Leeds Banter Archive February 07 2016

07 Feb 2016 17:50:38
Does anyone know the real reason why this 'one club, one (very large) city' hasn't attracted an honourable well financed buyer? Having allegedly much improved the club's finances I guess there must still be something very wrong with the club? MC has raised some large funds from player sales - and he never fulfilled his promise from day1 to buy-back the ground - so how bad can it still be! I still can't help but feel until there is quality new ownership and management then the club has very little chance of being successful.

07 Feb 2016 18:32:48
I believe the reason we haven't attracted a billionaire owner is because it is well-known in football that the FA and PL don't like us and make our life difficult. Who wants to invest into such an entity? Especially when for the owner no possible profit can be realized in any event. Owning a football club is a rich man's hobby. The economics haven't stacked up mathematically for a decade now. This is why we did well when we floated and IPO'd but Publicity pay Seth Johnson 37k a week and buy a goldfish for 400k Pete Ridsdale screwed the whole thing up.

07 Feb 2016 18:53:18
Because we don't own our stadium and training ground.

07 Feb 2016 19:20:29
The real reason is we still owe a lot of money. Some of it still from the bates era. Every so often, creditors come out of the woodwork and demand payment. This ends in a winding up potition settled out of court with the new owner (s) having to pay. They then lend the money to the club. Hence, we owe GFH and Cellino money. Anyone wanting to buy the club needs to take on all existing debt and what we owe, individuals. The whole process will keep repeating itself, thus becoming a black hole that just absorbs money. Plus the fact, we have no assets, apart from what we put on the pitch. We rent our ground and training ground. So despite being a once giant of the game, with fans all over the world. Plus a catchment area of 1.5 million. We are not so a great catch.

07 Feb 2016 19:30:51
i think what people need to take into stock is how bad a state we were in. The fact we are a big club and the fact we are a one club city is the only reason we still exist. We should of folded when we hit league one it should of been game over. We were in a mountain of debt. We have been badly run since 1996, how many businesses can say that and still be about (look at establishments like woolwoorths, Virgin records, PANAM lots more but can't think as been out drinking) . we have also had some nasty chairman that not only raped the club but still have their grubby paws on the club, ken bates and GFH still have a strangle hold on the club and do not want to let go (dont matter how rich is people want to drain club dry they will) . Finally we are not a good club to buy. Many of our crown jewels got sold for pennies and we have only been decent since MC took over and that was not that long ago for a buiness to turn round. since MC took over fincances have improved dramaticly and so has the playing staff and order of things (again compare this squad to neil warnocks in terms of potential) . As much as I would love for a new owner who is man city rich they are few and far between and the ones about must thing west ham, palace, saints and teams like that are a better buy. Sadly what leeds needs is the one thing many are not prepared to give and that is time. any establishment that has been badly run for 20 years will need at least seven years to correct itself surely (that is being optomistic) so I for one am happy to support a poor championship team as a realist I know I should support leeds that team that use to exsit and folded.

07 Feb 2016 20:04:03
BW. Lots of big clubs have gone into league 1 and prospered since. Man City and Southampton to name two.
Entering that league was not by any means that we should of folded, but a way of things can only get better.
We are relatively a big club at this moment. Fact when I say relatively.
As for a big tycoon buying us. We are a one club in a big city but the crowds don't match this. Derby Brighton Forest and even Wednesday have more of an attendance than us on many occasions. Others to i'm sure.
We have a great history. 1965 to 1974 and Wilkos great years. let's not fool ourselves though. Plenty of other clubs have a successful history. My point is, I dunno really. But we have no divine right to be a BIG club again.

07 Feb 2016 20:56:28
The simple fact is there is no profit in owning any football club outside the premiership. Especially not with the debtors and leeches bleeding us dry. Like another poster said we need a billionaire Leeds United fan who wants to buy us as his hobby and spend as much as it takes to finally sort the finances out. However well intentioned MC is, it's going to take someone far far richer than him. Not likely any time soon.

