Sep 3rd, 10
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Maybe they will open up the upper tier in the PL
Darragh nearly gets giddy.
Back to school this week and suddenly there is a huge shift in the way the football Season is viewed. In an exam year like this football is going to have to take a back seat and I’ll be expecting it to be a tough challenge as my expectations rise slowly as the Season progresses. As far as the Leeds United starting XI debate is concerned I feel I don’t really have a say as I’ve only followed most of the games online or else the odd TV game so I’m basing my opinion on the reports of others. I’ll get my first game in October and will adjudge for myself where I think the squad stands. To be honest though I really do think that if Naylor can get some sort of form together, and hopefully the goal at the weekend helped, then he can return to the way he was in his loan spell and his early days as a fully contracted player. It’s probably a long shot but hopefully he comes back next week to prove me right. Although once again, a long shot…
Talking about rising expectations it’s funny what a week can do. Last week I jumped the gun and asked what if we were promoted but admittedly I didn’t really expect us to be big contenders for a playoff place. In a week though that included a couple more signings, a scrappy away win against Watford and an inspirational speech from Peter Lorimer in the YEP describing how he thinks we are promotion candidates, I think a part of me has caught the bug. Realising how fickle I sound but I’d like to think it wasn’t just because we won away from home and currently stand in the playoffs ahead of Norwich even though that’s only because L comes before N in the alphabet! I’d like to think of it more as an epiphany. With all of Graysons radical spending similar to a kid in a candy store and looking at a division as a whole that lacked a bit of consistency I think I took somewhat the easy way out when asking for a Season of consolidation. Yes it’s still far more likely than a playoff place or as Lorimer suggested maybe even an automatic spit (although I’m not that optimistic!) but really as I said last week it’s a division where the general standard is rather mediocre or maybe a consistent/inconsistent level of form might be a better explanation but basically, anything can happen.
I must say that I haven’t really found time in the last few days to sit down and properly consider the starting XI argument and at the moment I am on the fence far too many positions for somebody who writes a blog. That’s probably just considered weak on my behalf but to be honest I have no problem taking that hit because there is a man who is paid good money to try and pick out this starting XI and he has the advantage of being with every player almost every day. Grayson has formed a squad, perhaps accidentally as was said by Michael on Wednesday, but he has given himself that brilliant dilemma that is spoken about from time to time, usually about a team with plenty of money. If anybody was worried about the depth of our squad last Season then I don’t think that should be the same this year with the amount of players of somewhat good quality that we gave on our books. A good team has strength in depth which rather annoyingly is mainly why our rivals across the Pennines have been so successful for the last 18 years or so. The only problem Grayson might have would be trying to keep players motivated but I’m sure that’s one of the skills Grayson has developed over time as all managers are supposed to. With such depth in a squad that I would consider better than the average Championship team I really do think that a top 10 minimum might soon become the bread and butter.
Having a look at the table it’s genuinely hard to see which way to go. The 3 promoted teams are challenging promotion again while pre-season favourites such as Boro, Forest and Reading have stuttered somewhat. Early days yet perhaps but those teams are going to be under serious pressure to perform while the promoted teams still have the excuse and the momentum of just being promoted. God only knows where we will be when this will where off but I hope much like last Season we make any potential form and momentum count by the time we get to Cardiff Away in January 2011. I will admit that any potential success would have a large amount of luck involved but God knows we deserve some after the last couple of years. In the same way if it is actually true that you make your own luck then hopefully earning points away to Forest and beating Millwall convincingly are signs that we might also be doing that as well?
I’m trying to figure out what brought on this wave of optimism but I suppose it’s a healthy break from the monotone of pessimism. I’m of the opinion that the break was better for us, even though it cut what little momentum we had short, because I think getting our injured players back is almost as important to us as creating a bit of form. Also I’d say the players need a slight mental rest after a busy yet successful 1st month. Hopefully with a healthy squad, for now, we can really attempt to take this division by storm before the rest of the teams come out of the blocks. The break this week will give us a time to rest and recuperate and hopefully come Swansea next week we won’t just be a consolidation team but a team that wants to make a statement in a league full of also rans.
Darragh Mullen.
Please note Teenage Kicks In will be moving to a new Thursday slot in the next few weeks.
Aug 27th, 10
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Three times bigger than Blackpool
Darragh jumps the gun.
Yesterday Michael finished with the sentence “Of course knowing our luck we will get promoted….” briefly touching on a point that I’ve been worrying about as the Championship table has started to take shape. It’s been said over and over in the past few weeks how open the Championship is this Season but seldom has it been said how hindering this could be for anyone promoted. In a division where the general standard of most teams is so similar, nobody has questioned to what level that standard is actually at or more so the gap of the standard between that, and that of the Premier League. The fact that no team maybe with the exception of Cardiff or possibly QPR (although I wonder how long their run will last) stand out on paper as a team that are “too good” for this division could be a problem for any potential promotion contenders. Any of the competitive teams in question, Leeds most definitely included, would have a serious problem next season as they are thrown into the deep end in a league that’s a huge step up from anyone they will play this Season.
