T.O.M.A part deux

It was a wonderful feeling when GFH Capital announced that they had managed to get Ken Bates out of Leeds United, a little less wonderful when we learned that Ken Bates was to be installed as President after the 2012/13 season, but still nice for us all to know that almost 8 years of Bates was over.

When the takeover was completed I did this blog; http://kimba1980.blogspot.dk/2012/11/toma-is-no-more.html and most of the questions I raised in that is yet to be answered by GFH led by David Haigh & Salem Patel.

But last night there was a new twist to the lovely saga of Leeds United takeovers, just seven weeks after they had bought the club, BBC Leeds could tell us all that we might be in for another annoying takeover saga.

GFH were quick to make a statement on leedsunited.com that no offers had been accepted and continued the statement by saying some stuff about what they had done so far, seemed a bit strange in my opinion. What I had preferred for GFH to say was that the offer had been REJECTED, to write not accepted gives me a vibe that they're saying to the supposed interested parties; Come back with a better offer and we might just listen. I realise that GFH are a bank and that Leeds United is an investment, I had just never thought we had to go through another takeover already, it seems that only Leeds United could be sold twice in a season.

I remember that Ken Bates said that GFH were the right guys for Leeds United and the future of the club, I have long suspected that GFH were the only ones who were willing to name him President and that that was the reason he sold to them. Thats the positive about potential new owners I suppose, they don't have to make Ken Bates President of LUFC, so if someone new comes in we can all pray that this means Ken finally f**** off for good.

Rumours say it might be former LUFC board member and current owner of Hull F.C rugby league club, whoever it is, if anyone, I hope we can soon get some real closure in Leeds and that we after almost ten years of shit can move forward and have our club back where it belongs and where we, the fans, want to see it.

Marching On Together

The transfer window

So the January transfer window came and went and as always I was glued to the screen hoping Leeds would give me a few surprises, and wtf, they actually did.

The most positive thing for me in the window is that we managed to get rid of some deadwood brought into the club under Simon Grayson. Roges, Nunez, Rachubka, Connolly & Pugh are just no where near good enough to play for Leeds United, so it's positve that we got rid of them.

On the hand I'm not to chuffed about the sale of Becchio, I think its a bad deal.

• He's my favorite player, but it will always be team first so I can deal with that.
• Getting a unplayed player and very little cash in return for your best striker and top 10 all-time scorer seems like an awful deal to me.
• I had preferred to get £3M straight up and spend them in the summer which is not as expensive as the January window. 

Unsurprisingly Warnock has declared himself very happy with the way the window has gone and why wouldn't he be, he got rid of players he didn't need and he got rid of Becchio, the guy responsible for our awful style of play, I'll say this Colin, I look forward to our Leeds United being a passing team from tomorrow.

However Warnock has to be happy, he managed to get in a few players that he felt could improve our team (more of his long term targets, that he's tried to get for years in different clubs) and he's done it without much finacial backing from new owners GFH - So I guess Warnock actually have a reason to be happy.

GFH however still have a lot to prove to Leeds fans, they talked a great game when the takeover was ongoing but also stated that "silly money" would not be spend, when hearing that 500K-750K is to much for them, one has to wonder what they see as silly money. Both Haigh & Patel went into Twitter hiding after the Spurs game and just returned this morning with a "Welcome to Leeds Warnock, Morison & Habibou" tweet, very convenient, in my opinion the could learn a lot from the Peterborough chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, who filled fans in all day long over deals and stuff going on - much like GFH said they would.

I'm looking forward to seeing GFH show their finacial muscles in the summer, or to see whether they've just filled us with hot air.

Marching on together and welcome to Leeds Warnock, Habibou & Morison!

Becchio, whats next?

In the summer of 2008 an unknown Argentinian joined Leeds on the pre-season tour in Ireland and impressed manager Gary McAllister enough for him to get a permanent deal with the club. We've had loads of good memories of Becchio since, the promotion, the FA Cup runs and him being one of our best players of the past few seasons where everyone around him with a splash of talent left Elland Road faster then a drugdealer with the police shows up.

Those of you who know me or follow me on twitter (@kimleeds) will know that I'm a pretty huge Becchio fan, in my opinion he's the only player in a Leeds shirt since the 1992 team that have earned the right to be called legend, a frase that seems very overused by Leeds fans.

But now it seems that Becchio's time with Leeds is running out, no new deal can be agreed and Becchio have requested a transfer, sparking interrest from both Premier League clubs and finacial attractive teams abroad, so what to do?
There's still 18 months left of Becchios deal at Leeds, but if we can get the suggested £2,5-3,5M and thse money will be re-invested (never heard that before) in the team, then even I think we should probably let Becchio go.

Eventhough I'm as massive a BecchioBeliever as I am, there will never be a player bigger then the club for me, and no one should be kept at the club if they don't wish to be there. I think we'll have a very hard time finding a proven goalscorer at this level for less the 25-30K p/w but if the club have a wage budget and want to follow that then I understand why they can't/won't break it.

However to replace Becchio within our budget will take a lot of luck, players have been mentioned both on Twitter and from more reliable sources, some well known, which we cant get at our budget, and some lottery tickets, which I'm not sure can deliver 20-25 goals per season.

But if/when Becchio leaves he'll leave with my best wishes and I'll always keep an eye on his remaining career.

Marching on together Luciano!

A dream about the return of the Max...

