Leeds Banter Archive July 14 2014

14 Jul 2014 22:39:12
Matt Smith tweeted about the training camp being the toughest training physically and mentally of his life. Great to hear and hope that the team are in great shape for the season ahead - I don't think the players were fit enough for the last 2 seasons and ran out of steam by Christmas

15 Jul 2014 03:36:31
Agree Alf. there's been a fitness problem at our club for a couple of seasons. I'd like to see the sort of fitness under the Wilko regime return to the club.

14 Jul 2014 19:53:21
Has anyone got any ideas one what to do tonight now the footie has finished?

{Ed013's Note - Take up knitting}

Thought about crochet, knitting could be a close 2nd

14 Jul 2014 15:15:51
We probably need to employ someone who can organise and arrange games.Does this mean we don't have anyone employed to do this, or the person that should do it doesn't know what to do, or was it left to the players to organise.In that case, who's going to drive the new bus when it arrives, I reckon it will be junior driving the bus!
Boy have we been ripped apart, it's becoming a laughing stock.

still forever lufc.

14 Jul 2014 15:54:40
Not as embarrassing as getting battered by Wednesday, Bolton and Bournemouth.

I'm loving this pre-season and can't wait for games to begin and we start winning consistently (something our club hasn't done for a long time) and eagerly anticipate a lot of the doubters putting their hands up and admit they were wrong or will they still find something to complain about if we get promoted.

Loving live under Cellino.

14 Jul 2014 16:28:34
Agree totally JBM

And Noose, how does the other team not turning up suddenly become our clubs fault?

If there is a fault it might (and a slim might) be a case of poor research for the opponents.

If we do get a bus, I expect the club will employ, do you klnow what?, I bet it's a Bl%$dy bus driver FFS

Sorry Ed rant over but the doom on here drives me insane, it was warranted last year but please everyone give MC a chance

MOT

{Ed013's Note - Some people are only happy when they are moaning}

JBM, being one of the doubters I will be more than happy to admit I was wrong to doubt Cellinobates if we become a success, but I m guessing you will sink into the woodwork with a lot of others if it goes pete tong.

Irish
The only problem is some guys on here are willing to give MC a chance to prove himself, others are just kicking him before he's even stood up!!
(in my opinion) If MC succeeds or fails he's been a breath of fresh air for the club, something other owners did NOT achieve over the last 20yrs.

So Andy, if he fails he ll have been a breath of fresh air will he?

14 Jul 2014 17:48:54
Wish we could sign agard would be happy if he was the only english player we got winger/striker 26 goals in L1 yes but that division ain't an easy on when you think of the teams down there think cellino has been put off by there valuation (sorry for the spelling) lufc4life

Well said andy at least he's honest i.e saying rm isn't going in transfer pot we have funds his plane is nearly there in the youth I trust lufc4life

Sorry guys to create a reaction, but I read on twitter that the other tem wanted to play nearer to them, but it was too late to arrange all the paperwork, I've had great fun keeping up to the re organising of our beloved team, i'm hoping like everyone else that it will come good in the end.The bus is just part of the unknown expenditures that previos regimes have gone along with.Its taken MC to come in and state the obvious, he is going ahead and changing things for the better in my opinion and I for one will enjoy every minute of this new venture.

14 Jul 2014 18:12:51
Irish White I'll have no problem in admitting I was wrong if Cellino doesn't succeed in improving the Club on all levels and as a fellow Irish man I would gladly meet you at your local Airtricity team's pitch and feed you drink for the night :).

Safest bet ever.

JBM, I like the sound of that. That could be a long night!

Irish
If he fails YES he will have been a breath of fresh air.
Unless you want bates/GFH back telling you a load of lies and nearly taking your club into admin, not paying players, taking loans out from anywhere and off anyone, not paying the taxman etc etc
At least with MC what you see is what you get and he is trying to put the club back into a profitable business.
I wouldn't like to guess the last year we were debt free?

14 Jul 2014 11:33:19
I disagree with posts equating success with money spent/wasted. Morison, Norris and Hunt are examples of players already at the club who should be able to contribute.As for paying for the name, I'm a Lidl man - but yes there is time you need real quality. As we've seen that costs real money.

