Resist.

Resist what? Everything? No, just modern corporate sport.

Swim against the modern tide. That used to be part of the lyrics to some song in the 70s or 80s that I can’t remember. In the late 70s and 80s, all we seemed to do was rebel against authority and the Rich and Powerful. Mind you there was an awful lot to rebel against in those days. Whether it was CND, Mrs Thatch, poll tax, whatever, we resisted. Nowadays people just accept things, it’s a strange carry on. But if we don’t resist against those who want to force change upon us, or at least try to resist, we will never know what we can achieve. Football belongs to the masses, not the suits.

Football belongs to the fans.

It seems that more and more sports are being swept up into the big corporate conglomerate models of the US style buying, selling and trading players and teams. Take the IPL for example, where the competing teams choose players to play in their side in what seems like a bidding war at the start of the competition – actually it is a cricket cattle market auction. There isn’t any history, there’s no long standing  allegiance, no nobel cause rooted in passion for your team. It’s just like it used to be when we were kids, taking turns to pick your footie team. Even if you couldn’t stand the lad, if he was going to score, you picked him. In the NFL and MLB, players can be traded every season like Top Trump cards. The teams as I understand it are franchises, all dependent on the whims of their current owners, who can simply up sticks as they so desire, even, if they fancy it, to a completely different state, let alone a different city. The US of A is a very big country, but nothing can stop the owners from packing up though. There’s also no relegation, and therefore no promotion, so it’s just the same players rotating round teams who can afford to buy them. It’s highly dependent on agents and business deals. The richer you are, the more powerful you are. The paymasters are in charge.

Football isn’t like that. Well not the football that I want to watch anyway. Football teams belong to their grass roots. Local kids should be able to look at their local teams, who have home grown talent, and have something to aspire to. 

It’s not just football that is being affected. Look at cricket again. We used to have a great county championship tournament. Players were proud to represent their county or at least adopted county. Yorkshire County Cricket Club  was very unique, as up until 1992, no one born outside of Yorkshire’s boundaries was allowed to play for the team. When they did abandon the rule, it was only the legendary Sachin Tendulkar who was the first non Yorkshireman to grace our County Club. At the time, Fred Trueman apparently called it a “bloody disgrace” and whilst now it would be an absolute scandal and there would be no end of parliamentary debates about it, in those days, it meant that our county was proud to stand firm and field only home grown talent – no matter how bad they were. But you can’t and shouldn’t judge what we did decades ago  by todays standards, or the Italians would summarily be sued for what the Romans did between 27 BC and 429 AD, and don’t even get me started on those Vikings!

Even in these modern times, there are still clubs like Athletic Bilbao who have an unwritten rule that states that only players from the Basque Country and Navarre, or the Northern Basque country in France are to eligible to play for them.

https://sqaf.club/athletic-bilbao-transfer-policy/

In 2017 there was a massive controversy when the question of Catalan independence was raised. For you younger readers, Barcelona used to be a vocal champion of the Catalan people, the Nou Camp or Camp Nou has the words “mes que un club” written on it’s stand. Translated into English ” More than a club”.

Unfortunately since 2017, Barca has sold out in a lot of respects, with some fans claiming it has been reduced to  “Madridification” in it’s bid to be a global brand. Barca used to proudly be the only club without a sponsorship logo on the front of their shirts, however, now that they are skint, all that has gone out of the window.

Football belongs to the fans though, as our great FA says – fans matter!

We need to resist.

Football, or at least the football that I know and love is fiercely partisan. It’s them v Us, and if you are not with us, you are against us. Something which had to be spelt out to Alan Smith that day at Stamford Bridge. I was amongst those in the crowd that day, sat on the side in that shitty stand, on the receiving end of his two fingered gesture when we sang “You go to Scum, you don’t come back” . The same applies Jordan and McQueen, who, after a 40 year gap are still not welcome at ER by certain fans who really know how to hold a grudge. We’re Leeds United, we don’t give a f***. That’s what makes it so special. We are Leeds and we are proud of it. How I long for the fans who sing “all Leeds aren’t we” and all the rest of these new songs to actually believe this. Sadly, as demonstrated by the comments on social media of late from some of our “fans”, we are probably not all Leeds.

