Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I thought it was originally said by some Ancient Greek guy in white robes (like in Bill and Ted), or some thoughtful learned bloke, maybe a master philospher or author like Rudyard Kipling. But no, the first recorded use of “two wrongs don’t make a right” was by a doctor in US of A called Benjamin Rush in 1758. We don’t know much about him, but he was one of the Founding Fathers (and I don’t mean those who did “The Purge” films either). When you read up on him, he came out with some good stuff though.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. This can be used in many contexts – not just the retaliatory Munich song on Saturday.

Two wrongs don’t make a right is generally used by film critics (of the genre I watch anyway) to rubbish the premise of most of the better storylines of such great epics like Death Wish, Rambo and Saw. Those where the perpetrator at the start of the film has done something bad, so the person who has been harmed / upset goes all out, and well and truly dishes it back, twice if not thrice fold. Or even, for example with the Death Wish films, 5 or six fold. As for Saw – well, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone – but he technically isn’t even in the later ones, as he’s already dead.

These movie masterpieces revolve round the basic revenge principle that should someone do something to hurt you, they completely and utterly deserve to get it back. Remember everything, forgive nothing. A grudge is for life – not just for Christmas. A marvellous mantra.

For those who don’t know what I am on about. Not content with beating us on the pitch on Saturday, some scrot from the wrong side of The Pennines ( or could have been London for all we know), decided it would be a good idea to unfurl a Turkey flag. That, along with a load of coins being chucked down from the upper tier, could only result in one thing. Apparently Gary ” I deserted my wife and young kids for a lingerie model” Lineker called it despicable. Well, you should know all about disgraceful behaviour, Gary. 

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but there was never any way that retaliation for disrespecting two fans who got killed before a football match, was going to be anything but the Munich song. And, as the song and indeed the arms in the airplane position gesture, was heard and seen by the rest of the ground, who may or may not have been aware of what was going on, Leeds fans were once again castigated by –  well everybody really.

In this progressive era where you can report more or less anything for being offensive, the waving of a Turkey flag, the gesture of someone slitting someone’s throat and indeed, the very offensive gesture of a hangman’s rope from the away end on the anniversary of Gary Speed’s sad passing, cannot be deemed as a crime. 

You could have wolf whistled at a woman in the crowd, and she could have reported you, or you could have said something to about race or gender and that could have been a crime, but the police and the stewards didn’t / wouldn’t bat an eyelid at this very hurtful gesture.

Why?

Who knows. Maybe it’s because it’s aimed at Leeds fans, so it doesn’t count? But then again, would we really want someone arrested for a for waving a flag? Getting chucked out of the ground maybe? Answers on a postcard, I guess.

As for the Rashford and Sancho song. For those of you who have forgotten what happened in that penalty shootout, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwvV06FvXbg

My own opinion of it, for what it’s worth? I blame the manager for picking them in the first place and the other senior players for not taking more of a stand and stepping up to the plate and volunteering. Southgate put them in like lambs to the slaughter. It was the final, Gareth. They may well have been scoring 10/10 penalties in the practice sessions, but let’s face it, the pressure of the Euros final after extra time, can hardly be appropriately mimicked in a training session. The game should have been won in the 90 minutes, if Gareth hadn’t have been so negative and put 10 men behind the ball for the best part of 85 minutes. It should have been put to bed in 120 minutes, if he’d have put the subs on sooner, with fresh legs to run at the ageing Italian defence who were already on two yellows. But to put two completely inexperienced players in for penalties, with the likes of Grealish and Sterling standing around twiddling their thumbs, was ridiculous. That’s like saying, “you’ve done the Five Peaks – off you go to Everest then in your Northface fleece, you’ll be fine” or “you’ve done your 50 yds certificate and you’ve jumped in wearing pyjamas and picked a flip flop off the bottom of the pool in swimming, next stop The English Channel”. (Do kids even do that anymore in swimming?).

