No news is...?

Good news or bad news? There has not been a lot to blog about over the last week but today sees some press coverage. Pappa Smurf was on the radio yesterday and has laid down the law as he sees it. "Vote for me or kiss goodbye to your football club" seems to be the message. It is not hard to understand why when you read an excellent article in today's Guardian which highlights the ever more labyrinthine financial plight of the club. I urge you to read it and then leave any thoughts you might have in the comments section.

For Bates to not be in control of the club after June 1st's meeting of the clubs creditors will take nothing short of a miracle. Faceless off-shore bank accounts and consortiums with unknown directors control enough of the clubs debt to veto anyone else other than Bates despite his derisory offer of just 1p in the £1. Why will they do this? No-one really knows - my hunch is they have links to Bates but so far no-one has been able to find them.

Highlights of the report sent to creditors outlining the money owed make interesting, if not downright frightening, reading. We owe everyone from Leeds Met Uni to a mobile disco company to St Johns Ambulance to, god only knows why, Danny Mills. I liked Danny, decent lad, decent player and seemed to be in the "Leeds mould" but he hasn't played for us since 2003 and we still owe him money. How did Bates not sort this out? There are more questions to ask than I have time to think of, let alone write. I have no idea how long this will take to sort out and the more I learn the more uncomfortable I begin to feel about Bates and his shadowy dealings. There are not many people who have good things to say about the man. He saved Chelsea only to nearly ruin them again before Roman stepped in with his roubles. I pray the same does not happen here.

Gang of 4

According to the club website, 32 of the 36 squad players have agreed to defer their wages until June 1st in order to facilitate administration. The remaining four will have their wages paid by the creditors in the meantime.

I, for one, would like to know who they are.

Updated: Squad for next season

On the proviso we don't get taken over by some oil-rich Sheik who buys us Lionel Messi, who do you think will be in our squad for next season? I've given my list below but I'd love to hear others thoughts on the matter.

Sullivan - Gone

Ankeren - Would like to see him stay: young and decent

Stack - Back to Reading

Lund - Stay please, back up.

Crainey - Gone

Kishishev - Buy from Charlton

Gray - Buy from Blackburn

Richardson - Stay

Heath - Go

Derry - Stay

Marques - Not sure, don't think he'd survive the lower leagues

Sa - Gone

Madden - Stay

Delph - Stay

Douglas - Think he'll go. Won't want to play in League One

Thompson - Return to Celtic, signs for Championship team

Westlake - Could be useful if he makes the effort - Stay

Lewis - Too old. Go.

Einarsson - Stay

Nicholls - Hahaha....GO!

Bayly - Stay, try not to get sent off.

Rose - Intoduce to first team gently.

Carole - Stay

Flo - Go.

Healy - Sell. He won't play for us in League 1. Sanchez will buy him for Fulham for a couple of million.

Johnson - Back to Wolves.

Cresswell - Please stay. Pleeeeaaaassssse

Kandol - Might be the lad's year to shine. Stay

Beckford - Ditto.

Blake - Dunno, maybe stay.

Howson - Stay

Elliot - Stay

So, by my calculation we still need a few players to shore up the defence, one or two decent mifielders and maybe one more striker. Oh well, one can dream.

Update: Those in bold. Sully, Crainey and Sa are all released along with youngster Hird who had not made a senior appearance. Clearly judged not to be up to scratch. I think Sa should have stayed but otherwise I'm content. Just make sure wwe bring in some half-decent players to replace those going.

All time XI....sort of

I need a bit of light relief. Everyone has done all-time best XIs before and it would be pointless to repeat them. I got thinking about a different sort of XI though. Initially it was one of players who turned out to be great only after we had sold them. Then it moved to players who had been great but ceased to be so as soon as we bought them. I couldn't quite decide between the two so ended up with an amalgamation. The team we had to sell post O'Leary/Risdale obviously has some candidates for quality players being sold off early but wierdly when I thought about it, loads of them have, in fact, never been as good since (Viduka, Bowyer, Woodgate, Kewell, Smith, Robinson etc etc) so they don't feature. I do need help though. In my 4-4-2 I'm missing a central midfielder. Suggestions and corrections in the comments please.

Goalkeeper - David Seaman. Started as a schoolboy at Leeds as understudy to Lukic. Sold to QPR for almost nothing. Went on to be one of the best keepers England have ever had.

Rightback - Dennis Irwin. Promising youth team player judged to lack experience to pull us out of the old Div2. Sold to Oldham and became a ManUtd legend earning 70 Champions League appearances.