Hockaday/Cellino are right, being the fittest costs nothing but hard work. Being well organised takes you a long way.
Who is the poster boy in the World Champions side?
Is there one?
Mueller? He says himself he's not a natural footballer and has to work harder than everyone else. Ross made his name and went. But be honest, did any of us get excited about seeing him play? Didn't we all secretly think he was a bit porky? Players will make a name for themselves this season. So might the coach. Let's see.

I agree Dr. T being fit doesn't cost anything and can only benefit us. I know nothing about the new signings, but it isn't my job to find players, so hopefully whoever has this job knows what they are doing. As for Ross, at the beginning of last season I would have taken the money from Boro, so glad we didn't, but I did think he was the only player with possibly the exception of Byram who looked comfortable on the ball and had looked like he could cause the opposition problems. Hopefully the rest of the squad will take a leaf out of Mueller's book and try a little harder, because believe me some of them need to.

14 Jul 2014 12:16:41
great post,

Nicely put DrT
Spurs over £100 mill spent in 2 months and they looked average last year ;)

Excellent post!

14 Jul 2014 09:15:46
To sum up our transfer activity so far -
We have replaced the championships top scorer with Doukara
We have replaced Butland with Silvestri and Ashdown with Taylor
We have replaced Brown & a few other drains on the budget with Bianchi
Last season we finished 15th & Ross got 29 goals yet myself and many others are vilified for being negative and not true fans. I have supported Leeds for 47 years and in our darkest hour I still couldn't imagine supporting anyone else but at the moment our squad is paper thin in quality for what will be an extremely competitive Championship MOT

Please change your log in name to 'voice of doom'. The club is moving in the right direction, please give them your support.

Whilst I applaud blind optimism, I must look to evidence for gauging how far forward the Club has moved. Whilst Cellinio appears to be a great drinking buddy and says all the right things to get me excited, it is still just hollow words unless there is evidence of real investment on the pitch and securing the status of the Club into the future.

But the time for all this discussion is nearly over. We can start to support the team on the pitch and see the evidence of how Cellinio's ambitions are going to be realised.

Totally agree Voiceofreason, although there is still time to sign players and I applaud the decision not to sign players who don't have the correct attitude, we need to face facts that only 4 players have been brought in. 3 of these players have potential however all are not guaranteed to fulfil it therefore you are left with a small squad of players who last season could not cut the mustard. I feel that Cellino has taken the necessary austerity measure to financially improve the club however transfer activity is currently a net profit of circa £10m but the squad is no stronger than last year (so far)

Yes, the squad is thin on the ground, but for your information the transfer window is actually still open!

Did you expect 20 new signings over night?

Let's judge the squad once it is actually complete and performing on the pitch, I understand the frustrations, but there is still plenty of time for business to be done.

MOT

We need wingers, wingers and more wingers. 2 25 goal a season strikers, new wing backs and a creative midfleider.

He is not being a voice of doom and clearly is going to support the team, there is nothing wrong with supporters showing their concern if they believe that the club is not moving quickly enough with regards to our signings so far, that is not being negative and not supporting the team I would say the opposite. We have around 9 million to spend from the transfer which MC says is on top of the existing transfer budget so I think fans just want to see some 'names' being purchased a lot of players have rightfully been released but the squad is very short on the quality needed for the championship we have signed three unknown italians one on loan which I hope are going to be great signings but we need some proven quality and we may need to spend proper money to get them, looking at our funds we seem to be able to afford them so hopefully they will start to come in alongside the new signings. I like others have agreed with MC decisions so far and hope he continues them with the correct signings because everything about a football club feeds off what happens on the pitch I know how big this club is and what support is out there for a successful team.

MC
Has been at the club what! 12 weeks roughly, he's had numerous DEBTS to pay whilst the club were running at a loss of £1 mill per month. Bank account frozen for weeks, threat of court action was looming and he had to get rid of the garbage on the pitch we had to watch last season. On top of this he was trying to sell calgari and in his spare time scouting players for the future.
Ross wanted out what do you want MC to do hang onto a player who DID NOT want to stay and watch his value diminish as he STOPS kissing his badge? You moaned when previous owners sold Howson-Snoddy-Johnson-Beckford for peanuts
(Any prevous owner would have sold ross for £3-£4 mill) MC got a fantastic price.

You want the club turned around in 12 weeks, these are the failures of the past trying to run before we can walk. IF YOU ARE true leeds fans you won't want to be reminded of our past 15yrs.
For god sake lads give the new owner a chance he's only been at our club a wet day.