If anyone let their country down it was Gareth Southgate. And Rashford – it was a crap penalty. Maguire and Kane, they didn’t let their country down as they scored their penalties. Whoever missed their turn would be receiving insults this season, regardless of which team they played for. You can put money on that Saka lad being slated for it.

In simple words, this trading of insults is rivalry. The slitting throat and hanging gestures is another different discussion. There’s rivalry and then there’s taking things too far.

Rivalry.

Football is many things to many people, and since globalisation, it is many, many more things to many, many more people. Without rivalry though, football is stark, synthetic and artificial. Plastic for want of a better term. People who watch football unaware of these rivalries fail to share in and experience one of the most inherent, tribal, raw elements of sporting fandom. A sad loss to them.

The Gods of Football don’t understand this though. The acceptance of any form of Rivalry is a non starter in the new touchy feely Elite Metropolitan world. They want us to be all happy and integrated with our half and half scarves. Realistically the only people who you are allowed to not like, are the ones that fit the Narrative of the Moment, and the Elite will tell you who they are. Harsh? Not really. Football rivalry is something that is deep seated, and cannot be influenced by an outsider, because they don’t understand it. And because they don’t understand it, they are scared by it and will try anything to stem it, like trying to portray us all as hooligans. There are some hooligans amongst us, as there are with many football teams, but we are not all like that.

Football to many of us is a release. For many of us who work hard through the week in responsible jobs being dependable and professional, football is a day where all of that goes out of the window. It is a day when you are allowed to be one thing and one thing only. A Leeds United fan. Doesn’t matter how old you are, how many kids you have, how many people you are in charge of, what job you do, what colour you are, what sex you are – it all means absolutely jack. You are a Leeds United fan and that’s it. You can shout and scream, moan about the players, the team, the strategy, shit penalties, whatever. But you support your team like everyone else around you. Leeds United crosses all boundaries, we are colour blind and we are one.

We hate Bayern because they cheated us out of our title. The same goes with AC Milan and most it not all referees. We mourn the tragic events at Taksim Square. We are the last true 1st Division Champions. We are the Champions of Europe. 

We don’t like anyone from the wrong side of the Pennines.

Ok, that’s just really a Yorkshire thing. The deep seated hate and mistrust of anyone from the Wrong Side of The Pennines goes back centuries to the Wars of The Roses. I don’t even know if they teach that at school nowadays, they did when I was little. 1455 to 1485 when Richard III was killed at the battle of Bosworth Field. Yorkshiremen are proud to be from Yorkshire. And there are only three Ridings of Yorkshire. North, East and West. In the 70s, they invented Humberside, so you lot don’t even count anymore as Yorkshiremen. In Yorkshire, we talk proper and we are proud of it. There was that study by some uni down South that said by 2060, regional accents will disappear and we will all end up talking like Jude Law or the cast of Harry Potter, in some weird, non dialectist conformism. Similar to how the Americans speak where the end of the sentence finishes in a rising “inflection” , it’s called. So it sounds like they are continually asking a question or doubting what they are saying, even if they aren’t. It’s the equivalent of adding “Suits you , Sir?” to every phrase but not in the double entredre way.

Not likely thanks. Not here in Yorkshire. You can keep that South of Sheffield, cheers. Can’t be doing with them Southeners. Aside of them though, we hate the Sc*m. Fact.

I know there are many Leeds fans who aren’t lucky enough to be born in Leeds, or even in God’s own Yorkshire. You’ve come over to the White side because of the great Revie team, because of family ties, because of our great legends like John Charles, Billy Bremner, and nowadays our more recent legends like Radebe and Yeboah or just because of the football that we play. Leeds United has a massive, ever growing in fact, global fan base, and that’s great. But you don’t forget where you came from.

In the doldrums of Division 3, when football was crap and it really was 90 minutes of agony that ruined your whole day, the fans were there, albeit in smaller numbers, supporting Leeds United. Bielsa has come out again today saying how proud he is of us and our amazing support. The team are looking forward to playing in front of a full house on Saturday, for the first time for many of our players. 

