My mother would have struck that better.
So, two defensive mistakes later, its another season in L1. Am I content to just say, so near, next year maybe? Am I hell.
It wasn’t really a surprise, it always felt like 2006 all over again, lucky to be in the play-offs to some extent, keen to get out of the division but with no real belief we would. In terms of the two Millwall games it requires no great effort to work out what went wrong. Yes Douglas was partly at fault for both goals but you have to expect to let in at least 2 over two games like that, yes “no big games please” Beckford shouldn’t have taken that penalty and it was so bad it was unique, but they were not the determining factor. That was Simon Grayson’s tactics in my humble opinion, especially in the away leg, where we set up for a 0-0 and got what we deserved. Grayson’s timid side came out, coupled with his natural tendency to long ball meant we played right into Millwall’s hands. I could go on at length, about the way we set up in Bermondsey, about the mistake of bringing on Robinson rather than Johnson when Kilkenny limped off in the second leg, the lack of an effective plan B, the 2-1-7 we finished up playing late on in the second game, and if our only problem was tactics I would. In truth the problems at Elland Road stretch beyond Grayson’s faults (and all managers have them) and are imbedded in a seismic sized structural fault line that goes through The Board, The Football Management Team, The Players, The league we play in and Us the Support. These fault lines make all suggestions we will blow through L1 next season preposterous, they render useless the extra incentive of being LEEDS UNITED and can only point a rational man to one conclusion, we are in the lower leagues for sometime to come, get used to it.
The Board
Bates is a shyster (I would love to use stronger terms but Mr Bates likes a suing or two, luckily as he uses “shyster” liberally in his programme notes I get to use it for me). 40 years of shysterness in football and life in general on the record already, this is not a debating point. More important than his past is the issue of how the shyster runs the club. Behind the blatant lies around administration, profits, business deals and fantasy property developments lives a harsh reality of a club with a mysterious ownership structure, struggling to pay for scoreboards never mind repurchasing Elland Road or Thorpe Arch, no significant transfer funds, a short-termism that infects the playing side and restricts managers ability to progress, insulting and patronising attitudes to fans, illegal ticket arrangements and a deafening silence around other investment.
When Bates pulled off the stunt that robbed hundreds of small businesses of what was owed to them he released us all from the guilt of Ridsdales legacy. We no longer have to believe we should suffer for years to come because Peter fucked up the dream, Bates now stands on his own record, and its rubbish, 3 managers later, a third season in L1 to come, the Technical Director Williams still controlling player purchase, wages still over-inflated for the quality of players, Chief Executive Harvey still running an incompetent administrative side, Bates unable or unwilling to butt out of a 1000 personal feuds. A positive recipe for revolt you’d think, ah but we are Leeds United fans (see Us the Support).
I can understand that discussing death is unpleasant but we need to face a reality, when Papa Smurf cops it we will be a moribund L1 club with potential Maxwellesqe complications (I bet anyone any amount that before 5 years is out we will be shocked just how much the “owners” are milking revenue, legally or not). Who is going to want that kind of mess? Their won’t be any hotels, ground improvements or any infrastructure progress, just a continuing decay that makes Elland Road involvement in the 2018 World Cup the biggest joke of all. We are fucked until he dies, we may be still fucked after.
The Football Management Team
I’m going to surprise those familiar with my opinions on Leeds United teams now. Based on what we know at this time there is no point having anyone other than Grayson as manager (well maybe one, to bring in someone who plays a better style of football consistently than Grayson as we settle down to long haul in L1). For the reasons I outlined above, it really doesn’t matter who is manager, they are held back and restricted. In the same vain as with Gary McAllister, you have to question anyone who signs up to a Bates agenda. But even if all that was removed I still don’t think Grayson would do it, but before I go into that I suppose I should try to explain at length why I’d keep him.
We don’t need another sacking, with all the accompanying fall-out and disturbance.
Sorry that took so long to explain. Now as I said I actually don’t think he’d get us up post Bates, he has a timed cautious side that I think prevents him dealing with the big occasion well. I also think he will go back to what he feels happiest with, a longer ball game about channels and bustle. I feel he lacks variety in his tactics, his player signing judgement is still out with the jury and he has occasional tendency to Blackwellesqe comments. I am informed that my view that in media interviews he across like meathead is unfair but I also happen to think he treated Blackpool shoddily. Finally, he is another ex Leeds player and I am think the stats on their likelihood of success as a Leeds manager are telling. To be fair, he has a coaching team around him, in which Snodin at least brings experience of working with teams that can pass a football.