This tweet from Yorkshire Evening Posts Phil Hay saw twitter melt down last night with people agreeing that this would be an awesome signing and that GFH finally showed some ambition.

Problems already occured in Hay's next tweet where he stated that:
"Deal for Gradel is unlikely to be straightforward or cheap. Sounds like St Etienne are very reluctant to lose him"

I can't see this deal happening at all to be honest, why would Maxi leave France, a place he badly wanted to go due to homesickness, and why would he leave a French top 10 team to join a team that probably wont be playing in the Premier League in the next few years, it makes no sense.

So what's the deal with this story, after talking on twitter with some people I've made the following, ungrounded, conclusion. GFH are sick of Leeds fans saying they show no ambition, so how do you prove that you have ambition, you publish a story about wanting to re-sign a fan favorite, this is really clever especially considering that its a deal that looks this unlikely, but at least they'll have "tried" right?

Being on twitter every now and then gives me a clear image of Leeds fans being people that sometimes only remember the good things about former players and staff, for instance the Poyet story (that he'd like to return), people seem to have forgotten that he fucked off when a chance to join Spurs (as a translator????) came up. The Gradel story seems to be the same, everyone forgot that he wanted to leave us and did, and even more everyone seem to have forgotten that he almost cost us our promotion in May 2010.

Having said that I'd still welcome him back though, Gradel that is, Poyet can f*** off, chelsea bastard.

Merry X-mas from Around My Leeds United

I'd like to thank you all for following my blog, both here, on twitter (https://twitter.com/KimLeeds) , facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Around-my-Leeds-United/159102904168923) and on http://www.weallloveleeds.co.uk/.

I want to wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year, lets hope that that coming months will give us Leeds fans what we want the most - The Leeds United promotion party in May.

Enjoy the holidays and stay safe everyone!

Marching on together

January transfer market coming up...

So LUFC fans favorite time of year is coming up, yup the transfer window. I hope that frases like "Irons in the fire" "Like a new signing" "Just couldnt get it over the line" & "The agent fucked us over" are gone after new ownership has arrived at the club.

One thing is on most Leeds fans minds though, how much cash have GFH made available for NW to spend.. Some seem to think were filthy rich and will be able to take our pick from every clubs in the Championsship and from some in Premier League too, I'm more cautious, I think were lucky if NW gets £1,5-2M for players.
There's a few reasons for that, I cant see us signing many players that can play in the prem right now, so why "waste" £5-6M on guys we'll have to sell when/if promoted. If NW is serious about retiring in the summer, why would GFH give him cash to spend on players a new manager might not want, and finally I'm not sure that GFH are as loaded as some fans think, I don't know, but I think they would have pushed the TO though ages before if they had "money to burn"

So who will we sign?

There's been plenty of rumours on both twitter and facebook, since the Alan Smith story has died it seems that Beckford and Gradel have taken his place in former players been linked with a return.
I'd love to see Gradel return to Leeds, but I honestly can't see it happening, his team in France are fighting for Champions League football for next season, I don't think his love for Leeds is big enough for him to quit that to, maybe just maybe, play for us in the Premier League. The Beckford story is never happening, we had the chance in the summer to get him on loan and NW never thought about it I think, he's not a NW kind of player, he's too lazy, so I really dont believe that.

So now that I've shot down the stories, I should put down my guesses on who's coming in.
I can see us signing Michael Tonge (wish SG had done that when he signed Pugh a few years ago), I think that Alan Tate will stick around as well. I really hope that Jerome Thomas stays too, but I'm not to sure that WBA are prepared to let him go, and his wages could prove a stumbling block too.
I'd like to see us add a left back and another striker too, Ross McCormack seems unlikely to score at the moment, and could be put to better use on the wing, he's after all one of our most creative players in recent years. NW dosent seem to like Aidy White or Adam Drury on the LB and no one likes Peltier out there (or anywhere really) so thats probably something we should look at, I have no idea however who we could sign.

Jermaine, my friend, we'll always have January 3rd 2010!

MOT!

  %

Lee Peltier; Unlucky or Captain Calamity?

I was pretty happy when we managed to sign Lee Peltier this summer, after the Joel Ward failure where we all thought we were totally broke it was nice to get a proven player into the team. I was however, like most fans, pretty surprised when Lee was named captain, in my eyes he seems like a quiet guy and not much of a leader. A player like Jason Pearce or even Rodolph Austin seemed a much more likely choice, and more of a Leeds United type captain.

My biggest issue however is not that I don't agree with him being captain, my biggest issue is that after four months I still have no idea what his best position is, is he a RB, a CB or, doubtful, a LB?

In my head he's a RB, but young Sam Byram has done extremely well and made the position his own, so what to do? You can't put your captain on the bench, so you play him out of position and make him look like a fool.. Can't say I agree with that decision NW. Neil makes very few mistakes, but picking Lee as captain and playing him out of position is a pretty big one.
No one expected Sam Byram to play like he has, and we're all well impressed with him, and his progress actually means the purchase of Peltier is wasted in my opinion - but like I said, no one could know.

So in one way Lee Peltier is unlucky, because have came to a club that already had a better RB then him in the team, in many other ways he's just captain calamity because he plays out of position and makes a lot of errors, errors that might end us costing us in the long run.
I hope we get rid of Pelts in the transfer window, if we can get the money spent on him back, there are other spots in the team that those money could be better spent.

Before it all sounds to negative I'd like to thank NW for getting team spirit back in the recent games and getting my favorite player Luciano Becchio back to his best.

Marching On Together