Fans at the ground matter. And I know there are Leeds fans who will never get to a match at ER ever, it’s us that they rely on to make the noise and cheer the side on. I’ve said it so many times, we are the 12th man. It’s up to us. Whether we are singing to cheer us when we are winning or aiming our verbal abuse at the opposition. We are Leeds and proud. Our rivalries with the teams in the Premier League have been halted for long enough. The old songs are back, hopefully for good, and for the younger ones who never saw us play in the PL, it’s up to us older lot to make sure that rivalries are renewed, and that when two wrongs don’t make a right, we try a third.

On On On

In the most unsurprising turn of events since the sun rose and night turned into day, we find out that tickets to Leeds games are being sold on 3rd party websites at over-inflated prices, and basically robbing Leeds fans, desperate to watch Leeds United play, of their hard earned pennies. You don’t say?

I was going to title this piece as “No S**t, Sherlock” but I thought it was a little rude for you, Dear Readers.

Like the famous Cilla Black programme of the 90s – “Surprise Surprise – the unexpected hits you between the eyes”, for those of you who are too young to remember, here’s the song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7-7S4eCuTM&ab_channel=JoeDavageChannel

What do we know?

We know that Leeds were forced to put a statement out on the website, saying that they were aware of “fraudsters”

We know that you can go onto 3rd party websites and buy a ticket for Leeds v Everton

We know that you can go onto the Leeds website and not get a ticket for Leeds v Everton

What else do we know?

We know that the tickets for the Everton game sold out incredibly quickly. We know that the few seats that were left were basically in the Family Stand. That’s the (magnificent new) East Stand lower to the ones who have only just started to support Leeds United. And, I’m not knocking you, we all had to start somewhere – right?

We know that people were trying to order those tickets, which were few and far between by the way, and some didn’t realise that in order to get these tickets, you needed to have some sort of child to order for at the same time.

The problem is that, even though they are trying to encourage families, the chances of actually ordering 3 tickets together in the Family Stand, are, you guessed it,  few and far between. Unless you get on the website straight away that is. Even then, it is still a bit tricky navigating it, if you’ve not done it before.

And if you do have a family season ticket, what happens when your child grows up and doesn’t fit the criteria anymore for a Family Stand seat? Would you then have to go on the waiting list for a adult season ticket? Answers on a postcard please?

I can’t see an 18 year old particularly wanting to sit in the Family Stand anyway. Unless they have particularly short legs of course. Apparently the beer is better in the (magnificent new) East Stand, as are the bogs, so there is a bonus for having your seat there. But you’d need to have pretty short legs to be comfortable in there, and a bit of a Slim Jim as well, I’m guessing. Also, you’d need the patience of a saint depending on who you end up sat next to. If kids in a cinema are anything to go by, you’d need a fair bit of patience when the 8 year old behind you starts kicking your seat because he can, then there’s the obligatory shuffle for the frequent trips to the bog.

As for the rest of us, well, we all knew it would be difficult to get a seat after we got promoted. But with all these people out there who can’t be arsed to get a proper job, and would rather spend their time buying up memberships from clubs in the Premier League in order for them to get tickets and make their money by skanking people, what more do you expect?

Unless of course, it is like the Will Smith film I Robot, and when we turn up at the game on Saturday, the ground will be the Theatre of Robot Dreams

thanks to film quarterly for the pic and here’s the very good article too, one of Mr Smith’s better films – a bit more believable than After Earth (which was terrible) but not as good as Seven Pounds

https://filmquarterly.org/2012/07/02/i-robot-what-do-robots-dream-of/

The last four days have been a complete joke.

It’s been like the film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, just not funny at all. After pointlessly ticking boxes of planes (be that airplanes or aeroplanes) and trucks, to prove that I am not a robot, only to get finally onto the website and finding out the tickets have been sold out, I am almost ready just to pack it in.

