Why do we have to put up with our lot ponsing around playing pub teams in Norway?? why cant we face some real teams for a change, like last season, we went to Ireland. Our rivals Leicester are facing Real Madrid in pre season!! were facing Rochdale!! plus theyve signed Schemichal, weve signed Rackuba! wtf is going on, its embarrasing atm. Were now linked to Dudek who's 84, were being out done financially by Brighton! the club is being run by pineapples
OK, a few points to cover here: 1) Last time I checked, Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle are not Norwegian pub teams. 2) Dudek is 38, which is actually not a bad age for a goalkeeper. 3) Brighton are spending money on a striker who is unproven at Championship level, something you, among others, moaned at Grayson for doing pretty much all of last summer. 4) Have you actually seen Rachubka play? If you're using stats to judge him, I suggest you check his whole career and not just the last 3 games. Seriously, would it kill you to at least try and be positive?
Id love to be positive, but how is signing a 30 yr old freebie from Blackpool anything to shout about? were being told that we may lose Gradel, we have no coins to spend and were linked to nobody. Anyway Makail Smith played a full season in the championship with Pboro the season they got promoted and came straight back down, so he has played and wasnt too bad. 38 is too old, plus he hant played for 4 years so he's not gona be moving about like Ray Quinn is he? Brighton are out spending us, that was my point, not who they sign, but they are spending money, and West Ham and Leicester were after him??? are they silly teams going after an un proven player??? no thought not. I wanna be positive but our club is badly badly run
Ooo and as for pre season http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20110704/norwegian-trip-added-to-pre-season_2247585_2386108
It's pre-season, I don't give a toss. Save your money for the season, I say. I imagine we play 'pub teams' in NI, Ireland and Norway because it means our fans over there get the chance to see a game and will hopefully be hooked and come over for more. It makes sense really.
Yeah but the squad will surely prosper and improve playing against a weakend european giant like Milan, Juve or Charlton. How are we gona improve playing 8 trialists against Rochdales under 15's
Pre-season isn't about the standard of football, it's entirely about fitness. We got beaten 4-1 by Bury for Christ's sake; Newcastle got humbled 6-1 by Leyton Orient before their promotion season, pre-season is really nothing other than a training exercise. The point is that these lesser 'footballing' countries' populations tend to support English teams so it's kind of a reward for their loyalty to Leeds.
Yeah but experience against better players cant hurt, even if its just one game against a tough side. Why cant they reward us English fans by spending some cash and improving the squad, we pay the ticket prices weekly. Save the money it'll cost flying to sheepskin rovers and put it towards some wages.
We were beaten 4-1 by Bury because pre-season matches mean **** all and anyone can win them. Leicester could go and beat Real Madrid 5-0 and it would mean **** all. It's a training exercise - you don't have a continuous XI, people aren't fit, people aren't sharp and there's generally a desire not to give 100% because it might risk a costly injury. Totally different to the games throughout the season. Personally I only ever bother with the localish or home pre-season games so I'm not really bothered about the tour, so I'm generally happy wherever we go if there's lots of Leeds fans there. It would be nice to have (or be a part of) a tournament or something which could get us a bit of money and looked a bit more competitive than your average slow-paced friendly, but it's really one of the things I care very little about as far as Leeds go.
Also, we're paying Madrid 1 Million quid for the honour, a waste of money really, but it's the Thai owners that are paying for it.
Probably true. Still, I know what I'd rather have my owners doing than buggering about with profligate pre-season fixtures.
You can read anything into meaningless friendly matches. Like I explained above, there are several reasons why they mean the square root of FA, and the defence that played at Bury was no doubt totally different from the one playing from Jan/February onwards.
We could play Real Madrid and I wouldn't really give a ****. Well I would, but I sure as hell wouldn't be going to the match to see the "great real madrid" play. I'd be going to see Leeds. I definitely wouldn't want us forking out a million bar just to see Leeds play against a team that could just as well be anyone else. Since Real Madrid will be putting a reserve side out anyway, doesn't really matter. Newcastle is going to be the only real test and it's the last friendly we have, so it's appropriate and adequate. If you want plastic glamour friendlies go support a plastic club like Leicester City, which is what they are quite fast becoming.
I loved my trip over to Norway last year, and long may the trips to Scandinavia continue. There's a lot of LUFC fans in that part of the world. Oh and some of the women look rather fetching in white leeds shirts
There are tonnes of Leeds fans in Norway. I remember seeing at least 2 families of them in the hotel when I came down for the Watford game.