Taking Leicester and Swansea as relatively recent examples, both were teams that were deemed “too good” for League 1 respectively. Both went on then to establish themselves in the Championship the Season after without a huge amount of spending, all because they left League 1 after already establishing half of the team needed for the next tier. The same could be said about ourselves and Norwich last Season, although the second half of ours would beg to differ but still the fundamental point stands that if you want to establish yourself in the next division, your promotion better have been done on merit and not luck, although once again the second half of our Season would beg to differ. Thus brings us to our problem then that Leeds don’t have a team that will take this League by storm and I think even the most optimistic fan would agree with me. If we were promoted it would most likely take another 14 signings for us to stand a chance of staying up which is the point Michael was making yesterday, all be it a bit drastic. I’m jumping the gun a bit yes but with the playoffs looking a possibility with performances like that against Millwall and a division where anything can happen, it really could be a possibility come May. If for some reason we did earn promotion though I would be genuinely worried that 14 freebies and rejects wouldn’t be enough to keep us up and I fear we would quickly develop into a yo-yo team and the West Brom’s of this world (and God knows if he’s still around by then that Ken Bates wouldn’t be willing to lend a financial hand)! As conservative as it sounds we need a season to settle in the Championship and to develop that team that takes the division by storm. That being said we are hardly doomed if we do get promoted. I just feel it would be a big ask to establish ourselves in the Premiership at the first time of asking with an altered very average Championship side and that goes to many of the potential promotion candidates.
Coming back to the present then and I’m starting to worry about the wage bill for the first time in a while. Going by the official site we have 28 players in our squad including loanees who are not out on loan at the moment. With the potential signings then of 4 more players and a dinosaur our squad size and wage bill is slowly starting to worry me. Now I suppose Bates isn’t the type of person to let a wage bill run away with itself but you have to wonder whether Lubo, Robinson and Sheehan fetching no bids at auction was factored into his master plan. Having potentially 33 players is not just unnecessary for a Championship side but also hindering financially. Until a couple of contracts run out next Season I imagine we are running very close to our wage limits and if in the meantime we need essential maintenance work on our squad then I really do wonder if we could be in trouble. There is no need for 8 strikers in a 4-4-2 or possibly a 4-3-3 and that clearly need addressing. I suppose for matters on the pitch they say it’s a good dilemma for Grayson to have but one has to worry about the books. People like McCormack and Davenport are going to demand higher wages and you have to wonder who’s supplying it if Bates admits he hasn’t put a penny into the club.
God knows how I’ve managed to take both our promotion ambitions and our potential good signings and shone a pessimistic light on it all but it seems I’ve gone and done it again. I realise by May I will probably have contradicted myself and will be calling for one last push towards promotion but I suppose that’s a long way away. Until then it will be interesting to see how these 33 or so players settle and gel together in a season where a clichéd “anything can happen”.
Darragh Mullen.
Aug 20th, 10
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Not broadcasting house
Darragh loves progress.
First of all I’d like to welcome Millwall this week into the exclusive club as an official rival of Leeds. Although a couple of months late with this induction if you could call it that, I thought it was worth a mention that through pure persistence and generally outplaying us in the last couple of meetings, Leeds fans have finally started to care about the opposition more so than when we started playing consistently again in the 07/08 Season.
Back then our biggest worries were the 15 points and I think our 4-2 win that day sort of summed that up. That was the day with the smashed buses and I think the last 3 o clock kickoff between the two teams in Elland Road which has gone with our claim to not caring at all about the game. More recently though Millwall have become somewhat of a bogey team for us or probably more so a team that knows how to turn us over. Putting aside our poor results in the Den, we haven’t won the last 2 outings in Elland Road and I think this and especially the playoffs the Season before last has finally pushed Millwall into the rivals category. Of course there was the hooliganism in the 80′s but that was more or less forgot about after 20 years or so of a void. Now in the build up to this game though as well as the games last Season there seems to be an ever increasing amount abuse/banter (depending on what you personally might call it) in the online world. The Millwall fixture is now one that’s up there with most of our Yorkshire derby’s this Season and as much as some fans might hate to admit it, I do think it signals (or signaled last Season) the induction of Millwall as one of our current day rivals. As long as we are still in the same division anyway.
Keeping with the theme of Saturdays game we saw a glimpse of the future this week with the LUTV box-office service being used for an actual league game for the first time ever. Perhaps someone can correct me on this but this is the first time in English Football history that this has been done, all be it only in certain countries abroad but still groundbreaking enough. I’m fairly sure there are similar services in America for Baseball and NFL and I think most people presume that this is the future for Football as well as the clubs slowly become bigger than Sky. What it means though is that those selected few who are not living in England or Ireland but have LUTV and are willing to pay an extra 5 pounds to watch the game can now do so as Bates potentially revolutionises the industry.
Hopefully for those of us l abroad who aren’t from Spain, Germany and South Africa or those who just can’t make the game this stream makes its way to another website where it is possible to view without the help of LUTV. For now until licenses are granted for all countries worldwide, or at least especially the main Leeds following of GB, Ireland and Scandinavia then it is never going to work in Bates’ favour as people look for possible illegal methods of viewing the game. If in 5 years time though licenses have been granted for supporters abroad (and especially Ireland) then it’s quite obvious that there’s a huge market there for 23 home games in a Season. I think most fans would be willing to pay 100-150 quid for such a privilege and Bates gets exactly what he wants from investing in LUTV and Yorkshire Radio in the past couple of years. I’ll leave valuing that sort of thing to the experts although I hope it’s not the same people who logically decide the ticket prices. Until then it’s actually a very exciting thought, the possibility of such an option but God only knows what Sky and other broadcasters will do to stop this from developing. I suppose it’s just a case of watching this space though as it will be very interesting to see the battle develop between the clubs and broadcasters over the next few months/years. I must say though in a phrase I hate both saying and hearing that Irish eyes will indeed be smiling if such a service became available for a club that is in the media far too little for our liking!
Darragh Mullen.