I understand that tickets for the Euros mostly went to robots, who then sold the tickets on at an inflated price to ordinary folk, daft enough to pay the mark up (I am guessing), so this is why there is that extra level of security.

Might as well have gone to robots this last week. Seeing as soon as we start losing at The Theatre Of Wet Dreams, it will all go quiet in our end, like it did at Preston or Blackburn (or both?) not so long since. When all the “new” fans realise that it won’t be a goal fest and it may end up a dull 0 – 0. When they realise there isn’t be a corner or a free kick or a shot on goal every 5 minutes to keep their very short attention span focused, and that actually, they don’t know all the words to the songs, so they just look a bit stupid when they get it wrong and it all goes quiet, or no one else joins in with them. Soon enough, they’ll clear off down to the bogs and start smoking or whatever it is that they do in there. But considering they’ll all have missed the first 10 minutes anyway, because they’ll have been congratulating themselves on getting a ticket and taking selfies of each other with the tagline “here I am at Old Trafford” and posting it on instagram, they’ll not have even seen who is on the pitch – that’s if they know who is on the pitch.

You think I am bitter about it?

Too right, I am.

They’ll all be there, in their nice new shirts and scarves and every other bit of tat made in the People’s Republic, that proves that they are a Leeds fan. Trying to get the right angle for the perfect selfie whilst doing their 14 fold acca, umming and ahhing if Forest away be a home win or not and whether Livarpool will score a goal in the 96th minute to secure a draw. They’ll not be bothered about the game, just the result, and whether they will be able to join in that massive crush on the aisle if and when, we score, so they can post it on twitter. Cameras at the ready and two chargers, just in case the phone dies before they get that crucial shot of them, which proves they are “at the game”. They’ll have used up most of the charge of one of them because they’ve been lining up their match ticket with the 12 bottles of bud on the train table to get the best shot to show their mates.

Three months later, in the freezing wet snow, on a Monday night away at Brighton, after we’ve lost 5 in a row, the same ones will be tucked up in bed, watching it on SkyTVisf**kings**t, even though they have been offered tickets since they went on sale, from people who have just ordered it anyway, because they could, and all the away season ticket holders who can’t be arsed. It’ll be “oh I’m busy tonight – can’t make it, mate. I’ll see you at Chelsea next away day”. Meanwhile depriving those of us, who haven’t been able to go because the tickets were “sold out”, of yet another away game. That’s if they haven’t given up already, and stormed off twitter in a hissy fit, after they have slammed Bamford for being a donkey – yet again – and someone has had the audacity to ask them where they were when we were shit.

Is this more or less the same post I do this time of year, every year for the last 2 or 3 ( when fans were allowed into games) seasons? Probably. Will I do the same again next season? Probably. Did I ever whinge about it before 2017? Nope. Did anyone ever whinge about away tickets in 2014? Nope. Did anyone whinge about tickets in the first season we got booted out of the PL in 2004? Nope. Did anyone whinge about tickets when we dropped down into Division 3? Nope.

Were any of us surprised that the attendances dropped in 2004/5? Nope. Were any of us sorry to see the back of the ones who didn’t renew their season tickets in 2005/6? Nope. Were we surprised when even more jacked in their season tickets in 2007/8? Nope. Were we sorry to see the back of those? Nope. Would we be desperately upset if we never saw the miserable wasters ever again? Nope.

Did you all laugh when Massimo Cellino announced that if we didn’t get to the play offs he would refund 25% of the cost of your next season ticket in July 2016? Yep. Did people laugh when they found out there were less than 15,000 season ticket holders at ER in 2016? Yep. Were any of us who were still going surprised? Nope. Were any of us who were still going upset? Nope. Were any of us who were still going want any of the deserters back? Nope.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/how-many-season-tickets-will-leeds-united-sell-sunday-and-how-much-will-fans-get-back-if-they-dont-make-play-offs-1794153

So for those of you reading my blog, who have forgotten, or conveniently misremembered, that no one ever bothered going to watch Leeds United at home – let alone away – because they were “too busy” going shopping, playing football, washing the car, washing their hair, playing squash, going to the gym … or simply watching on the telly because you’re a c _ _ _ . Read the above article, just to remind yourself how crap we actually were.