07 Feb 2016 20:59:28
history is completely irrelevant when looking at a business proposal or investment again I know it is a different field but still business is business and woolworths was the biggest shop in the uk but no one would buy it now. lots of clubs have gone into league one, man city is a very different case as they were brought by mega money and the rest were not in nowhere near as bad a state us as. also although they were in league one they were not run by bates. no one can understand what damage he did to leeds. look for example, saints in league one, they kept lambert and when they sold others they got great money (look at what they got for llanna, bale etc) . Then Norwich kept all of the squad and went up again. all other examples where the same keeping players or selling for big bucks. we had a great team under grayson and look who bates sold. Delph, beckford, schimelce, gradel, howson, jonhson (plus many more) they were let got for nothing with no investment made. So it is not just about us being in a worse state than any other club in english football history, add onto this how badly we have been run since and how we have undersold assests and not reinvested (under bates and GFH) then also add how we still have these vultures hovering over the club. this is why we are not a resonaible assest, this is why we are lucky to be as average as we are, this is why we will be this for many years to come (if we are lucky) , and this is why I get bit angry when people slate MC he has done so well for this club retrospectivly, this is why I get bit angry when people moan about how we are doing we are so lucky to be doing as averagely as we are doing. it is like a person being on deaths door, being told they would not live, then getting better but being told they would never walk again, then walking and still moaning that they can not run a marathon. We are what we are and lucky to be so, it should and could be so much worse, so let's love leeds, be thankful to MC and instead of bitching about how it is, be thankful it is not worse. any money man or business man would say we are lucky to be average. Many clubs run much better (which is every club other than blackpool and pompy) are doing far worse. We were leeds all history and all passed, we are now what we are so forget the past and live with the current. we're not famous anymore.

07 Feb 2016 21:00:40
Maybe it's because we're not up for sale at the moment?

07 Feb 2016 21:32:32
Well said. I just get enoyed when people say we are a big club and deserve to be in the premier league.
We have no devine right.

07 Feb 2016 23:04:11
also one thing I forgot, it is hard, there are 15 odd teams in our legaue all fighting to go up and all with decent shout of doing so every season and the rest fighting not to go down at the end of the day only 3 go up so it is not an easy thing to achieve. I would love us to go up but it is not that simple if it was every team in our league would get promoted.

08 Feb 2016 12:14:56
Peter Risdale was chairman of leeds Utd PLC. there was plenty of other people in the background that let us down.

07 Feb 2016 12:38:35
I think both Bridcutt and 'Dave' are very good players and good acquisitions. However they create a dilemma for the team. If you play both you need a very good attacking and creative midfield who can control the game. In addition you need a very pacey winger who can put quality balls into the box and a striker who lives in the and around the penalty box for most of the 90 minutes. At the moment we have Cook. He is not naturally an attacking player. He would be better playing deeper with either Dave or Bridcutt. That means we still haven't a good enough attacking min fielder. On the wing Dallas is good at getting up and down the pitch and occasionally getting in a cross. He does not get behind defences very often. Antenucci and Doukara both prefer playing deeper or wider. They are not that good at picking up things in or around the six yard Box.
The decisions will be decided I think on whether Bridcutt stays. Personally I don't think he will. Therefore Cook and Dave in the middle but deeper. We need, in Summer. One striker who plays in and around the box. One winger with pace and who can put in a decent cross, One attacking midfielder, One commanding CH (Belusci was very good against Forest) . Anything else would be a bonus but I wouldn't say no to a good backup Keeper. We should lose :- Sloth, Erwin (Came on against Forest and spent most of his time on the wing) Murphy might be ok as a squad player
. Finally Cellino should ban any opposition player with a number 17 on his back. Just calling the programme 16B wasn't enough yesterday was it.