So voiceofreason, let's snap our fingers and everything will be complete. I hate this line but its true 'Rome wasn't built in a day'

So MC has stated that he is not going to use the money from the sale of Ross to bolster the tranfer kitty. He is planning to use the money to purchase Elland Road. That's a Ken Bates move!
All that means is that he has used the sale of our best player to fund the transfer of a major asset (the Stadium) into the ownership of Massimo Cellino - not into the ownership of Leeds Utd. There is a subtle but very important difference.
Not saying this will happen but, in theory MC could sell LUFC at some point in the future but retain ownership of the stadium, thus placing LUFC back in the situation of not owning the ground (unlikely, but possible).
The McCormack money should have ben invested in the first team squad 100%.

Voice of Reason, Reality and Notts, this is exactly how I feel myself although it seems to be portrayed by others that instead of showing caution we are actually being negative or ‘not real supporters’, some are even saying we need reminded about the last 15 years history, I for one don’t need reminded, its these memories that make me cautious, maybe its them that need to recall in their minds when GFH took over and the euphoria of having rich Foreigners on our side, does anyone need me to remind them of how that piece of history turned out. So it seems that there are 2 sets of opinions, one is cautious and showing concern for the future and being criticised for it and the other is happy to accept anything the new owner/manager tells them or does. Who will ultimately be right in the end? So some say ‘give cellino a chance’ well we don’t have any say do we, accept it or go somewhere else, and what happens if he turns into another bates or GFH? Do we just ask him to leave? Its that simple right. I ll probably get hammered for this post but I m not a real supporter, right.

Rome wasn't built in a day but the season starts in 4 weeks and were nowhere near ready. I'm very positive atm regarding Cellino however I'm am also realistic. Milwall is fast approaching

I believe that Do Cellino is a wealthy businessman with his own money and a successful track record in football club ownership. He is not comparable to GFH who had no money per their financial statements and no record of ever being involved in football. It is easy to be negative but let's give the man a chance.

14 Jul 2014 14:33:30
Lol, McCormack had one good goalscoring season and all of a sudden he's a guaranteed 25 goal a season player. He will flop big time this season, which is why I'm delighted we got so much. Anyone still claiming without McCormack we can't possibly challenge, which teams have gone up with McCormack in their side? 0. We look a better team than last year and still have signings to make. Why not go and support Fulham if you think McCormack is so great? I remember last year and most fans wanted him to go to Middlesbore, now he's the best thing since sliced bread.

Great post voiceofreason, football is all about opinions & some people think that if yours isn't the same as theirs then you are wrong, if we were all of the same opinion we wouldn't be using sites such as this. MOT

I do not prescribe to the view that those who do not conform with the opinion as those who have blind faith are not true supporters and therefore their opinion is not valid. As Leeds fans we need to accept that we all have a common goal but perhaps disagree with the best way to achieve it. My opinion is based upon facts or what I believe to be true. Currently I do not feel that the squad is any stronger than it was last season, we have less numbers and similar quality, although my opinion could be changed through seeing the new signings play. I would dare to suggest that if GFH or Bates had sold our top goalscorer (albeit for a smaller fee) and signed a freebie, a loanee and two players for less than 1 million there would be a revolt. There is still time to improve the quality of the squad and the players with potential could realise that potential, but at this exact moment I feel that more needs to be done

Give the club time we have debts that needed paying and all the other mess which our great club was in. We are now hopefully in a good position and can move forward I will be happy to finish mid table and next season fight for promotion let's stable the ship first .

Guys it is not your right we are wrong sort of argument. What would be nice to see instead of doom and gloom/cautious, would be to recognise what MC has done in the 12 weeks he has been here. We all understand that we need more signings. We should all understand that the chances of a top, expensive player is not going to happen he doesn't work that way. So let's look at what he has done

1 Bought the club out of his own pocket
2 got rid of some of the dead wood
3 paid at least 5 million in debts
4 cost cutting and getting us back to a profitable club
5 got way way way more for mcormac than anyone ever dreamed of.
6 stated club now has 20 million in working capital + 11 million
7 sorted out a can of worms with the DH and GFH plus uncovering irregularities and video cameras and all that stuff
8 tells the fans far more than any previous owner in 15yrs
9 wants to keep our best players
10 wants players who are committed to LUFC not the pound.
11 brought in 4 players atm
12 stated yet again he is buying back ER
13 managed a 16-0 win in pre-season

Ill stop there. I know you can put a negative slant on some of these but you can also put positive on them too. those ones time will tell but no point getting upset about them.