Leftback - Jim Beglin. Amazing at Liverpool. Solid defender who basically got crippled by a freak tackle. Ended career at Leeds. Was never the same after injury.

Centreback - RoqueJunior!!! World cup winner. ACMilan regular. Came to Elland Road during a rather tumultuous period and was, without mincing my words, shit.

Centreback - David O'Leary. Often forgotten that he played for Leeds as well as managing them. Not surprising really. A rock at Arsenal for nearly a decade but was an ageing, injury prone donkey by the time he arrived under Wilkinson.

Rightmidfield - David Rocastle. Another Arsenal reject. Was an supreme passer and intelligent player until he put on a white shirt when he became a perennial sub. Never showed as much talent as hoped for.

Leftmidfield - Lee Sharpe. Narrowly overtaken at ManUtd by Giggs for the left midfield spot but had looked uperb in his youth. England caps. Came to Elland Road and was appalling. Got slow and fat. Now appears on Celebrity Love Island.

Centremidfield - Thomas Brolin. Easily wins the worst player ever award. Swedish star, Parma legend and destroyer of England in Euro'92. Sulking fatso at Leeds. Always remebered for wearing a giant bandage when playing for Crystal Palace against Leeds and being even worse than when we had him!

Centremidfield - ?????

Striker - Ian Rush. Liverpool legend. Scored for fun at Anfield and at Juventus. At 35 was too slow to make any difference. Should never have come to Leeds

Striker - Tore Andre Flo. Excellent at Chelsea. Good at Rangers. Bought by Wise to keep us up at the expense of Leeds-based band the Kaiser Chiefs. Got injured and never played. Therefore, rubbish.

That was quite cathartic. If all of those players played for Leeds in their prime, that would have been a bloody good team.

Players out, buyers in...

Wise and Poyet are having a belated spring clean and are clearing out some of the dead wood and some still living, healthy wood (if youa llow me to continue the metaphor). Hayden Foxe and Robbie Elliot are off and few tears will be shed. Foxe was useless and Elliot was mostly injured. Ian Moore is also leaving. I have no idea why. He expressed an interest in staying and as I have previously mentioned (and some commentators too) he played like he actually gave a damn. He would have been a decent player quality-wise in League One and I think Wise has made a big mistake. We shall see.

More finance news - is there any other type at Elland Road these days? Two new bids have emerged to rival Bates. As I mentioned before, both the creditors and the FA have to approve his purchase (sorry, re-purchase) of the club. Ex-director Simon Morris has launched a £10m bid on the promise of a £400m leisure complex and a new 50000 seater stadium. Don Revie's son, Duncan, has also put his name into the hat saying he has "middle-east" investors and that his only problem would be finding a manager good enough to take control of the team. Blimey. Now, don't call me a cynic, but in both cases - I'll believe it when I see the green, as the Americans would say.

Will the real Leeds United please stand up?!

Where to begin? It's not so much sport but finance that takes precedent I suppose.

Well, we are owned by Bates again. Sort of. I think. Some company, headed by Bates, bought us from KPMG. We have filed a Company Voluntary Act which absolves us of paying most of our debts and filed for administration with the FA. We are deducted ten points this season and start next year in League One with 0 points, just like everyone else. Now, and I say this as a loyal supporter, this makes a mockery of football.

The ten point penalty was introduced to prevent clubs being mis-managed and reneging on debts, and yet this is precisely what has happened. Not only that, but this is costing me money, and you for that matter. By not coughing up unpaid tax to the HMRC the taxpayer foots the bill. Bates is a disgrace and the FA should reject his takeover, but they won't. Wise is useless and should be replaced, but he won't. I am not optimistic about next year.

On an aside, we lost to Derby on the last day of the season. The fans behaved themselves, thankfully, by young Mr Bayly did not and marked his debut with a red card for a head butt. Twit. Can someone post in the comments what players we will have for next year (i.e. which are on loan and will go back, which will leave for pastures new etc) as quite frankly the extent of transfers and loans this year leaves me baffled.

Creative Accounting

BREAKING NEWS

BBC Radio Leeds are reporting that the club has this afternoon been placed into administration, effective immediately.

They further report that the club has then been re-purchased by a company associated with Ken "Pappa Smurf" Bates. The club suffers a ten-point deduction this season and begins anew in August, free of debt.

I association with this, the Leeds United Supporters Trust have also apparently announced that have the finances to make an offer for control of the club.

More when the dust settles.....I'm listening to my radio under the desk for more news!

And so the fat lady sings...

I wanted a couple of days to think about things before I posted. I wanted the dust to settle so to speak.