Some will point to his record since coming to us, and 60% win ratio is not to be sniffed at, but every one of our last 4 managers had a similar run of results at one stage. Now clearly if that ratio was to continue in our first 25 games of next season then such a comparable is meaningless and he surpasses Blackwell, Wise and McAllister in one bound. Grayson might be a decent lower league manager, good at a club with low expectations and a limited fan base, but is that what is needed. Our history says we don’t do “horses for courses” managers, we do from nowhere to the top achievers or we do failure. To be clear I hold no personal dislike of Grayson, he isn’t the deluded Luton boy or the golfing term, I just have massive doubts about him. In order to succeed at ER, success defined as getting us promotion in the same manner as Revie and Wilkinson, you require a combination of brain, personality and personal courage, I don’t see any of those three in Grayson so far. He can stay till the day Bates is gone for all I care, but at that moment, be it tomorrow or 2015, he should be gone.
The Players
The squad we have as we speak isn’t good enough, it lacks in so many departments and more importantly will lack even more come August. Right footers on the left, left footers on the right, one goalie who can’t catch, one who can’t kick, no flair over the age of 21, players who wont pass, lump-it artists, headless chickens, nutcases, the odd animal and bugger all evidence of intelligence amongst them. A chasm also exists between the kids and the established players (a lack of “development” players). Do a poll of the motivation of why most of them signed for Leeds and “money” would have a majority that puts to shame Labour in 97.
We need to start by getting real; all protestations of “keeping the squad together” are crap. The following players will leave because we will sell them for good money: Beckford, Delph and Becchio. The following players should be on there way because clubs higher up the structure will want them, the only question is will the fee be enough to tempt Bates: Ankergren, Parker, Michalik, Howson, Snodgrass. The following players should be moved off as they are of no further use to us (and I’m including players I like): Lucas, Richardson, Sheehan, Marques, Hughes, Prutton, Sweeney, Kandol, Showunmi (and just for old times sake Douglas). That leaves three groups of players, those who need to up their game: Huntington, Johnson, Robinson, and Grella, the remaining core: Naylor and Kilkenny, and kids: Martin, White, Webb*, Elliot* (* equals might not be with us beyond xmas 09). Now with the best will in the world that isn’t a squad to stay up never mind to compete in the top 6. Even if 3 out of 5 of the “should leave to move up” stay its still a bare minimum for this division.
In terms of signings, having already disposed of the ridiculous notion that any serious money will be made available we are left with bargains and loans. In those circumstances to waste any fees or wages on a man with missing knees, Sodje (god knows what Grayson saw in him but then again Douglas played 166 times in his Leeds career) would be a crime. Equally a gamble on Kandol 2 “this time he’s northern” Dickinson isn’t one even his mum would suggest. So far we have had unrealistic rumours (David Healy, Rob Jones, Alan Smith) and the not so inspiring of Michael Nelson, Peter Clarke and A Scoreboard. Obviously numerous other rumours will surface, I’m particularly looking forward to hearing Dean Windass is coming as player coach and the Stephen Crainey loan!
As discussed briefly in the opening of this section one of our great idiocies is a lack of “development players” in our second 11, basically players between 19-25, hungry to prove themselves, capable of stepping into the breach without anyone worrying about it, a source of fresh legs. If you look at those who didn’t start against Millwall (and were fit) only Johnson and Grella could fall into that category. This type of player isn’t just a Premier League thing, clubs in our lower two divisions farm them so to sell, the CCC clubs like Derby County are specifically creating such development squads to fill the gap between kids and the first team, a new variant of the stiffs so to speak, just more logical, allowing a different way of finding those players than can take clubs forward but don’t cost a unending fortune in fees or wages. We as a club need more of these type of players, probably PL cast offs or young players from L2/BSP. We should enact a development squad now, put Martin, White, Webb, Elliot straight in it, add some signings to it and anyone not in the first team 16 who is under 26 and not likely to play more than 10 full games. An end to letting all our decent young uns go off and play for every other club in the top 2 divisions, an end to signing excess oldies looking for one last pay-off, an end to Bosman signings that do nothing but pick up signing on fees, its time to plan (irony alert, the CCC and PL is full of our ex kids still under 26, pissed out by successive managers and the previously mentioned short-termism.) In truth though do you think cautious Grayson will ask for it? No neither do I, do you think Bates would agree to it if Grayson asked? Na.
