Transfer deadline day got us all forgetting that we actually have a match tonight, and it's a rather important one actually. Brimingham will visit Elland Road tonight, the pre-season favorittes have been disappointing so far, but have still managed to get themselves into the top 6 now - a win tonight and we can take their place up there.
Birmingham have played in Europa League which have taken a bit of focus from the league, but since they beat us 1-0 at St. Andrews in October they have been doing better, and one must think that their fans will also be expecting them to get back up.
Simon Grayson have an almost fit team to choose from, David Somma is still out injured but apart from him we have a healthy team. Every Leeds fan had hoped to see a new face or two in the team tonight but so far the transfer window have been really quiet for Leeds, Robbie Rogers have signed and could be on the bench tonight.
I am still hopefull that a new name will come in before midnight, but not in time to play the game of course.
It will be a tough game, but I am pretty sure that the players unlike us fans don't really think that much about the deadline, and hey if Snoddy plays at least he can't leave!
I have tried to make sense of what Ken Bates wanted to do with Leeds for years now, I have even tried to "defend" some of his actions - but today, the day he sells my favorite player, Jonny Howson, today is the day it stops! I've thinking and thinking and I actually think that I know whats going on inside the old man's fucked up head.
Ken Bates dosen't trust Simon Grayson on the transfer market, so he won't give him any money to buy players - But I don't understand why he dosen't trust players who have done us good, Max, Bradley now Jonny and plenty more to come - why won't KB offer them decent contracts to stay at Elland Road - Rumours say that what we offer is 1/5 of what anybody else offers our players - In this day money will always beat loyalty, but the least he could do is tempt them with a decent offer.
What I think Bates want is to sell any decent player object we have, and with the money he can put some in the pocket and then use some on making the stadium better and bigger and built hotels and stuff making the club look great for a new buyer. The reason I think he does this is that when he finds some rich arab or russian guy to buy the club, they will probably have ambitions to sign "bigger" players for the team, so the current players will not be needed, but a new owner will appreciate that the surrondings of the club is of Premier League quality - So does this mean that Kenny is getting ready to fuck off? Sadly no, I think he knows that if he can keep the club in the Championsship he will be able to get alot of money when he decides to sell.
So we've gone through seven years of lies, I sadly think that we will have to wait a bit longer before Leeds will rise again. I for one am preparing myself to see Snoddy, Lees, White, Clayton, McCormack and probably more leave the club before old Batesy will, so I took a decision theis afternoon, I will not use £1000 on taking the trip from Denmark to Leeds as long as he runs our club, I know this is not very loyal but I just hate to see my hard earned money end in the pocket of that old idiot!!
And Jonny, farewell my friend I hope to see you in a Leeds shirt again some day!
Leeds return to London for the second visit in the capital in just 6 days, this time we face Crystal Palace a game that will hopefully give us a bit more to cheer about then the FA Cup game on monday night. I thought the lads defended really well against Arsenal, but I had hoped we would try a bit harder when going forward, but we're out of the cup and did ourselfes proud while fighting.
Crystal Palace, like Leeds, are among the teams chasing the play off spots, and a good home form has keept them in contention, they have only lost two of 12 home games, but drawing six though, so hopefully Leeds will be able to snatch a point or three.
The last time we met Palace in London they made sure we didn't reach the play off after winning 1-0 on Danns eraly strike, Leeds however won 3-2 at Elland Road in September with McCormack snatching a late winner.
Leeds are still hurting with injuries, Kisnorbo & Howson are definitley out, but Robert Snodgrass is getting closer to a comeback and could feature tomorrow. Rumours say that we will field a young back line again, which I find cool, if you're good enough, you're old enough and the back four was among our best against Arsenal.
As expected Leeds haven't signed anyone since the transfer window opened even though Ken Bates and Simon Grayson said we would, but I don't think anyone expected this to be true. American Robbie Rodgers is poised to join the club if his workpermit appeal goes through - more on the during next week I think.
But even without new players I think we have a decent chance of taking a point home from Palace, so I'll put my money on a 1-0 win with Leeds' only man on Twitter Andros Townsend downing his fellow Londoners.
Marching on together!
We all knew that Leeds would get one of the "big four" in the cup, they miss us in the Premier League, that seems obvious since they always get us, and scum fans even find it important to sing about us a random games in Fulham, Sunderland and so on - but don't worry "big four", we'll be back soon!
Around the same time last year we visited the emirates to play Arsenal in the FA Cup, and if Walcot hadn't been a diving twat we would have gone through, but after 1-1 away, they beat us 1-3 at ER and went through.
I can't really see any reason that we should want to beat Arsenal, apart from the massive media hype it would bring, but I feel that we need to focus on the league and on getting our form going there again. With that being said it would of course be funny to beat them!
Arsenal have re-signed Thierry Henry from NY Red Bull and he is ready to face us, his record against Leeds is 11 games 11 goals, so wonderful to see him back in the line up - NOT! Apart from Henry I think Arsenal will give some reserves a chance, but they should still be able to field a pretty strong team.
Leeds have gone for most of the season without to many injuries but have be hit by a few recently, Snoddy, Kisnorbo (season ending!),Bruce, Bromby & Howson are definitely and Lees will have to prove his fitness today or tomorrow, hopefully he is ready or we'll have trouble finding a central defence.
I have earlier stated that Simon Graysons days at Leeds might be numbered, but I can't see him getting the sack after this game - win, lose or draw, this is a "bonus" game and I am sure that SG will also be LUFC manager in London in two weeks against Palace, by that time hopefully with a few new faces in the team.
