Alternative Awards Voting

Posted by on May 12, 2019 in Blog | 0 comments

After this weekends’ phenomenal displays of (un)sporting behaviour both at Villa and at Pride Park, I really cannot help myself but to collate an Alternative Awards list for this season. So here are some of the Heroes and Zeroes of the season in summary.

Please note, the list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive, if you have any specific examples of e.g. further blatant cheating, please get in touch via the facebook page and I take all suggestions into consideration..

(Apologies for the text below some of the photos / links as they are borrowed from googleimages and I think I have to include them)

So here are my candidates for each category:

For the Channelling My Inner “Here’s Jack” “I’m not taking this very gracefully – Spitting Feathers, Rabid Dog” look, I give you – Richard Keough

 

For the Neil Warnock Award for Persistent Chelping – Richard Keough

(thanks to YEP for this one I think)

 

For the highest accolade (Lawrence Olivier Medal) in the Ashley Young “clever game management” Award – the only winner can be Jack Grealish

 

 

For the Stevie Wonder Best Refereeing Display – hands down – Stewart Atwell

(think this is googleimages pinterest)

 

For the Chronicles Of Narnia James McAvoy as Mr Tumnus Dodgy Beard Award – (sorry) Gaetano Beradi

(Pic from Leeds website I think)

For the WWF Forearm Smash of The Season – Tom Huddlestone

For the “Get Your Kit Off” shirt pull of the season – (this one beat Pontus at Sheff Utd) – Some bloke from Sheff

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 01: Enda Stevens of Sheffield United pulls the shirt of Mateusz Klich of Leeds United during the Sky Bet Championship match between Sheffield United and Leeds United at Bramall Lane on December 01, 2018 in Sheffield, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

 

The Roy Keane Self Harm Award can only go to one winner – Adomah

For the David Attenborough Best Documentary Not Faked In A TV Studio Award “The Hunting in Packs”

 

For the “What The F**king Hell is that?” Worse Mascot costume – Ipswich

 

For The Darren Anderton Sicknote Award for Least Appearances But Got A Yellow Out Of It  Anyway – Izzy Brown

 

For The Martin Atkinson Official of the Season Award – the man, the legend – Eddie Smart

 

For The Arsene Wenger “I never saw what happened” Total Denial Award – Dean Smith

 

For The Best Interview of The Season Award – the most learned genius Salim Lamrani. The guy is mint – MPO’s hero

https://twitter.com/i/status/1026387966191722496

For The “I’m so desperate for Liverpool to finally win a league title” coverage – EVERY SkyTVisf**kings**t Sports Commentator and BBC Sports presenter this weekend

For The “As In The End – It Is Between You and God” Mother Teresa Award for Morality  – Dean Smith for allowing West Brom to walk the ball into the net on Saturday lunchtime after Grealish dived for that penalty, after all, that’s how we do it in England – oh hang on….. that actually didn’t happen did it?

 

Read More

Public Enemy #1

Posted by on May 10, 2019 in Blog | 0 comments

https://twitter.com/apopey/status/1126499151863115776

It’s not often I do anything particularly serious on here – I leave that to the proper journos and the “real” voice of the fans – oh unless I have something to moan about of course…

But I was pondering this today after the press are all over themselves about how the English clubs have taken over Europe. It’s great for Bielsa to say this, but will this make him Public Enemy #1 for the Premier League and the EFL?

The fact is that Bielsa has endeared himself to just about every Leeds fan and probably every other football fan who isn’t (still) insanely jealous of Leeds United. What do I mean by that? I’ll expand.

For every football fan who is sick of the diving and cheating and time wasting etc. “clever game management” SkyTVisf**kings**t like to call it apparently – the guy is standing out. Standing up for the beautiful game, the way it should be played.

For every fan who is sick of the joke that the rules and regulations of football has become since the Shaun Harveys / Greg Dyke / Greg Clarkes of this world came into being – Bielsa is a breath of fresh air. The first thing you are taught when you start playing is PLAY TO THE WHISTLE.

For the fans who are interested in what goes on for 90 minutes on the pitch (or more if you are losing and you are Norwich/Scum etc .etc) – Bielsa is Vorsprung Durch Technik in a hoodie. (Incidentally it is great that Audi are making these cars – just a shame that they can’t make their indicators work!!!)

For fans who aren’t afraid to acknowledge what has gone on in the past and what still goes on in behind closed doors in the boardrooms – Bielsa is the Argentinian Honest Abe (look it up if you never did it in history).

For the fans who actually want to go and watch a game live, to experience it and be part of it – Bielsa is the Dave Grohl of arena atmospherics.

