Long time lurker here and finally decided to join properly. I'm quite young and not been to see Leeds in the flesh too many times but I've been avidly following Leeds for many years now. This community always seemed nice and friendly so I thought, "why not join?". I know there's some quite heated arguments going on and I apologise if I just seem to be repeating everything that's been said recently.
"Build a hotel vs build a team"
I think we can all agree that we don't ever want to return to the reckless spending of the Ridsdale era. Ken Bates has ultimately been a good thing for Leeds in my opinion. We all know that he's looking to sell the club, and the building of "Ken's Empire" around ER is aimed at increasing both the profitability and value of the club. Since we don't own our own ground or training ground, the material assets of the club is limited to not much more than the playing squad. As KB lacks the funds realistically to buy Thorpe Arch, and definitely lacks the money to buy Elland Road this is his best option to attract an investor. If someone was going to buy Leeds just for the "potential" or the "fanbase", they would have done so already. Therefore, the best way for the end of Ken Bates' reign (for better or worse) is to build this "empire" around the ground.
However ... I like many others am angry with the lack of significant transfer activity and investment in the squad. I would never expect Ken Bate's to pump millions into the club as quite frankly, he doesn't have the money to do so. His methods of ensuring the club runs at a profit (even though it is relatively small) is good business and keeps the club financially safe. Yet the reason I atleast am angry is because this summer, we've made a profit off our transfers.
In terms of transfer fee's - We're about a million in profit as Lonergan was bought for a fraction of the fee of Kasper's sale. No doubt we've paid a loan fee for O'Dea but it's unlikely to have been a very significant one. As we all know, Brown and Rachubka were free transfers. There may well be "fires in the iron" and the rest of August may see a transfer splurge, but I'm quite cynical. This profit making is not good enough in my opinion for a club looking to progress. Regardless, whilst Bate's is the owner there's not much too be done about it.
I've no idea what the wages of the we lost compared to those we've brought in are, but numerically you would expect that with only 3 coming in, there should be no way that the wage bill at the moment is higher than it was a few months ago.
Simon Grayson
First of all, in his time here Simon has done what I feel is a wonderful job with the limited resources he's had available. He should not be considered up for the sack.
However ... the man has been a professional manager for a good few years now. He shouldn't still need to be "learning his trade" at the basic levels. Whilst he's been here has shown some very poor judgement on occasions. We all know the issues of last season: unfit players, players out of position, too little rotation leading to burnout etc. etc.
For me the most striking thing came yesterday at Southampton. In the first half when Paynter wasn't on the pitch, too many long balls from the back we're being played with zero end product as the Southampton defence bossed our attack in the air. Now some of the blame for this lies with the defense/Lonergan for the lack of imagination ... but the vast majority of the blame lies with Grayson. Quite frankly he was naive for thinking that pumping long-balls up to Snodgrass could ever have hoped to pay dividends. This isn't a criticism of Snodgrass, its a criticism of Grayson because despite the obvious failings of the approach there was no attempt to change it. When he chose such a small statured, technical front 3 of McCormack, Snodgrass and Gradel surely Grayson should have realised that there strengths lie in passes to feet with the ball worked from the back on the ground, not hoofed up.
Anyway, rant over - have a good day
) and newcastle.