Sheffield W - Leeds, my two cents.

The image above is what most people remember about last nights game.
There were killing tackles, great atmosphere, a bit of harsh singing, penaltys missed and two good goals - Tonges was amazing but no one seems to remember him scoring.

Some moron (and not in the positive Ken Bates say we are way) choose to get onto the pitch and bash Chris Kirkland, he fell, of course he fell, he was punched in the face. I cant get my head around however how a boy banned from football grounds all over the UK can get into Hillsborough, a place that with its sad history should have pretty strict security.

I was sitting in my local pub with other Leeds fans and a Danish journalist who was outraged that the Leeds fans saluted the bully and cheered him of the pitch, we tried to tell him that no one cheered him on, but to little use, so I guess there's now another guy who thinks Leeds fans are animals.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Dave Jones did very little to calm people down after the game, where he described us ALL like this: "They are vile animals. You talk about racism in the game, but what about the chanting and everything else? It’s a form of racism in itself, but then, to go and wave at them? No, not in my book. It was a great game, high intensity, a few chances, two good goals, and instead we’re talking about vile animals, and that’s what they are – all of them"

It would have suited the supposed child molester to try and calm people down and say that its sad that the actions of ONE moron ruins it for the other 5000+ loyal Leeds fans who went to Hillsborough to support the lads, but I guess he thinks he might get a 3-0 win from the FA if he acts out?

I'd also like to acknowledge how quick Leeds United as a club was to come out and condemn the actions of one foolish fan - good job Paul Dews and all others involved.

Now we need to focus on football and our game against Charlton and show the world that the actions of one fool is not supported by the majority of Leeds United fans. MOT!

 

Our season so far.

I hate international breaks but at least this one gives me the chance to do a blog about our start to the season.

I'll say first off that I've been extremely impressed about the way on players seem to fight for the badge, each other, Neil Warnock and of course the fans - almost every player gives 110% in every game and we have the "Leeds United" mentality, Never say die!

I've been very impressed by Neil Warnocks ability to change the team around during games, something his predecessor had big trouble doing - and when we consider all the off pitch activity with takeovers/investments and what not you cant help being impressed by his coolness and his ability in both finding the right guys for us and getting them to play the way they are.

Of the players I've been wildly impressed by most, but a few deserve a special mention.

•  Diouf, lets be honest we almost all hated the fact that he joined the club, but oh my, hes been a revelation, I havent seen him perform like this since the World Cup in 2002. 

• Byram, well I had not heard much about this kid before he suddenly played in pre season (Only in FM2012 and he was pretty shit there). He's managed to take the step up, much like Tom Lees did last year, but without the loan experience, he's surely one for the future, I can see him captaining Leeds in the Prem within a few years.

• Becchio, my favorite player in Leeds (almost of all time!). He's working, he's scoring and he's really loving his football again, I think that Warnocks style of football suits him better then Graysons. I predicted him getting 26 goals this season, I wonder if thats to low?!

• Kenny, Mr. Confident, the guy makes very few mistakes and is cool as fuck - I talked to a mate of mine about what a keeper like Kenny could have done for Graysons Leeds teams, I think that if Grayson had managed to get a keeper of Kennys qualities into his team he might still have been manager of Leeds United.    

I could have mentioned others who have impressed me, Pearce, Austin & Lees spring to mind as players who are also doing very well. I actually only been disappointed in one player and thats Luke Varney, I think he's awful and looks like Neil Warnock thinks so too after benching him. Dont get me wrong, I'd like to like him, I liked Billy Paynter eventhough he was pretty awful too, but at least he tried. Varney runs around acting like he's Messi and like his teammates dont get his points, I'd be ok with him not playing for Leeds again actually, he seems the rotten apple in the basket.

But all in all, can anyone complain about the season so far? 7th place in the league and we knocked Everton out of the cup (In a game that embodied what Leeds United is all about). I hope this investment happens soon and that we're in a position to get a few good signings in come January - I firmly believe that this is our year - we've not had a team, a team spirit or a manager as good as this in 8-10 years.

M.O.T

 

My expectations for the new season

After a long summer filled with takeover rumours we're finally getting back to what matters, football & Leeds United games.

Ken Bates is still around, but so are loads of new players and a new found belief in the team from the supporters and I must admit, I cant remember being this optimistic before a season in years.

Despite the failed/long underway takeover I think that NW has done a good job over the summer, he's managed to get some good players in and did his best to keep hold of Robert Snodgrass, RS is probably the one player we are yet to replace - It'll be exicting to see if NW pulls of a masterstroke of a transfer before the window shuts at the end of the month.

I expect Leeds to battle for automatic promotion and to at least get into the playoffs, I think NW can do a bit of magic, and this season he's made the team his own and not Simon Grayson (Kudos for the clean up NW - Still need Rachubka and Connolly to leave though).

I also expect Luciano Becchio to prove his worth to the team this season, if he scores 20+ goals, that could mean the difference between playoffs and automatic promotion. I'm also happy to see that we, so far, have managed to keep hold of Ross McCormack, without him we'd have been in loads of trouble last year and I'm looking for him to kick on this season and get 15-20 goals as well.

My major concern for this season is however who's going to assist on the goals? We've gotten some good players in and defence looks solid, but creativity is really lacking - we need a quality winger or two who can turn games around. Luke Varney has done great in pre-season and hopes are high for him - we need another winger to though, to become a double threat team, like when we had Maxi and Snoddy. I'd like to see Templeton of Hearts or George Boyd of Posh come in, but a loan from the Premier League might also work.

