Will be burying my head in my duvet next weekend, so won’t be posting a weekend debate. Theres a lot to unpack after the crap of this season and yesterdays performance, so thought I would post a week long debate where everyone can vent their spleen and get it off their chests.
Nightmare time at a nightmare club and now it’s time to pick over the bones of another useless season. However as Orta is the main target for fans anger, let’s have a look at what he did in summary.
Firstly forget about the supermarket sweep Radz sent him on when he brought in the dirty dozen, or should that read not very good at all dozen. It started with his plan to play expansive football which is a great thing if you can get the right coach. He brought in Tomas Christensen and it looked like we had got it sorted at long last and we saw sunlight. Then it became apparent Tomas wasn’t really cut out for Championship tough players getting stuck into his lads, or indeed L1 rough and tumble in the FA Cup. Along comes Heckingbottom who didn’t have much time for the players he saw as prima donnas and he was not getting the results we were told by Orta he would get. Orta said Heckingbottom is one of the most sought after coaches in Europe? And then a masterstroke in sacking Heckingbottom whilst he was on the beach with his wife and kids, but he went to Argentina and came back with the best thing since Revie. Genius who built our club in his exacting image from the ground floor up. The board and fans were as one for the first time in decades. That first game at Stoke had jaws on the floor, we then started playing some of the most sublime football the club had seen since the 70s.
Bielsa turned bog standard journeymen into worldies. Phillips became a sought after quarterback and DM, Klich became a legend playing 198 matches on the bounce, Bielsa said Forshaw could play in any Champions League team but has problems with his body, Cooper became Mr Reliable, Dallas was the teams Swiss Army Knife, young Meslier was wowing clubs around the world, Alioski was Alioski, Berardi was your minder, Pablo was megging everyone, Bamford was banging them in, Raphinha nobody had heard of became a worldie and then Orta brought in some kids who were destined to be top club footballers.
Bielsa had exacting standards but couldn’t work miracles. After taking Leeds to 9th place in the Premier League after having £100m spent on new players, the wallet was left closed as the club gambled that the existing squad could replicate what they did in the first season. The bulk of the squad was still the same as the ones that won promotion, even though there were 5 players hitting the 30 mark and we still only had 17 first team players and a bunch of U23s who had just walked the league in style.
The massive mistake was not investing in quality and that quickly began to show as player after player went down injured, mainly all the players hitting the 30yo mark. Even the new players like Llorente, Koch and Rodrigo were injured a lot. At one point 62% of the first team squad was on the treatment table. This forced Bielsa into using inexperienced kids and square pegging. It also followed that the U23s were relegated as we could only find U17 and U18s to take the place of our 23s. The season was turning into a nightmare and because Bielsa didn’t have enough players and was someone who never slagged off his employers he just tried to get on with it, but he was taking flak from pundits who were saying he overtrained his players, what players! He had no players but the overtraining label hurt him and ultimatley Radz sacked him. Bielsa was a broken man and in tears yet he was applauded by a a huge crowd outside his flat in Wetherby when he drove away.
From that moment when Radz pulled the trigger the club have been on a downward spiral. Employing the Yank was even worse and Orta insisting that he had watched the Yank for 2 years because he would be ideal to take over from Bielsa was the biggest most stupid lie ever to come out of Victor’s mouth. Its now obvious to everyone except a couple of Bielsa detractors on here that having Bielsa was better than what followed and after seeing 30 odd games of crap all from the Yank, followed by embarrassing ourselves trying to find a coach, then getting our 5th choice Gracia but allowing Scoobs to coach in the meantime, then sacking Gracia and bringing in Big Sam. The result of the actions taken by the board in 2022 ignited the decline of the club in 2023. Relegation is now most likely so be careful what you wish for.
Victor Orta will be a legend in the infamy role of of dishonour along with GFH, Bates and Ridsdale. There will be books written about the decline of Leeds United and how not to run a football club. It may be called: wealthy owner relies on Director of Football. Book 2 called DoF sacked by wealthy owner and book 3 called wealthy owner loses millions selling to 49ers. Bet nobody will want to follow the Leeds model.
if only Bielsa had been able to spend another £100min the summer of 21 things would have been way different as midtable would have been achieved and even if Bielsa then left there would have been a real base for the new man. The 5-year Radz plan would still be on, but by not investing that money Radz now find he is about to lose not only the Premier League lotter win but also a couple of hundred million on the sale of the club. Leeds really did fall from grace
Nightmare time at a nightmare club and now it’s time to pick over the bones of another useless season. However as Orta is the main target for fans anger, let’s have a look at what he did in summary.