I think the man has done just about all he was expected to do in 12 weeks. Certainly more than any previous owner. Remember he is a football man he knows how to run a football club. He wants LUFC to succeed more than any of us do because it is his money and he understands getting back to the PL makes him more money than getting relegated does.

just to be fair I will put some of his questionable decisions down

1 4 players we have not herd of
2 coach we have not herd of
3 possibly messed up a friendly
4 win in pre season was against a carp team.
is that it? really is that it?

you cautious people make your own minds up has he done enough in 12 weeks or do you think he is ken bates again?

for me he has done enough for me to be optimistic, more so than many years in the past.

14 Jul 2014 16:46:01
Yes time, it is going to take time.

I remember transfer windows where we bought NO ONE, sold our best and grabbed a few Freebies. and all the money ( and no doubt the ER rent) went into Papa Smurfs back pocket.

Why not give MC a chance, support the team loudly and if we are in the bottom 3 come october you can all slate the rest of us for being blinkered optimists who are sick of all the "reasonable Realism"

MOT

Spain, I ll just add a little to your 'positives'
1 Bought the club with his own money? How do you know he bought it with HIS own money, yes his family is worth a lot of money but how do you know he used it to buy the club? Because he said so? How do you know it wasn t borrowed meaning it needs to be paid back.
2 Wants to keep our best players? He s just sold our best player, who are all these other best players? Byram and mowatt? Is that it, is that really it?
3 Has 20 m in working capital + 11 m? Is the 11 m from mc c sale? We got closer to half that when cardiff get their share, we do get more if fulham get promoted, but that's if.
4 let's not even talk about the 'fallguy' hockaday or these unknown players who will get a wakeup call when the championship begins.
I guess we agree we are Leeds fans but disagree in the way forward

Too many people are obsessed with buying a "name". These are exactly the type of players who move for money (RMc). When they have a bit of personal glory they are on their way again. I don't claim to know anything about MC but it is clear this is not the way he works - and he's not likely to change now. Totally agree with Andy & Spain - look at what he has had to contend with and then compare it to anything over the last 15 years in terms of getting to grips with it. We may not rip up trees this year, but we will be far better placed to move forward as a club - that at the very least is worth being positive about!

14 Jul 2014 20:00:21
Well at least my post induced some lively debate I was beginning to think this site had been deserted by everyone. For what its worth I like MC and love his passion. I just worry that he sees the championship as the equivalent of serie B whilst personally I feel very few serie B sides would cope with life in the championship. There are still 4 weeks to kick off but MC works far too hard and tries to do too many jobs. The result is mistakes are made and as our season starts with some of the teams we need to beat and currently we lack the players to do it. Whatever happens it won't be dull and I will always be Leeds 4 life MOT

14 Jul 2014 21:11:20
What the whingers also fail to see is that we had an embargo and our accounts frozen, so we're playing catch up on that front too. I don't think you can really criticise Serie B, when the Championship isn't that great either. Serie B is a lot better technically for a start.

The embargo was irrelevant, although signings could not made it did not stop the club speaking to players. The delay in getting Salerno was more likely the cause for us playing catch up.

Salerno was contracted to Calagari until the 1/7

and while I am posting ill reply to irish

1 you also don't know if he bought LUFC
with a loan your making that up
2 yes sold mc but for 11 million and didn't want to play for us, you would have kept him?
3 hair splitting on the 11 million I should ha ve said 20 million plus mc fee. BTW not much to say about the 20 million working capital?
4 no point being negative atm just because your football knowledge is not as good as Salerno's with the 4 new additions.

so really all you are whining about is an unknown coach? can you not see any positives to anything MC has done? Really? and buddy I do mean REALLY?

SPAIN
Some people say cautious and I can see why they would be having these thoughts been sold down the river in the past.
After reading the above comments I can see both parties points of view but I think some people are bordering from cautious to negativity, whilst others are optimistic bordering cautious (if that makes sense)
Some people WILL NEVER be satisfied with whom we sign or spend, you can spend £50 mill tomorow it don't mean success will follow.