The league we play in
Lets be clear, 2008-09 should have been our season, bugger all competition for promotion according to the bookies. Two clubs promoted from L2 made the top 6, only 7 clubs looked like they could go up. If we can’t get up in those circumstances how are we going to cope with Norwich and Charlton (and don’t dismiss Southampton even with -10 points)? We know Millwall and MK Dons are better prospects and better run, we know Colchester and Brighton have money to spend and stable finance, Oldham have a new decent manager, Southend can’t be as indifferent next season as this, the competition will be stiff.
But its not just all that, its also us and L1, we will motivate clubs to turn us over for years to come, the Exeter’s and Wycombe’s of this world will want to do what Hereford and Cheltenham already have, humiliate us further. Obviously play-offs should be possible, but I don’t believe it is definite. Ignoring the ridiculous idea we will walk the division, the case for not even making the top 6 is as good as the one that says we will. Arrogance will be our undoing, the big club mentality in a league suited to the pragmatic will not do.
Us the Support
There is a lot of talk about how good we are as a support, talk which quite frankly sometimes beggars belief. 30,000 crowds are fine when its glory time but in truth we have such erratic support, it terms of gates (lows of 17,000, highs of 38,000 average 23,000) and reaction it can hardly be called fantastic. One period of singing against Millwall doesn’t disguise that fact we have lost the intensity and passion that ER built up in the 80’s. Now as anyone who knows me will testify I am no fan of the opinion-less clapping monkey in the stands but I do wish we could have an intelligence test in the entry requirements. Not only am I sick of the proportion of knuckle-dragging feral morons that annoy at every home game but also of the badgering mentality that criticises every young player, thinks midfielders should maime before they pass and praises post lobotomy footballers as hero’s. Every time I see the worship given to Andy Robinson I am reminded why football selection isn’t a democracy, thank god.
But all that is mere sideshow, the biggest issue we have is: we are bunch of spineless bastards, content to let the Ridsdales, Krasner’s and Bates’s shafted us without comment. We have less unity than the far left. LUSC, LUST (an organisation with less active members than the number of spaces in the disability section at Spotland), WACCOE, Square Ball the whole frigging lot of them, divided, deluded, disorganised. We allow ourselves to be treated like shit, we turn on our own and others for simply pointing out what everyone else outside of the Leeds United bubble can see. It is the most dispiriting thing of all and it’s the thing that means that we probably deserve the medium-term L1 stretch I am convinced we have coming.
Yes things could change for the better and brighten up the prospects, Bates could go, Grayson could be the next Leeds great, Showumni the new Chapman but that will mean nothing without a support that can understand this progress more than blindly and can see a place for itself in giving such a miracle a chance. That involves that WE change, we understand what we have to do and the first thing we have to do is to stop being gutless pricks.
Additional
Confession time, any Leeds fan reading this doesn’t have to give a dot about what I think about us next season, as I won’t have the games to back it up. I won’t have my home or away season ticket anymore. I will be lucky to see 8 Leeds games what with the travel distance to ER and the ballot system for away games. My Saturdays will now be full of Kingstonian, AFC Wombles, C Casuals, Brentford, Fulham, Woking, Hampton and Richmond or Leatherhead. In some senses this partial disengagement will be good for me, the lack of matches should blunt the despair, I will feel less tainted by association with the shyster owner of my club, it will provide me with lots of prompts for my bloging. But mostly it will be the ultimate recognition from me to me, their is no fun to be had following Leeds sometimes other than good company, no meaningful glory to await, just the cold reality of a crazy football club still navigating the early stages of a long haul back, but really just going around in circles. Of course I’ll miss it but it’s no bloody good for me!
Well it was never going to be a missive of sunshine was it.