For the loyal Leeds fans who have spent the last decade wondering how many loan players we are going to end up with whilst the Youth team are being cast to all four corners of the country – Bielsa is the Moses of Yorkshire

However, since how long has football NOT been about this?

Bielsa publically acknowledging that origins of football are basically that anyone can play it, regardless of wealth,  education and status, and stressing that poor people watch football as well, doesn’t really endear him to the REAL people who are in charge of football.

Given that we are told that the pinnacle of footballing glory is playing in the Chumpions League / Europa League, where ticket prices are upwards of £100, £500 in the posh seats, fessing up that poor people watch football, isn’t really going to sit well with the FIFA footballing gods, is it?

The ticket allocations for the finals are 16,000 each for the Chumpions League (Athletico Madrid) and 6,000 for the Europa League (Baku in deepest darkest Azerbaijan). You’d think that if this is the pinnacle of football – you’d probably be better playing it in a really big ground which was easily accessible to all fans, and give more than half of the (affordable??)  tickets to travelling fans???

No??

Yes???

Ah – but DO the common or garden fans actually matter? Or is it more about the TV rights, sponsorship deals, corporate tickets for friends and family of UEFA / FIFA / foreign governments etc. etc. You only have to look at the farce that the World Cup bids were these last two tournaments with all the dodgy dealings going on to see what’s happening. And still, the competition is going to go ahead, completely inconveniencing just about every other league in the world, ruining the “traditional” football – for what? Oh because they “won” the bid.

So much for the World Cup actually being about the football then.

The fact is that football in England started as something to do on a Saturday afternoon between finishing work at the factory and the pub opening. That’s it. Working class roots. Yes, this is the Harrogate branch of LUSC, and some people think that Harrogate is posh. But like most towns and cities in the UK, not everyone in Harrogate is loaded. Away from the inhabitants of the luxury apartments overlooking The Stray, there are just ordinary working class people here. Not forgetting of course that some people have worked very hard for a living, and if they have made their money grafting all the way, they are entitled to splashing the cash to live somewhere nice, even if it means the streets are clogged up by Cyclopaths every summer.

It is great that Bielsa has acknowledged that fans work hard to earn enough money to watch Leeds United. For me personally, it’s great that the manager and the players respect me and the ones who come week in and week out. It’s great to be recognised and rewarded for my loyalty for once. The Ridsdales and O Learys were only about their own fame and fortune, and don’t even get me started with Warnock and GFH. Finally it seems that Leeds United is getting back to the fans.

Great for us, but not for the people ultimately in charge.

So, Bielsa has already pissed of the EFL. He’s already pissed of the football royalty of the Lampards etc. By playing some of the most technical football this league has seen, he stuck his foot in it. By integrating the U23s / U18s and getting involved with the U11s, he is ruining the ideas of football agents (the other ones with all the power in 21st Century football). He is basically single handedly undermining the principles (or rather lack of principles) in English football.

He is public enemy #1  and he is ours.

Read More

May 2019 Update

Posted by on May 6, 2019 in News and Events | 0 comments

Here is a brief May 2019 update to replace the one that disappeared.

Monthly Branch Meeting

There are no further monthly branch meetings planned for this season. The next meeting will be the AGM on Sunday July 7th. 7.30 pm for an 8.00pm start please.

Annual Branch BBQ

Currently on hold until we know what is going on. I am sincerely hoping that it will be cancelled because we will be playing at Wemberley on that day.

Memberships

The Membership Secretary remains incognito at present but we will be fully expecting him to emerge like a butterfly from his chrysalis for the AGM. Renewal forms will be formulated and then sent out sometime in June. Please return with a stamped addressed envelope (that actually sticks otherwise we will charge extra for the sellotape) for the return of your LUSC membership card and your LUSC Centenary wallet. Renewals will be accepted at the AGM, cold hard cash/cheques/postal orders but not blood this year. Please note, even though you have been a branch member for the last 20 years, you STILL have to fill in and sign the renewal form which ensures your details are current!

Away Games

Currently taking bookings for Derby. We will deal with the final when we come to it. If you are NOT a paid up member, you will NOT get a seat on the bus.

Sponsorship

We are sponsoring (top goal scorer u23s) Ryan Edmondson for the rest of the season. Should we be allowed to sponsor him next season, we will need to raise a lot of money. The branch is a non profit organisation, and we have always kept the travel down to a minimum, but we will need to raise funds to achieve this. Anyone with any ideas, please contact us. The Centenary merchandise will be with us shortly. Thanks to Makaela for volunteering her assistance. I’m not asking for anyone to go out and sell blood, eggs, sperm (or any other bodily fluids), organs, their bodies (!) etc. but any workable ideas will be greatly appreciated. We do have signed shirts and other donated goods to raffle off, anything else is most welcome.