Read the article which painfully spells out what a laughing stock we were. Go back through the annals and look at the “players” we used to have. Please note I use the term “player” very loosely to describe someone who at times just wandered round the pitch at ER for 90 minutes and considered themselves to be an actual “football player”. Read the article and refresh yourselves of the fact that Massimo was actually going to refund 50% of the cost of our season tickets back if more than 15,000 people renewed their season tickets and we didn’t make the play offs. Reacquaint yourselves with the knowledge that people were actually bribed to buy a season ticket, the price of which had already been frozen for 3 years, by the promise of a 50% discount off their next season ticket. Remind yourself how unpopular being a Leeds fan used to be – 5 short years ago.

According to records our average attendance at ER in 2010/11 was 27,296 – this includes away fans by the way. By 2014/15 season it was 22,278 and by 2015/16 it was 22,611.

There’s now a waiting list of 22,000 people who each pay a tenner to be in with a chance of getting a season ticket should someone to kick the proverbial bucket.

So, yes, I am bitter.

Bitter that those who made the effort when we were shit have now been usurped by someone who probably only got a season ticket in 2018 when we started to get a bit better. Bitter that those who unswervingly stood through the dross that was Division 3 football, now cannot even get a sniff at the burger van outside Old Trafford. Bitter that those who couldn’t afford an away season ticket, but then again, never thought they would ever need one anyway, may now never see an away game again, because they have been priced out by people who jumped on the opportunity when one came up. Bitter that I may never stand with the people who I have stood with year on year, decade on decade for God knows how long, at a game again. Bitter that the away days that I have enjoyed for so long, will be something of the past now.

I understand now we are good, people want to be Leeds fans again. But everyone started to build their loyalty at one  time. What’s wrong with biding your time and waiting your turn? We all had to do it at some point. Oh wait, I forgot, you’re Entitled aren’t you?

As for the ones who started off this whole anti loyalty thing – karma. What goes around, comes around. I hope when it does arrive, when it’s your turn, you get it ten fold in return.

In the meantime until Thursday, here’s some more planes and trucks to tick …

First of many pictures from the Stan Bowles Calendar Alzheimers Research Fundraiser. We will try to get them put up on here for those people who aren’t on facebook and twitter. That’s a nice bag on the table by the way – could be a good flag bag!

I’ll try to put as many of the photos on here as possible. I’m sure Dave will get some famous faces throughout the season, and raise money for a great cause at the same time. Anyone who has spare time to help out, please get in touch. Many hands make light work.

Shame the table got in the way of the branch flag in full glory.

Link for tickets for the do at Manhattans

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/harrogate-leeds-united-supporters-club-evening-with-the-centenary-whites-tickets-162290959629?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

August 2021 update

Monthly Branch Meeting – held at the Londesborough Club, face to face – hurrah!

Our first branch meeting of the 2021/22 season started with us raising a glass to Top Cat Cooper who sadly has passed away this weekend. He was a fine player, integral to the Revie side. RIP.