Firstly forget about the supermarket sweep Radz sent him on when he brought in the dirty dozen, or should that read not very good at all dozen. It started with his plan to play expansive football which is a great thing if you can get the right coach. He brought in Tomas Christensen and it looked like we had got it sorted at long last and we saw sunlight. Then it became apparent Tomas wasn’t really cut out for Championship tough players getting stuck into his lads, or indeed L1 rough and tumble in the FA Cup. Along comes Heckingbottom who didn’t have much time for the players he saw as prima donnas and he was not getting the results we were told by Orta he would get. Orta said Heckingbottom is one of the most sought after coaches in Europe? And then a masterstroke in sacking Heckingbottom whilst he was on the beach with his wife and kids, but he went to Argentina and came back with the best thing since Revie. Genius who built our club in his exacting image from the ground floor up. The board and fans were as one for the first time in decades. That first game at Stoke had jaws on the floor, we then started playing some of the most sublime football the club had seen since the 70s.
Bielsa turned bog standard journeymen into worldies. Phillips became a sought after quarterback and DM, Klich became a legend playing 198 matches on the bounce, Bielsa said Forshaw could play in any Champions League team but has problems with his body, Cooper became Mr Reliable, Dallas was the teams Swiss Army Knife, young Meslier was wowing clubs around the world, Alioski was Alioski, Berardi was your minder, Pablo was megging everyone, Bamford was banging them in, Raphinha nobody had heard of became a worldie and then Orta brought in some kids who were destined to be top club footballers.
Bielsa had exacting standards but couldn’t work miracles. After taking Leeds to 9th place in the Premier League after having £100m spent on new players, the wallet was left closed as the club gambled that the existing squad could replicate what they did in the first season. The bulk of the squad was still the same as the ones that won promotion, even though there were 5 players hitting the 30 mark and we still only had 17 first team players and a bunch of U23s who had just walked the league in style.
The massive mistake was not investing in quality and that quickly began to show as player after player went down injured, mainly all the players hitting the 30yo mark. Even the new players like Llorente, Koch and Rodrigo were injured a lot. At one point 62% of the first team squad was on the treatment table. This forced Bielsa into using inexperienced kids and square pegging. It also followed that the U23s were relegated as we could only find U17 and U18s to take the place of our 23s. The season was turning into a nightmare and because Bielsa didn’t have enough players and was someone who never slagged off his employers he just tried to get on with it, but he was taking flak from pundits who were saying he overtrained his players, what players! He had no players but the overtraining label hurt him and ultimatley Radz sacked him. Bielsa was a broken man and in tears yet he was applauded by a a huge crowd outside his flat in Wetherby when he drove away.
From that moment when Radz pulled the trigger the club have been on a downward spiral. Employing the Yank was even worse and Orta insisting that he had watched the Yank for 2 years because he would be ideal to take over from Bielsa was the biggest most stupid lie ever to come out of Victor’s mouth. Its now obvious to everyone except a couple of Bielsa detractors on here that having Bielsa was better than what followed and after seeing 30 odd games of crap all from the Yank, followed by embarrassing ourselves trying to find a coach, then getting our 5th choice Gracia but allowing Scoobs to coach in the meantime, then sacking Gracia and bringing in Big Sam. The result of the actions taken by the board in 2022 ignited the decline of the club in 2023. Relegation is now most likely so be careful what you wish for.
Victor Orta will be a legend in the infamy role of of dishonour along with GFH, Bates and Ridsdale. There will be books written about the decline of Leeds United and how not to run a football club. It may be called: wealthy owner relies on Director of Football. Book 2 called DoF sacked by wealthy owner and book 3 called wealthy owner loses millions selling to 49ers. Bet nobody will want to follow the Leeds model.
if only Bielsa had been able to spend another £100min the summer of 21 things would have been way different as midtable would have been achieved and even if Bielsa then left there would have been a real base for the new man. The 5-year Radz plan would still be on, but by not investing that money Radz now find he is about to lose not only the Premier League lotter win but also a couple of hundred million on the sale of the club. Leeds really did fall from grace