Firstly, I would to address directly the people who went onto the pitch on Saturday. You are not fans of this club. We don't want or need you. I completely despise your behaviour which does nothing but bring the standing of our club down further. You wonder why everyone finds it funny we've been relegated? Because of people like you. I cannot do anything but hope the police find as many of you as possible from CCTV footage and you are banned for life. Good riddance.

Right, now I've got that off my chest I can say something thoughtful and insightful about what happened on Saturday in footballing terms and its repercussions. The match was fairly decent. We played well for the first half but whatever Wise said at half time it clearly did wonders for the opposition because after the break we were dreadful. Instead of continuing to hit dangerous cross field balls we retreated into our shell and let Ipswich come at us. It felt like Southampton all over again. And inevitably, with minutes remaining, we succumbed to the pressure and they equalised. News had by now filtered through that Hull were winning at Cardiff (oh, the Risdale connection just bites a bit more doesn't it!) and we were relegated when the whistle finally blew.

I still feel slightly numb. Analysis at this stage is difficult. So is looking forward to next season. A board meeting today is set to discuss the clubs future with rumours of Bates wanting out. I don't think that'll happen. He's invested too much time and, I hope, money to walk now. Wise has also said he wants to stay. I'm less sure this is what I want. At times he seems to know what he's doing, gets the players working hard and over the past couple of months has put together some decent results. But. And it's a big but, at other times (including Saturday) he has been dire. No better than Blackwell - a decision that is looking shakier by the day. If Luton finish above us next season we'll all be eating humble pie.

Are there any positives? Well, by all accounts we will finish all the ex gratia payments to ex-players over the summer and begin anew. We have a good crop of young players but blooding them in the war-zone of Tier 3/Division 2/League 1 (what a crock of shit that name is by the way) is a dangerous experiment. Apparently Blackpool is quite nice this time of year for an away trip but we'll probably end up there in mid-January knowing our luck!

I suspect I may comment further as and when. I hope our "fans" behave ourselves next weekend in Derby.

Finally, I would like to thank Gary Kelly. After Saturdays debacle and the humbling prospect of relegation now a reality it was a bitter note to end a wonderful career on. In his first season, Gary was in the squad that won the Championship. He played in European Cup campaigns all over Europe and battled back from injuries to remain a stalwart of the club. He was a bloody good player in his prime and will be missed. I wish him all the best in whatever his future holds. Thanks Gary.

On the brink....

Apologies once again for a somewhat prolonged absence. My work continue to employ IT nazis who refuse to believe my rambling monologues about my beloved football team are relevant to my job?!?

Back to business. When I left you last time, I had begun to believe we could escape relegation. We scraped a win against Burnley at home thanks to Matty Heath. I don't want to sound callous but he's been useless most of this season so it's about time he did something useful. We have played like a League One team for too long this season and in the end that will bite. It did against Southampton on Saturday.

Thommo's sending off was harsh and is to be reviewed on Wednesday but with only ten men a draw was the best result we were ever going to get. Unfortunately, Bradley Wright-Phillips popped up six minutes from time and made our situation grim.

There are endless conotations as to who can go up or down and how. Find them yourselves if your interested. All I know is that short of victories against Ipswich at home (possible) and Derby away (errr....probably not) we are heading down. Hull have easier games and they look in better form. Leicester and Barnsley have to play each other.

Leeds have never played in the third tier before and contrary to opinions, it is not easy. We made the mistake of being that arrogant when we got relegated from the Premiership. Pray people - pray I tell you, I've been told the Lord dresses in all white!!

Apologies for absence (and that's not our defence)

Hello, and many apologies for not posting over the last week or so. I've been off on holiday and seeing as most of my bloggin is done whilst at work (in my lunch hour of course) I haven't been as diligent as I should have been.

It appears I am not the only one. Our defence went walkabout yesterday for ten minutes and it cost us the game. I can't complain though. Look at our last two wins and it's much the same story. However, just when hopes had been raised, two wins in a row and Lewis giving us a good start those upstarts from Essex steal the show and dump us back into the bottom three.

Wise says more defensive training is needed. In April!! What the f**k have they been doing all season. Pop quiz folks: you are bottom of the league with the worst defensive record. What do you focus training on to remedy the situtation? Is it a) defence; b) defence; or c) DEFENCE?

The results against Southend and Plymouth were excellent news (and I can't help but have a wry smile at Luton and Blackwell's plight) but they were not spectacular performances. The loss to Colchester should bring us back down to earth ready for a tough match against Burnley. Jabba at LeedsFans.org put it precisely when he said the last thing we need is to go to Derby on the last day of the season needing anything to stay up.

Hopefully, normal service shall now resume. That's me and the lads.