07 Feb 2016 11:28:16
Like 22,000 other people yesterdays game was a big disappointment (I don't know why, as the performance was typical of the way we play especially at home, teams come to ER and put 11 players behind the ball and are happy for us to play the ball backwards and sideways as the know we haven't got anyone who can open teams up) .
We need our chairman to show some desire to take us forward he seems content to make money on transfers, by my reckoning he has made somewhere near 7 million on transfers since he took over. I am not asking him to spend money we haven't got just re invest the money we make from transfers. Evans said after the game we had a top six budget, I don't call spending 5 million in the summer to be a top 6 budget.
Evans tactics were all wrong yesterday, he said after the game he knew forest would come and put 11 players behind the ball and yet we started with two defensive midfield players, the only player that looked like they could get behind forest and open them up was Carayol when he came on.
We need to see this season out and start to build a team around the youngsters we have and with 2-3 quality signings we will move forward. Evans needs to go in the summer and a manager who can get us out of this division should be appointed (whoever is in charge at the start of next season should be allowed at least a full season to improve things as the replacing of managers every 4-6 months clearly doesn't work. The other problem we have with changing managers so often is they may not like the players bought by the last manager (Botaka is a good example as a result we appear to waste the little money we have on players. We also need to get away from getting players on loan, if we finish the season in our current position do we really believe Bridcutt will stay, I hope I am wrong but I don't think he will stay.

{Ed001's Note - have you taken into account the %ages out for the FA and the players, plus the clubs that have developed the players as youngsters? What about agent fees? Solicitors fees? And taxes? Oh wait probably can forget the last bit.....}

07 Feb 2016 11:53:06
Of course not ef, but I don't think the things you have mentioned come anywhere near the profit we have made.

{Ed001's Note - really? So 5% levy to the FA, 5% to previous clubs and 5% to the player, which is 15% of the total, not the profit, but the entire total, gone is not going to come anywhere near? The VAT etc, you know that is a rather large percentage too right? And that is not paid on the profit but the total transfers. Your £7m profit may not even be a profit at all.}

07 Feb 2016 12:27:48
You obviously know more than me ed of transfers.

{Ed001's Note - Ed002 is the man with real knowledge of this area, but it did stun me when it was explained to me exactly how much of a transfer fee is basically whisked away by greedy agents and players, let alone FA levies and taxes.}

07 Feb 2016 13:50:52
It has opened my eyes as well.

{Ed001's Note - it certainly changes how you think about spending when you realise what exactly happens to transfer fees. Also makes it all the more obvious that football needs to rethink the transfer system to rid itself of the blight of agents. I was reading an agent contract on football leaks yesterday and he was taking 10% of the player's wages throughout the length of a contract, as well as his normal fees and a cut of the transfer fee and other amounts. It was millions for one contract.}

07 Feb 2016 19:36:05
you only have to play the popular management game to realise what a state leeds are in, they only get 75% of transfer revenue and once you take away fees as ed001 rightly states we get very little to put back on the pitch. if I won the lotto unless it was crazy money I wouldn't but leeds, as my granddad use to say it would be throwing good money after bad.

07 Feb 2016 19:46:55
Have to agree with ed001 on this one Shagtastic. There is all that he states and the player gets part of the deal. After all he is making the team he leaves money. Agents command large fees and no sale goes through without them, in the present day. The more value the player, the richer the agent. Don't think we can get rid of them now. Top players have there lived sorted by these people. It works for the players. In the top leagues there is enough money to go around. Those outside the top flight will get fleeced.

06 Feb 2016 23:57:30
Poor performance today. Silvestre didn't have much to do but could have done better with the goal. Wooton poor. Taylor below average. Cooper ok but made a couple of serious mistakes and bailed out by colleagues. Belusci head and shoulders above any other defender. Stand out performance. Dave and Bridcutt ok. Doukara good for the first 10 minutes. Antenucci disappointing. Dallas below average - he's just an up and down trundler at best. He's Ok but nothing special. Cook very poor - probably playing out of his comfort zone. Evans has two defensive mid fielders he wants to play. He can't drop Cook therefore plays him out of position Result? Looked out of his depth. Overall the team had no pace, no creativity and no drive. Just bringing in another striker won't cure it. Great striker or poor striker - it doesn't matter. No chances = no goals. You have to create to score.