if it doesn't work out for them then they are stuck at the club like Billy Paynter. He might be a bad example, his determination to keep trying to get in the first team is exactly the sort of attitude we want at Leeds, now all he needs to do is deliver the goods, something I fully expect him to do now he's in better shape and performing better. It's probably because he hasn't played in so long that he's been unable to redeem his appearance bonus of a free bargain bucket from KFC. Because you look like Colonel Sanders.
But this is where the problem lies with loan players, the squad changes more often because players are here for less time. Any player we do get that does turn out to be brilliant, half the time we don't sign them because their club won't let them go or they want too much in wages. We should get Alex McCarthey, but Reading won't let him go, and rightly so. The only loan player that you could argue has worked out so far this season is Darren O'Dea, but I still think he's crap. The transfer policy is decided by you, not the manager, so if it ends up in him having to go in the loan market because he has no other option, it's on you. Not him. "But the manager signs the players", yep, he does. He signs whatever players he can get his hands on because he couldn't get his first choices, because he didn't have the financial backing. I must ask, if, like you claim, we got fleeced for Max Gradel, why sell him at all? I do not understand why we sold him. He has been a missing link in our team this season, his creativity, flair and combination with Snodgrass allowed us to pressurise teams into submission, which took pressure away from our mediocre defence. Without him, we've been awful. Of course, he's not the only good player we had, but his loss has definitely been noticed. When he came out in an interview he hadn't been offered a contract, I took it with a pinch of salt at first and figured he was just playing hard ball to get a better contract. With hind sight, I believe him. It's not that he wouldn't sign a contract you were prepared to offer him, you never offered him one in the first place because you wanted to cash in. The "he wouldn't sign a reasonable contract" party line is no longer enough. Howson was the same. You sold him because he wouldn't sign. He wouldn't sign because you showed him no ambition. Snodgrass is unlikely to sign after his comments at Lorimer's bar last week. I am so happy Snodgrass said what he said, he openly slated the way your administration has handled player contracts. He said there were offers for him last summer and he only stuck around on the basis of promises that were never kept. He slagged you off for selling the club captain Jonny Howson. Oh and we know Howson was somewhat forced out. He wanted to stay, but he wanted to stay on the basis of proof that you shared his ambition. I recently watched his interview after he signed for Norwich City, he looks absolutely devastated and close to tears throughout, having been forced out of the club he loves just because he refused to sign a piss poor contract. Paying your club captain £4000 a week and then slagging him off for not signing, all the while claiming you're spending a lot more than most clubs (recently proven to be rubbish by the release of all clubs financial reports) - that is administrative suicide. I think it's about time I wrapped up, because I'm getting tired of arguing the same points. I just felt it was necessary to write this letter as my emails to Mr Harvey have gone down without any response, probably because he hasn't a prayer of making any sort of plausible argument to the points I have made. Either that or its because as a paying customer my role is to blindly back the team and keep ploughing my hard earned money into a club that's showing no ambition or desire to do what is required to get back into the Premier League, or take my opinion that I wasn't allowed to have in the first place elsewhere. If you want to run a dictatorship where the little people aren't allowed an opinion, but should just shut up and keep paying to keep everything running, then **** off to the middle east and do it there. We're Leeds United, we've all had enough. Yours sincerely Mark Richardson Disillusioned Leeds United fan and proud "dissident" PS: since you do not live in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and as such you do not pay taxes to its government (or at all as you live in a tax haven), you are not entitled to an opinion on the affairs of its government. You need to shut your mouth and stop slagging off what the government is doing. Damian Collins, that "Manchester United fan with a personal vendetta against Leeds United" is, quite frankly, one of the best things that could happen to Leeds United. We all know it's you and/or your cronies that own Elland Road, which is how you're siphoning money out of the club to pay for your yacht, and you're just ****ting yourself at the prospect of getting uncovered. PPS: you never saved our club. You're the one that threatened its existence by threatening to liquidate it unless you remained in charge. Peter Ridsdale was a terrible chairman who most certainly almost single-handedly ruined Leeds United, yet the worst thing to come out of his running of the club was that you were the one to take over when Krasner couldn't afford to keep running Leeds United.
