The Opposition/Rival Watch

So Friday sees us at a buoyant Sheff Wed after they beat fatty Bruce's Villa at Villa 2-1. Always a tetchy game this and after the dissapoitnments of the last 2 years mabe the manager is starting to do something with this squad of 36 players. Wendies invested heavily the season before last and got into the play offs but failed. This caused the team to implode last season as they had thrown all the money into getting promotion and the well had run dry. Last season was dire for them but they have a good squad but also have some high earners still and that may prove to be costly or a winner?

Players to watch out for Foristieri, Hooper, Rhodes all 3 have great reputations as well as Steve Fletcher. Barry Bannan, George Boyd, Abdi and our very own Tom Lees. It will be hell on the M1 Friday night and hell on the pitch, but I predict we will have too much for them.

 

Think Rhodes is at Norwich now doc

 

Forza correct although still on the books at Wendies. My bad

 

Don't think we have to worry about Hooper or Boyd. Both 'played for' their u23s against us on Tuesday. And were wholly unimpressive against our kids. On the way out, methinks.

 

Think both coming back from injury mate and will have had another 10 days of work on their fitness. Didnt Boyd hit Blackmans post?

 

Looked like they needed a bit more than 10 days to me. Virgins blood by the gallon might be more helpful for them Can't remember details re. shot, only an impression.

 

Boyd is one of those players who does well against us, think he scored for Burnley against us too didn't he?

 

Steve Bruce has been sacked.

 

Could mean Brentford will be without a manager on Saturday if Smith goes to Villa

 

Yep hope so

 

Mind you with our luck they’ll all want to play for the temp manager

 

Adam Reach puts Wednesday 1-0 up against WBA with another shot from outside the box

 

Looks like we’ll be holding on to top spot on goal difference, three of us on 22 points and our point against Wednesday is looking more impressive now.

Was typing this at 2-0 just checked the score again and 2-2 with a few minutes to go, dare not hit post yet.....

That was 8 minutes of injury time

 

About bloody time too, we have a match coming up at long last after the boring International Break. We play the Chicken nobbers owned by The Venkeys who oversaw the club that jack built fall through the divisions. They are at long last back in the Championship and deserve to be there too. They have a manager in Tony Mowbray who has done the rounds and had success and failure on his CV, but he usually knows how to build a squad.

There are a couple of players who I would have been envious of a season or 2 ago and in fairness Bradley Dack is carrying on from last season and scoring goals from the middle. Rodwell & Graham are clever and Rodwell has a lot to repay in the game but as an Everton kid every top club wanted him. They have 31 players in the squad and they have scored 14 goals so far and that's not too shabby, (Leeds 22) but tellingly they have shipped 15 so have a -1 goal difference whilst we have a +13 to our credit.

Blackburn are sitting in 10th and we are in 3rd place but there is only 5 points between us, which shows how tight this division is so far and we really could do with a couple of back to back wins to try and build a gap

 

WBA Harvey Barnes has a January recall clause, WBA are hoping he remains, rumours starting to circulate that Leicester will call him back.

 

So Wednesday night we are at home to Ipswich Town and to be frank I really can't see anything other than 3 points and plenty of goals. yes maybe a lack of respect for the tractor boys but they have gone backwards since Big Mick walked out on them. I have family who have been season ticket holders for years who are embarrassed. Club has no money and Big Mick worked miracles keeping them in the Championship and even beating Leeds and other top clubs, but the crowd who expected to challenge for promotion got the better of Mick and told them to fook off.

The new guy has lost players and sees his club in the bottom 3 with only 1 win and 9 points. Yes they could win today and turn their season around but they wont. This is the season they go down and Ipswich do exactly what Wolves did after they got rid of Big Mick, they fell through the leagues. The squad is full of names nobody has heard of before and a couple of ex Leeds players and an old man called john Walters, who will do battle with Pontus and Berardi. Pennington is there for the season and Tom Edenemi is also there as well as an old has been Freddie Sears

 

We haven't played Blackburn yet which is in a couple of hours and already I've posted about the Ipswich match which we play on Wednesday, but I reckon next weekends game will be another pointer to our season. We play a very tasty Forest and as well as the relationship between Karanka and Orta we have 2 clubs who are going for it. There seems to be a difference in the money available for Forest though as Karanka has got rid of more players than Bielsa did and has brought in a lot more than we have. Indeed Karanka spent £28m on just 5 players with players coming in from many top European clubs. He also brought in freebies (4) like Michael Dawson who know whats required and is a great player. He also brought in many loans like Sam Byram and Dias as well as Jack Colback. This team is a serious contender for auto's. naming the squad who can do damage would take too long, this a club who's new owners expect Prem footy next season and are doing what Derby tried to do and buying their way to it. Lets hope they end up sacking their manager for failing to achieve it just like Derby did.

Forest are at the moment 1 place behind us as we are in 4th this Saturday morning on 23 points and Forest are 5th on 19 points. They have had plenty of draws and 4 wins whereas we have had not as many draws and 6 wins. This will be one of the best games of the season

 

The way boro are playing how many of their plastic supporters will switch back to supporting Leeds utd

 

Next match up is Wigan folks, a club built on the money of a true fan and local folk hero. Yes he brought in decent managers and made sure this small club got to the premier league on gates as small as 7,000, whereas we had 30,000 and were robbed by shyte owners. Unfair yes but Wigan used good managers to keep them punching above their weight and then the owner took a backward step due to age and health, got rid of a decent manager and the club imploded under the owners grandson Dropping through the leagues to L1. They have now bounced back under Paul Cook and some shrewd buys like Will Grigg and now sit 14th in the Championship.

14th on 20 points and 6 wins which shows how tight this league is this season. We are in 2nd on 27 points and 7 wins, so a slip and we drop whilst Wigan can be top 6 in a flash. They have some decent players so nothing is easy in this league. Players like Grigg and a fired up Josh Windass who thought he was coming to Leeds, Nick Powell, darren Gibson, Alex Bruce will be great and James Vaughn to name a few. Cook keeps his team at it and will press, so we really need to make sure we finish off some of the build up play and get that final ball in properly. I predict a 3-0 win for us

 

WBA next weekend and this will be a 6-pointer for us. This is really a prem team with quality players who are favs to go straight back up. This is a club who used the parachute system to build the club up to be full time premiership. They have bounced up and down more than any other club and had a blimp last season after years of steady mid/low prem league position. Recent results are not a guide in this league so dont think this will be a win by just turning up. The squad have class throughout and 4 decent strikers and 4 different effective styles of goals.

Harvey Barnes the player we should have bought.
Gibbs
Bartley
Dawson
Sako
Livermore
Phillips
Brunt
Hoolahan

And a lot more players could have been mentioned including Gareth Barry. If we can beat this lot I see a bit of fresh air starting to appear at the top