When it comes to the start of a brand new football season, Optimism courses through the veins which carry the cliched Blue, Yellow & White blood around my overly-fat body. I am usually ready to slap a tenner on us for automatic promotion and to me, we should be settling for nothing less. I expect us to walk out on the Elland Road pitch with our heads held high and take the game to our opponents and give us fans something to cheer about and be massively proud of all season long.
But something has happened.
Yes, Bates is gone, after sucking the life out of the club, forcing fans to stay away in their thousands, not wanting to line his Monaco-bound deep pockets any longer. There was a black hole hanging over the club into which was sucked all our finest players. Top-scoring Beckford was down the road after allegedly not being given the money he demanded, a whole team ended up in the Yellow & Green of Norwich, and the team was littered with inadequate playing staff throughout most of last season’s mid-table battle.
And that is where the problem lies now…new owners GFH Capital are very forward in wanting to get on the side of the fans. They’ve had their meetings with the Supports Groups, laying down the foundations for what could be a very good relationship. But the on-pitch talent is just not strong enough.
We have no width to our team. Nothing which screams out “support” for the front runners. We’re not too strong in the center of the pitch either and I fear that teams who know how to play a ball around the field will come to Elland Road and be made to look like world-beaters.
I was critised today on Twitter when I responded to some tweets about Danny Mills’ new Yorkshire Evening Post column. (Click Here to Read his Column). On the whole, I agreed with a lot of what Mills had to say. The expectations our fans have is, at times, complete Fantasy. When GFH came in, the Twitter Hastag #DirtyLeedsFilthyRich began to fly around, like all our problems were solved and all of a sudden we’d have the kind of funds available that would make the Premier League shake in fear. But it’s not happened and it’s not likely to. In the close season, there were talk of all kinds of players coming to Leeds, but after a little bit of cash got spent on one of our signings, it was said that to buy any more players, we would have to sell some. Does that sounds like a team on the verge of an injection of millions of Pounds?
There’s now a lot of talk about Elland Road and the potential Buy-Back deal on the table for GFH to bring the stadium back under the watchful eye of the club. I agree that the Stadium is a massive source of income for the club, but if an investment from elsewhere is coming in for that, which seems to be the likely situation, its clear that GFH are not the multi-billionaires that the Leeds Fans desire.
We’re not in a position to give players the kind of wages we need to in order to pry even the most bench-worthy Premiership players, even if we’re willing to offer first team football week in, week out. And that’s a major sticking point. We’re having to settle for grabbing decent players from League One and hope that they can cut it in the Championship. It’s a very backwards way of forward-thinking…and it doesn’t matter how much the fans want and dream about a top-two cruise back to the Golden Pot at the end of the Premiership rainbow, I just honestly cannot see it happening.
Will I be there at every Home Game hoping every word I have just said is complete and utter Bollocks and we’ll have an easy run? Yes.
Do I think we’ve got about the same chance of Automatic Promotion as I have of getting the ball in the back of the net at the half-time game? Sadly, also Yes.
One thing is for sure…a near sell-out tomorrow will be the kickstart to the season…and I just hope we get it off to a good start and go on from there.
We’ve Been Through It All Together, And We’ve Had Our Ups & Downs
Marching On Together….see you at the game
Leeds United Prediction League 