Clarke one nil

These drawings will be collector items soon.

This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.

Clutching at back-up straws.

The “oh my god the Play-offs” genie is out of the Leeds United bottle of that their is no doubt. Even a win tonight won’t kill any residual panic until we are mathematically promoted (or not as the case may be). Some of us, including me, are looking at Simon Grayson’s 2006-07 Blackpool experience and are using it as a crutch on which to hang our hopes on should the wobble that has turned into a large jelly becomes a full on lake of the stuff. Even those of us not quite so impressed by his 44 wins and 59% win ratio at Elland Road (all in L1 mind) recognise that the experience of that season at Bloomfield Road plus the year and a bit so far with us should be useful in the lottery that is the end of season play-offs.

However, and as you know there is always a however, there is a big problem with that, the circumstances are different. In order to qualify for the play-offs Grayson had to produce 9 wins out of the last 10 games, now if that’s the form needed to take into the play-offs, we won’t be in the play-off because we will be going up! Even if we only have 7 wins out of the last 10 that should do it as at least one of those wins will have to be at Norwich or Southampton or Charlton or the mighty Yeovil (plus we would have beaten Millwall and Swindon at home). Their lies the crux, if we fail in the automatic promotion race it means we head into the play-off not only with a massive support as edgy as the 38th Parallel (google it) but a team clearly lacking in confidence and form. The comparison with 2007 becomes meaningless, Grayson will have to find a new way of achieving success.

Just to really show how 2007 and 2010 are not compatible, we started this season as a house on fire, Blackpool started that season with 1 win in the first 11 games.

Don’t be soft brushed.

As regular readers will testify I have a small Southend United following, born of upsetting a few by pointing out the obvious (club on a decline due to money issues, new ground not getting built, relegation sneaking up on them etc etc). As the season has worn on the reality has slowly dawned on a growing number until yesterday when the chairman sacked the Assistant Manager, predominately as a cost cutting measure but disguised as an attempt to shake things up a bit (think that through, deprive your manager of a pair of hands as you sit in the bottom 4 at a critical stage of the season) and finally things take a turn for the angry. A demonstration is planned for after the next home game (Saturday at home to fellow strugglers Exeter City) with demands to know what is going on. Ron Martin, the chairman, brings this all on himself by feeding clearly made up garbage to the fans over the course of the season (reminds me of somebody).

I bring all this up not to gloat but to make a helpful suggestion. Already the Southend blogs and forums are having a seismic ruck over the planned demo, loyalists to the present regime are giving it large (they like a bit of large in Essex) indicating that such a demo would affect the players (even though its timed for after the game). Ignore them, if you really have woken up and smelt the coffee about the potential for meltdown at Roots Hall then you need to make yourselves heard now. Pulling away from demanding answers to the many questions the two recent winding-up orders have provoked would be short-term, short-sighted nonsense and one you would regret if the team goes down anyway and Martin jumps ship before you get to pin him down.

The problem with some club owners/chairmen is they just carry on regardless if they are not questioned/stopped, the problem with some supporters is they let these things happen and before they know it the crises is unstoppable. Southend United fans are in the last chance saloon, a massive turnout at 5pm Saturday would at least show they understood that fully.

Cast Iron Guarantee made of paper.

9th league defeat for Liverpool last night, the pre-season bookies favourites to knock Manchester United off the PL title perch now so far off the pace its classic. The manner of it was so telling, out battled and out played by Wigan Athletic. Whilst the idiot pundits Burley and Claridge talked about the need for Martinez to temper his principles his team went out and not only wanted it more, they still played the better passing game. An unexpected joy to watch on and one that re-enforces just how much the over investment in Benetiz by the supporters (and the club CE) is wishful thinking. From 2nd to potentially 7th in one season is truly horrendous given the financial advantages Liverpool have accrued from the CL over the last 6 seasons. It is such a shame Benetiz has squandered it on a squad full of pap.

As most national newspapers will tell us the fans seem to blame the owners for this situation, ignoring £250m worth of transfer activity under the managers watch. Two £17m substitutes both point to over-paying for product not fully fit for purpose. We know why Gerrard is off his game, he is a pillock who doesn’t see the need to try anymore, why Torres was so woeful last night only he can say but you start to suspect that Benetiz has successfully added those two players to the Babel, Carragher and Reina list of confidence slowly seeping out group. Where and when does it end? Out of the CL in the group stages, out of the FA Cup to a CCC team, out of the PL title race in September and now clinging on by the fingernails to a Europa league challenge never mind the top 4. If this was any of the other so called top 4 the manager would now be toast.

That is the beauty of this to me, sometimes loyalty can work against a club and supporters, the continued loyalty towards Benetiz might just mean this isn’t a one season dip but part of a process by which they become another Everton, which would be nice.

Getting your comforts the cyber way.

Welcome to today’s daily Leeds United comment column, which looks at some sources of comfort in difficult times.

Let’s keep it short today, we don’t need to reference the growing campaign to make Leeds United join the other 91 league clubs in understanding the importance of transparency: the only people who can’t see this now are our glorified fund manager and his cohorts, this campaign will be won, of that there is no doubt.