Thorp Arch

Congrats to Makaela and Jack and Brent Ward who won the raffle to attend the Thorp Arch event with The Deputy. A good day was had by all even though Ryan wasn’t there because he was at Selhurst Park playing in the u23s. Hopefully Leeds United will let us have another shot at meeting him to give us our certificate of sponsorship. The photos from the day will hopefully be added to the Gallery section soon.

Website

It currently costs the branch £20+ for the annual fee and £8+ monthly for the website. It also takes a lot of hard work to run it as well. According to GoogleAnalytics, people are regularly looking at it, so it is probably worthwhile keeping it running, even if it does piss some people off. If anyone wishes to contribute to it, any help is very welcome.

LUSC AGM

The main LUSC AGM will be held on the afternoon of Sunday July 7th. It will be 11.30am for 12 noon start please, Eddie Gray Suite, East Stand (tbc). If anyone wishes to attend, please bring along your LUSC membership card. Hopefully Josh will be there again this year with his new belt.

Finally, thanks to Lesley Hope and Jane Taylor for this – HarrogateWhites’s very own Bielsa…. Happy Birthday Steve Mawtus

Read More

Ipswich Ideations

Posted by on May 6, 2019 in Chairman Charley | 0 comments

Lots of interesting ideas on the way to Ipswich yesterday. The 2nd row newcomer, front of the bus virgin, Paul from Junction 41 party, fitted in perfectly well and is welcome back at anytime. As long as someone makes sure he gets off at the right stop next time and doesn’t get abandoned by the rest of them.

Play Off Final Superstitions

The Chairman: Have you got anything that you need to replay

for the play offs?

A: Eh?

The Chairman: Last time we got promoted I was… (not allowed to say what The Chairman was doing)

A: So I can’t write that?

The Chairman: Oh no – definitely not

Rowsey: Last time we won the play offs I was at the zoo with the kids and we were watching this monkey wipe his…….

And that is the end of that conversation!

Fine food

Steve The Pedant: If I had to pick my last meal ever, my starter would have to be duck and pancakes

The Chairman: My favourite food is bananas and custard

A: Just bananas and custard?

The Chairman: Yes, best dessert ever

A: Not even as a banana split with ice cream and sprinkles?

The Chairman: No no. Just bananas and custard. They should have that on the menu at proper restaurants.

A: Just a banana sliced up and a carton of ambrosia chucked over it?

The Chairman: Proper food that.

Yorkshire Master Chef

The Chairman: These restaurants, they should be doing proper food, not that poncey rubbish.

Steve The Pedant: Yes, made with lots of butter

The Chairman: Like that James Martin does…. I’ll just finish it with a bit of butter, chucks a whole pack in it

The Secretary: Can’t beat a bit of butter

The Chairman: Proper food, like bread with a bit of dripping on it. Mucky fat.

Rowsey: I once went into a shop and the woman said I’ve only got a bit of dripping on’t left, I said what’s on’t right?

Pies Are Us

Junction 41 Paul: Can’t beat a Fray Bentos Pie

MPO: Ah! You need to speak to Dave about a Fray Bentos pie

Dave P: Nothing wrong with a Fray Bentos pie, I’ve got a stack of them at home. Can’t knock it, dinner for a quid.

Junction 41 Paul: I love a Fray Bentos pie, done just so the gravy is tipping over the edge and the lid is all crispy, even those pudding ones, have to have chips done in beef fat though

Dave P: Can’t be doing with those ones – too doughy for me

Junction 41 Paul: Fray Bentos pies and Super Noodles – can live off that, only food you need

Harrogate Masterchef

The Chairman: Why is it when they do Masterchef, they just seem to do rubbish that you’re never gonna eat?

Junction 41 Paul: Served with a beef jus

The Chairman: Yeah jus or foam

Junction 41 Paul: They should do a proper food masterchef. Fish finger pie and beans

A: Eh?

Junction 41 Paul: Honestly, seen it done, fish fingers in the middle. Mash around the outside , topped with beans.

A: What in a pie?

Junction 41 Paul: Yeah, fish finger pie

The Chairman: Imagine that on Masterchef… they’ll have carved individual beans for that

Junction 41 Paul: And covered it in jus

MPO: Pudding of bananas and custard flavoured foam

Ultimate masterchef

The Chairman: Imagine if you had someone on that show who did it properly.

A: Eh?

The Chairman: Contestants, you have an hour and a half to make a main course and a pudding. What will you be doing? Well, for my main course I’ll be doing a Fray Bentos pie and chips finishing with bananas and custard as pudding.

A: Eh?

The Chairman: Can you imagine? So what are you going to do with the rest of the hour and a half? Well, I’m going to put my feet up and watch the rest of you idiots piss about with your jus.

 

 

 

Read More