Finally my hope for the new season is that every supporter gets behind the team and help make ER a fortress and a scary place, for the opposition not for our own players, this could be our year!

Marching On Together!!

Expectations/Hopes:

Finish: Top 2
Top Scorer: Luciano Becchio 26 goals
Most Assists: Luke Varney 11
Player of the season: Jason Pearce
Young Player of the year: Aidy White

So Snoddy left...

A weeks, months and even years of speculation Robert Snodgrass called time on his Leeds spell exactly four years after Gary McAllister signed him from lowly Scottish side Livingston.
 
Snoddy was part of our promotion team from 2009/10 and became our best and most important player in our years in the Championship and even Ssayed after we lost his buddies  Beckford, Bradley Johnson, Gradel and Howson.
Norwich were sniffing about last summer and a £7-8M move seemed imminent, instead Leeds sold influential winger/forward Maxi Gradel for £2m and later local hero Morley boy Jonny Howson for about the same amount, I know wonder wheter the smart thing had been to sell Snoddy and use the £7m on extending Maxi and Jonnys contracts? Both stated they wanted to stay, but for class players you pay a price in salery, something Ken Bates is yet to learn.
 
So instead we opted to wait until three weeks before our first game to loose our captain and best player, we all knew he'd leave I suspect, so why not get it over with in May and use the fee on some targets we originally had? E.g. Portsmouth player Joel Ward.
 
Now NW is forced to buy his "second choiches" and while also being in the dark over our supposed takeover I understand if hes getting a bit sick of things, to his credit he seems pretty confident of our chances however! But selling class players who could do a job for us in the Premier League and replacing them with 30+ year olds for that record breaking promotion is hardly the way to build for LUFC's future.
 
I do however understand Snoddy, I cant see us becoming more the play Off contenders at best and he wants/deserves football at the highest level - the loyalty seen by Revies team is not around anymore, especially not if you in the second tier of English football and is gifted with a bit if talent.

Leeds Uniteds off-season until now

So like every other Leeds fan I am a bit disappointed by the lack of transfer activity from the club. One should think that we'd be used to these things from Leeds & Bates, and I guess in some ways we are, but I just had so much faith in Warnock and his promisses of 3-4 players in before his holiday - Holiday came and, almost, went and still the only new signing at ER remains center back Jason Pearce, without a doubt a great signing, but I had hoped for so much more. I was shocked to read that we could't afford Joel Ward or even free transfer target Paul Green, but then again we'll never know whether that story is true or not.

Warnocks retained list has also proven a big disappointment, half of the people on it is heavily linked away from the club, Ross McCormack, Snoddy, Aidy White and Lonergan, and people off the list have gotten zero attention from potential buyers. But looking at other clubs no one has really made a mark in the market yet, which gives me some hope that we might still get a few great signings in and get rid of some of our deadwood.

Among with the lack of transfers theres been massive romours of investments, takeovers or sponsorships in Leeds, and hopefully something will happen sooner rather then later - We do need some funds and we need to dig deep to get our beloved club out of the championsship.

I'll not take a stand on the takerover/investment talk before I read something on the official site, far to many romours is flying around on twitter and facebook, and can't get my head around which ones are true or not - so watch Leedsunited.com - hopefully they'll provide some answers before too long.

With regards to the transfers I refuse to panic (YET), like I've said, no one has really been on the market yet, and until the ball gets rolling from other clubs I don't expect to much for Leeds. Lets all agree to panic if we 6 weeks from now still haven't signed a soul ;)

Keep the faith and march on together!

Here's a picture of me age 5 before the World Cup in Mexico to give you a good laugh!
Euro2012 Go Denmark!

Goal of the year

Goal of the season was scored in Leicester in October. Following the thrashing we recieved from Blackpool days earlier, many had feared out trip to Leicester, but Leeds played one of their best games of the season and won it 1-0 on a stunning strike from Adam Clayton.

I didn't hurt his chances of winning goal of the year that it was scored against Kasper Schmeichel, a guy I really don't rate at all, despite him and me both being Danish.

The season have ended for Leeds and we might never see Adam Clayton in a Leeds shirt again. NW decided to transfer list him and I'd expect some decent teams to show interest in him, but if you'll win nothing else with Leeds Adam, I am happy to have you win goal of the year!

Marching on together 

Game of the season

There were two main contenders for game of the season, one was Forest away and the other were Millwall at home, both comes to mind because we said goodbye to our beloved Leeds legend Gary Speed at those two.
I have chosen the home game against Millwall as my game of the season, because of the emotions in the stands and the heartbreaking image of Batty, Macca & Strachan saying goodbye to their friend.

I listened to both games on the radio and could hardly hold back the tears when hearing the fans 11 minute tribute to Speedo in Nottingham (ending with Snoddy scoring as the 11th minute ran out), or when i heard the crowd at home against Millwall. We won both games but actually football didn't matter at those two occasions, we all just wanted to say goodbye to Speed.

I hope we won't have to go through something like that ever again, a young man leaving his family and his life is awful, and the worst part is we will never really know how Gary felt when he made his decision.
This was my goodbye to one of my first Leeds heroes: http://kimba1980.blogspot.com/2011/11/goodbye-to-true-leeds-united-legend.html

RIP GARY SPEED