Minutes from the last monthly branch meeting in December 2020 were reviewed and passed accordingly. Minutes from the LUSC exec meetings were read out (one zoom meeting and one normal meeting – hurrah!). As the zoom meeting minutes were a little out of date regarding the information re the new Leeds United Away Ticket Policy, there was little discussion. The new policy, in summary, is better than the one that was originally put forward in the SAB meeting, but not really good enough. It was acknowledge that wherever Leeds drew the cut off line, it was bound to piss off somebody. If they left it was it has been for the last few seasons, the newbies would just be whingeing more and more. Many people in the branch were up to 99 /98 matches, so just missed out unfortunately. Some people didn’t think that the 2015/16 went go back far enough and that loyalty should be based on how long you have been following the Club. The fact that the free for all sales in the last two seasons for the larger allocations had also meant that people had failed to get a ticket was also a factor. There was surprise that the PL max allocation was 3,000. The Secretary pointed out that no home club wants to be outsung by Leeds United away fans, so why would they want to let in more Leeds fans than necessary. It was pointed out that it was different in the Cup games, as these were bound by FA rules re allocation, NOT the PL. Therefore more chance to get a Cup away ticket, should Leeds be bothered to enter a proper competitive side and not pretend and go through the motions like the last few seasons. John Mann was welcomed by Chrissie as the new Chairman of the LUSC. We will endeavour to send out the LUSC exec minutes to all branch members in the email mailout this season. We will have a purge of the email list, so if you haven’t given us your new email address or renewed, you will be deleted from it. In other LUSC news, the Club have said that the LUSC will be able to sponsor Kalvin Phillips again this season, and the fixture lists will proudly be announcing that again. The LUSC have been sponsoring Kalvin since 2015 and hope to continue to do that.  There are no details yet whether there will be bat flu restrictions at games. Freedom Day has been and gone. Hopefully, seeing as the matches are outside in the open air and at least 10,000 fans got into Wembley by storming the gates and didn’t have to show any negative results or QR codes to get in, then we won’t have to. The posh people at Wimbledon were sat closer together than we are at ER and for longer (if they watched the men’s final – not in the ladies as that was over before we knew it – only joking it was an hour and a half this year), and as far as we know, all those “pilot test events” did not result in a massive increase in cases, hospitalisations or deaths. Whatever you think about the bat flu – I do not want a “Papers Please” society which basically deprives us of our freedom and liberties. This is not a George Orwell novel, nor is it 1940s post war Berlin.

Memberships

Thanks to those who have already filled in their renewal forms. You MUST fill in a form every year, I’m afraid, even if you don’t have to pay for anything. We are still waiting for fixture lists (which will be out of date as always as SkyTVisf**kings**t will muck up the fixtures every 6 weeks), so when we get those, we will send one out with your membership card in the post for all those who enclosed a stamped addressed envelope.  For those that didn’t, should we be in a position to run a bus, you will get yours on the bus, or at a monthly branch meeting.

Away Travel

Until we know how many tickets we are going to get, we will not know if we can run a bus. Which relies on Leeds United actually putting the away tickets up for sale, the Leeds United ticketing website NOT imploding and the branch actually being able to order tickets. Everything will have to be done at the last minute. If we have to share a coach we will, but if we don’t get enough tickets, we won’t be running a bus unfortunately. We cannot afford to run half empty buses. If we do run a bus and you book a place, if you do not turn up, we will charge you for your place and if you are unreliable again, we won’t bother booking you on.

Ryan Edmondson Sponsorship

We are still waiting for the Club to come back to us re sponsoring Ryan, even though he is out on loan at Fleetwood now. They are aware we want to renew it. The MPO will email the Club again this week.

Fundraising

Thanks to everyone who participates in the (fixed) football card. Please continue if at all possible. We will look to arranging another raffle once we get enough stuff to raffle off.

Stan Bowles Calendar in Aid of Alzheimers Research.

Plans are now afoot for the weekend of the Everton game. Manhattans on Friday night, for the Centenary Whites do, Stan Bowles Calendar Stand outside The Peacock on match day, and then Sunday is the Bowls event at the Black Swan. See link below. It’s all in a good cause, Alzheimers is a terrible disease, please contribute. And I know it’s nothing to do with Leeds United but QPR are STILL not decided about naming a stand (they’ve got 4 of them!) after their greatest player. Bit shit really, seeing as he is their most famous player – but what can you do? They should really try do it before he dies as well. We will keep trying to gently encourage them our end.

These are the links below for the Manhattans event and the justgiving page if you can’t attend

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/harrogate-leeds-united-supporters-club-evening-with-the-centenary-whites-tickets-162290959629?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hgtelusc-stanbowlesalzheimersresearch