Equally timing dictates we shire away from adding to the growing sense of Grayson pushing at his limits as the wobble becomes a small jelly factory. It’s not that I don’t understand the new questioning of Grayson (I’m ahead on that a little), I simply think that Tranmere Rovers away tomorrow is such an important game that 48 hours worth of restraint wouldn’t go a miss (although before the IGWT remnants start my position remains what it has been since the blog started, that of no point considering alternatives to this L1/lower CCC standard manager even if we miss out on promotion whilst Bates and cohorts are restraining our potential).

So what should we be looking at today? Well in order to install a little lift in the spirit I suggest we focus our short missive on a positive aspect of our recent trials and tribulations, the growth of original thinking and talent within the Leeds United supporter family. Ignoring my grammatically incorrect misery we start with the writers that make Clarkeonenil what it is, Graeme Garvey and his experience, Darragh Mullen and his youthful exuberance and the pool of occasional writers that we have used. Equally we pay homage to The Scratching Shed, where whilst our two blogs might see the footballing side from opposite extremes there is no doubting the quality of effort on the presentation front (and the interaction with fans) that has been achieved on that site. Finally on the “nearly every day” blogs we have From Europe to Yeovil which occupies well a middle ground of enthusiasm and realism.

In the “occasional postings” section of the Leeds United blog range lives Keep Fighting, which shows what taking your time to produce good thoughtful writing can garner, I’m a fan of the stuff there. Equally we have The Beaten Generation, the original blogger whose genius “Visit Beeston” output is the mainstay of the revival of the Square Ball magazine. We also had for a small period Armchair White but his output seems to have waned recently. Of course no reference to blogs would be complete without our friends at Love Leeds Hate Bates whom without life would be much duller.

All of the blogs referenced can be accessed via the blogroll, I heartily recommend that whilst the promotion race puts us through the shredder you visit these new institutions, there is something for every opinion and every mood contained within the LUFC blog world and that has got to be more useful than flogging the dead horse of forums.

contemplating a career in salvage

In this weeks column Clarkeonenil’s Monday writer Graeme Garvey wonders where it all went wrong.

Leeds United’s official website said after Saturday’s game “Beckford leveller secures point”. This claim was loyally backed up by manager, Simon Grayson, who told the BBC, “We played well today and I think it’s the best we’ve played for a number of weeks now. We passed it very well and we didn’t get our rewards today.” Did I go to the same game? I can’t believe it and that’s certainly not how the fans near me felt both during and after the match, judging by their criticisms. Why try to brainwash all those who witnessed it into believing it was a point won (salvaged)? Who are they kidding, except themselves? Perhaps they are frightened of the screaming rage the real but ever so secret owner of the club might go into at two more points wasted? The BBC, as you might expect, saw it more honestly, saying, “Jermaine Beckford scored his first goal in seven games to salvage a point for Leeds”. Salvage, of course, conjures up images of what is rescued from a wreck and that is a bit more like it.

I have been trying to decide how bad Saturday’s performance was. Was it a) awful, b) poor or c) not very good? And because I am a generous heart, I’ve settled on c) not very good. It is hard to feel that I saw a promotion team playing and it is feeling more and more like the supposed Cup win at Old Trafford was a case of mass hypnosis and did not actually happen. How can a team that I saw (or dreamt I saw) win deservedly against a top side in January, play so disjointedly in March against such an ordinary team?

There is nothing the Leeds players can learn if they are told the same story behind closed doors. I only hope that ‘Larry’ gives them it straight when he knows he’s not being quoted, unless he really is not seeing it right. In which case he needs to leave the touchline for a clearer, terrace perspective, to see it as we do. On Saturday, he would have seen a first hour of the team going through the motions with no sense of desire or urgency, with defenders miskicking and slicing the ball out of play as they tried to hoof it upfield. Even if it had gone where they had hoped, such service would have been useless for setting up attacks. There was a disjointed midfield which only occasionally strung passes together and attackers who hardly seemed to know each other. Players tried wonder passes of 30, 40 or 50 yards that did not come off. Worst of all, the ball was in the air all the time, a clear sign of a poor performance. I know Leeds are not Barcelona but surely we can learn from how simple they keep it, how they don’t do foolish long passes and how they like to play the ball on the ground?

Once Brentford scored, and only then, was there a sense of urgency. Straight out of Kevin Keegan’s thin little book of soccer tactics, Leeds tried the one for attack, ‘Charge!’ At last we had goalmouth incidents but Leeds are a much better team than such a performance suggests, or at least ought to be. No late winner this time but scoring late cannot always be relied on to spare our blushes. We should have had Brentford on the run from the start, game over by half time, goal difference boosted by full time. “We passed it very well”?

When are the play-offs?

Odd 1 out of 92.

Taken from today’s Observer, a clear rational why Leeds United are the odd club out on transparency and ownership issues:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/mar/07/leeds-united-owners-ken-bates

Time for the Football League to learn from the mistakes of Notts County and make a clear statement on what they know on our owners.

Ken sees the funny side when its suggested he lies on court statements.

Which you can access via this link: http://www.loveleedshatebates.com/2010/03/polls-apart-have-your-say-no-2/.

Of course if Clarkeonenil had done this poll it would only have one choice!