Pretty much sums up how most of us fell, I suspect. However, certain parts spoil an otherwise very well laid out argument for your sentiments, e.g., "bargain bucket from KFC. Because you look like Colonel Sanders."
marko do you mind if we publish that brilliant letter elsewhere? obvously your personal details will be removed.
This is just a long winded whinge. Trim it down, remove the insults and at least try and get Bates to understand the point you are trying to make. Doubt he will read past the first insult. If you are simply trying to annoy him, maybe it works. If you want to be taken seriously, no chance.
Best of luck with your email but he will true to form take no notice I hope we let him know how we feel against Leicester
Come on Leeds Supporters, Lets give them it with both barrel's. Demand value for money demand to be treated with respect. WE DESERVE BETTER.
Well written letter mate, I really hope you put your phone number on the one you send him as he is known to phone fans. That being said he will probably dodge you, I would if I was him
By the way, how do you know that we missed out on players because they were paid a lot more than Leeds offered? Could it have been that they maybe didn't want to play for Grayson? Look, the managers at Reading and Southampton are intelligent men, and I have no doubt our "targets" would have believed in them a lot more than Cliche Simon. Grayson doesn't have a clue, and he is now starting to do damage at Huddersfield. He can't manage, and there will be players who see this and therefore won't sign for him. It wasn't a secret that we were after Cork, but I wasn't surprised he went to Saints. His family is down south, he knew the manager...easy decision. It's not always about money!
Too long winded, though having said that, in the unlikely event he sits down and reads it over his morning croissant in the Cafe de Paris in Casino Square he may die of boredom halfway through, so job done.
I am simply trying to annoy him. I'm not trying to make any serious points other than to remind him he's a terrible businessman using arguments he can't possibly refute. I don't expect him to actually change his ways, I just want to annoy him and perhaps rile him up to make one of his increasingly famous phone calls where he valiantly shuts down whoever the complaint is from and then tells us all that we're safe for another day from the morons.
I sincerely doubt it's down to the manager that they wouldn't sign. It is all down to money. If you think what Adkin's comes out with in the press doesn't make him sound completely gormless then you've got something wrong with you. There was absolutely nothing to suggest that Grayson didn't have a clue at the time, he'd done well in his first season in the Championship with a strong Leeds United playing free flowing attacking football. It was the defence that let down the second top scorers in the league last season, and a defence takes work to perfect. I'm just saying it's not a coincidence that he's mentioned these two particular players in an interview where he says he wasn't backed. It's something we all suspected for a long time and were waiting with baited breath for Simon to eventually come out and confirm. End of the day both of these clubs are nobodies, if you offer enough money then you can get anyone, we have the means to outspend these clubs in the transfer market without breaking the bank but refuse to do so for some arbitrary reason, whether its bates building projects or it's simply down to the fact that he will only pay what he thinks players are worth, which in his eyes is **** all. He's forgotten the cornerstone of capitalism, supply and demand.
Also, feel free to use my letter on the trust website. I'm going to have another look over it and make amendments before I mail it out.
To call a club like Southampton nobody is pathetic. We have a great history but what are we if Saints and Reading are nobodies? Both will be in the Prem next season, and I expect a club like Saints will capitalise and build and once again become a serious top flight club. I am all for questioning our board and the lack of building a successful squad, but too often we seem to rather get lost in flinging insults at everyone rather than actually being a bit more objective and discussing solutions and ideas. The nobodies are certainly showing us the way. As for Grayson, at the end of last season he said Leeds had over achieved and we would be trying for the playoffs but nothing's guaranteed. Who wants to play for a manager who doesn't seem to believe in himself or his squad? Go figure then why we missed out on so many targets!