Loan signing Andros Townsend looked impressive against Burnley last week and he will be able to feature against Gunners so I am looking forward to seeing him live, since the game will be shown on Danish tv. In my opinion we should start like this: Lonergan, Thompson, Lees (if fit), O'Dea, White, Sam, Clayton, Pugh, Townsend, McCormack & Becchio and then have a few youngster like Gimpel and Turner twins in the bench, would do them good to get a taste of the big time.
My guess for a result is maybe marked a bit by my optimism and love for Leeds, I think we will win 2-1 goals from Townsend and Becchio - But like I said the important thing is the league, so lets just enjoy this game and look forward to these kind of games coming every week! Marching on together, make us proud Leeds!
A little video of the 1972 final (one of my Leeds friends actually have the whole game in audio on a vinyl)
Everyone associated with Leeds United enjoyed our late rally against Burnley yesterday, but I suspect no one enjoyed it more the our chairman, Ken Bates.
Because of the win he didn't need to sack Simon Grayson, and with and FA Cup tie against Arsenal coming up, I think SG will be at Leeds at least until after our next league game. That game takes place in London against Crystal Palace on January 14th - after that game there will only be an open transfer window for two weeks. SO... if we loose to palace and Ken Bates sackes Grayson, then he can spend a week or two finding a new manager and boom, window closed and money saved - good work Ken!
Ken would argue that he bought us Danny Pugh yesterday which is also true, but if we look at our sales over the last two-three years and our buys one must think that SG should get £4-6 mill to get us going in the spring.
I don't know whether Simon Grayson is the right manager to get Leeds into the Premier League, but I do know that Ken Bates is not the right chairman - It seems that he knows he can sell Leeds United for a fine fee as long as we are a Championsship club, so sadly I dont think we'll get up before Ken leaves (either club or this world).
But sooner or later we will get there, Patience is the word I guess! Marching on together
On the last day of the year Leeds will take the short trip to Barnsley in persuit of three points. It is a Leeds team and especially manager under pressure so the heat is really on now.
Barnsley have just visited Elland Road about a month ago and came away with a win, so hopefully we can do the same. Barnsley are in 16th and find themselves in the area where a good run can put them in the playoffs and a bad run can send them down, so I expect a hardfought game.
Leeds will have to do without star player Robert Snodgrass for the next four weeks after he has had his appendix taken out, the only positive I can find in this is that clubs might not want to sign him during the January window now? But for manager Simon Grayson, already expected to get sacked, the injury to Snoddy is a massive blow, I think he has been our player of the year by a mile, and expect us to struggle without him and his creativety and ability to win points on his own. Skipper Jonny Howson is also still out injured, and Tom Lees will take a late test before the game to see whether he can play - so yeah it is hard to stay positive as a Leeds fan these days.
I think Ramon Nunez will be given a start on the right wing tomorrow and I hope he can find the form he started the season with - apart from this the starting 11 will probably be easily guessed, though Alex Bruce have been recalled from loan and could feature, I think he should since our defensive efforts of late have been horrible.
Oakwell is the place where Scottish striker Derek Lilley - remember him anyone? - scored his only goal for Leeds in a 2-3 win, so lets hope we can take another win there tomorrow and why not guess on a 2-3 Leeds win again - Goals from Becchio (2) and Ramon Nunez.
To all of you reading my blog, thank you and have a happy and safe new year! MOT
After we lost against Reading I started thinking about Simon Grayson’s future at Leeds, not that the 0-1 defeat was the worst of the season at all, but I just couldn’t help wondering if someone new at the helm is a necessity if we are to get promoted this season.
There are many reasons that I fear his time is coming to an end, one is that he’s got some mad defensive flaws, off course this is also the players fault, but the manager picks the team, so in the end it falls back on him. No matter how hard we try we can’t keep a clean sheet, in the 22 games played in the league so far, we have managed a not impressive four clean sheets, and some terrible defensive howlers along the way. You can’t guard against horror displays like the one Paul Rachubka showed against Blackpool, but fans are allowed to expect better from the so called star players like Paddy Kisnorbo, who I feel have been by far our most disappointing player this season (read: http://kimba1980.blogspot.com/2011/09/is-kisnorbo-playing-because-of.html - I wrote this in September and my opinion hasn’t changed since). Simon Grayson seems to be tactically clueless, if we need to change the game he sends on two/three subs around the 65th minute and then he hopes that does the trick, he does change formation every now and then, but the difference between our classic 442 and our 451 isn’t really a game changer he uses in the middle of games when we are in trouble.
Another reason that I think shows that Ken Bates is losing confidence in SG is transfer windows, we don’t seem to spend, and I know that people blame Bates and call him cheap, which he might be, but I also think that he has no faith in Simons ability to find us the right players, most of the things SG signs is free transfers, which offcourse still includes money for player and agent or bargains like Lloyd Sam and Andy Lonergan – I can’t see Bates giving Simon £4-5mill. or maybe even £2mill. for a player no matter how much SG believed he was the one. I know it’s easier for a fan to blame a chairman for not splashing the cash, but I think it runs deeper then KB being cheap, I truly believe that he won’t trust Simon to buy a player that can get us promoted.
So reading this it might seem that I agree with people saying that Simon should get the sack, but actually I don’t, I can’t see another manager doing better for Leeds with our current transfer money, wage policy and players available, and I’m not sure any other manager, that we as fans would want, would join Leeds under the “leadership” of Ken Bates. So I hope and pray that results turn for Simon and the lads and that Ken Bates will show more faith in Simon’s business skills in January – Naive, I know, but all we can do is hope!
One thing I would like to see if SG stays is for him to show less loyalty towards the sold called stars when they don’t perform, I think it’s a joke that Kisnorbo has been allowed to play for two-three months now, while going from bad to worse in most games – Being a more no-nonsense manager would probably show both players, fans and chairman that he is no “Ken Bates dummy” and give him more respect, a thing I feel every manager needs to succeed.
