Depending on the level of transparency, but it is true of most leaders in all walks of life too. In the current case though, there are many who have recognized what has taken place and continues under the current chairman. Others see it differently but I suspect may agree with the first group later.
Hmm, transparency is an interesting thing. In a lot of cases, it helps the club if fans do not know what is going on behind the scenes. When unrest occurs, transparency is always the thing that fans want more of and most of the time its because they want something to complain about There are examples of when a club has transparency and fans are happy however the club still loses a considerable amount of money and then are near losing there club.
I have read it again, and the only distinction I can see that you've made is that whilst both were/are in the wrong, Ridsdale is somehow better because of his good intentions. That's the inference I take from your statements, therefore I do not withdraw my analogy.
I'm not going through them right now but even the early part of the ridsdale era. We were spending money, there was a certain level of transparency (not perfect albeit) and fans were happy because we were bringing in big players, spending money and winning games. No one knew what was to come next
What was this certain level of transparency, exactly? Did we all know we'd been stitched up? Like hell!
Try one more time but you are getting closer. Your analogy says more about you as an individual than anything else. Everyone is free to write whatever they want. Does not make it morally acceptable though.
No but I think there was more transparency than there is now. Which IMO, having the fans know exactly what you are doing constantly is bad business sense. Transparency isn't a good thing in business and football clubs are exactly the same Fans should know what they need to know and no more
We have gone from 1 extreme to the other, Ridsdale - spent money pleased the fans brought me the best times and worse times as a leeds fan Bates - Spent **** all, sucked everything out of the club and brought me me nothing but bad times at the club!!! I like Ridsdale more but I think they are both worthy of a good kick in
How can you possibly say you like Ridsdale more. We almost didn't have a football club because of him and with Bates there is no threat of that, honestly I don't mean to sound rude but that is a ****ing disgusting thing to say and I can't believe you actually mean it
Ridsdale had the best of intentions for the club but was an absolute idiot when it came to actually running the club and is the person I blame for our demise, and he's failed to take any responsibility for it since.
Your not allowed to use "demise" JLA will be on to you! Nearly as bad as the bloody Spelling Policeman.
Josh I can say I like Ridsdale more because I have an opinion Bates also contributed to us nearly going out of business but you dont seem to mention that, he owns the ground and charges leeds united football club a fortune to rent it, he lies to fans continuously and I ****ing hate the guy! If they both popped their clogs tomorrow id have a party!!!
Peter Ridsdale is a flawed individual. He left his first wife and married his secretary, then left her to marry his new secretary. Ridsdale enjoys power, and this is what Leeds gave him. However, to play in the same league as those from Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan etc he realised he would have to spend money a la Chelse and Man City today. Problem was Leeds didn't have it, so in a moment of brilliant genius he entered into a new form of agreement that had come into football finance, LEASING. Yes, just like buying a car, he could now lease players with the finance house funding the deal and Leeds paying them back with interest. This financing of player transfer fees caused a massive problem as Ridsdale gambled on a consistent stream of Champions League money, except of course qualification determined by a top three finish each season wasn't guaranteed. The secondary virus generated by leasing players was that it freed up false cash for wages, and here Ridsdale did not hold back. At one stage Leeds had over forty players on their professional books. Ridsdale did not flinch at offering ridiculous contracts to ordinary players. For example, he signs the injury prone Seth Johnson, a hard working midfielder and nothing else, for a cool £7m from Derby, and sticks him on a four year deal in excess of £30k a week. We all know how that ended. His behaviour in funding deal after deal was very worrying, and not a lot of thought seemed to go into building a solid squad that would compete with the top six, but rather just build up a massive squad of players to cover all bases. This required high wages to keep those left in the stands on match day happy. It also meant he had to buy players to retain that Champions League place to keep up payments to the financiers. He even went so far as to put up future season ticket sales as collateral, think it was twenty years of those ticket funds. Ridiculous. Ridsdale got caught out when Leeds missed out on Champions League the next season, and suddenly the £30m he banked on was gone and Leeds couldn't pay the debts Ridsdale had tied the club to. Then he showed his true business acumen, he panicked, and ridiculous loans and sales started to happen to try and stop the bleeding. Ridsdale is a rat who thinks only of himself, and don't for one minute think he did it for the fans. This nonsense of "we were living the dream" is just an attempt to keep the fans on his side, HE was living the dream for himself and the power and publicity that came with it. Ridsdale used Leeds for his iwn gain, and as I remember when he left he took a payout of over half a millin quid, nice for a failure.
Actually, if you look back in the history books, Bates brought us closer to demise (for those on here who love that word) than Ridsdale through his gamble with the FL's golden share and the stitched up admin process. The word "FACT" gets thrown around here a bit but that really is a fact.