I am realistic. I know we don’t own the Club. We don’t make the rules, we are not in charge, it’s not our money. You need to be one of the Rich and Powerful to own a football club, unless you are GFH of course, who were skint and powerful and managed to “save” our Club by buying it from B*tes according to a certain fan group. And if you believe them, you’ll believe anybody. Sentiments from the recent Tracey Crouch review were similar. Fans don’t want to own their clubs, we just want to have some say and we want the owners to respect the match going fans. 

The Premier League, UEFA and FIFA are all basically in it for the money. Football is a cash cow and they are milking it, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You only have to look at the last six months and the attempt to launch the European Super League. These football organisations hold the rights to a massive money making business opportunity. Football to them is just a huge commercial enterprise, full of dodgy dealings, corporate glad handing and TV, advertising and gambling revenue streams. The fact that Platini and Sepp Blatter are currently being charged with fraud isn’t a surprise, the only surprise is that it has taken so long. It is pitifully laughable that the EFL chose to pick on Cellino, claiming he was unfit to be our owner because of some VAT on a yacht, when all the shady dealings were going on with the awarding of the World Cup etc. Pathetic to say the least, when Shaun Harvey couldn’t even tell us if Ken B*tes actually owned or sold Elland Road under his tenure.

We can resist this corporate globalisation.

Some sportsmen are actually doing things. As much as I dislike Djokovic, he is standing up against the big sponsors in tennis and refusing to play along with them. I have read somewhere that part of the terms and conditions of sponsorship in tennis is that you are duty bound to appear in TV interviews after a game. Unlike football which is 90 minutes, plus Fergie / Klopp time, a single mens tennis game can last hours. 11 hours in that Isner v Mahut match at Wimbledon in 2010. Yet they are all forced to sit there, like performing monkeys facing questions like “how do you feel?” and they can’t reply with “bloody knackered, mate, what do you think?”. Even Ronaldo covered up a Coke bottle in an interview in 2020. 

Corporate sport is fake, it’s choreographed nonsense. Words are rehearsed and pre planned to fit the required corporate image. Answers are set and practiced using language that has been carefully opinion polled and monitored by the image marketers to ensure that nobody says anything that might upset anyone else, in case it damages the brand or doesn’t fit the narrative. Like Trevor Sinclair last week, who raised the delicate issue of whether the Sheffield Utd player had received his required intervention in his arm, following his mysterious collapse on the pitch. His feed was summarily cut by a panicking producer.  Oh dear, Trevor.

All we want on MOTD is to see the highlights and replays of the action / goals from different angles. We don’t want to see three middle aged, rich men pretend that they are not reading from a scripted autocue, with carefully rehearsed cliched dross, speckled with the fake Wrighty loud bursts of laughter. As the brilliant Mary Whitehouse Experience guys before they grew up used to say, “Chinny reck on” .

This is why Bielsa is such a breath of fresh air. His interviews at times are just majestically maverick. 

The PL wants all the teams in the league to fit the brand, right down to the same seating style in the dug outs. It doesn’t matter if the stadium is shiny new like Spurs, or like the 1930’s relic that is currently our West Stand. It all has to be the same, so it looks good on the telly. Even though each team has a unique history, with an equally unique fan base, they can’t treat individual teams like individual identities. I agree that standardising things like away ticket prices is a boon. But they expect a one size fits all, and it clearly doesn’t. Not many clubs will take their full allocation of away  tickets to every game, especially the long distance ones. But we do, and we fight to the death for them as well. Not all the PL clubs fill their grounds to capacity, but we do, and tickets are like gold dust.

Our club want us to fit the PL brand, and it’s probably somewhere in the terms and conditions of the PL to do so, but when it comes to ticketing that’s a different issue. Bearing in mind when it comes to away allocations the rule is something like 10% of the total capacity up to 3,000 max, not many of the PL clubs take their full allocation of away tickets. Of those clubs that do, many have an effective closed shop for away tickets, dependent on a points system with a historical loyalty record of regular ticket purchases including home season tickets. I was speaking to a Spurs fan who has just accepted he’s never going to get an away ticket, even though his season ticket is more than double what we pay at Leeds. He and many others respect the fact that long standing loyalty trumps new fans. When we asked Leeds to continue with it’s loyalty accrued in the doldrums over the last 16 years of non PL football, well you know what happened.  

The PL wants football to be available to everyone all the time. But at the expense of the League and FA Cups, but UEFA and FIFA would rather the Chumpions and Europa Leagues take presidence over all. After all, European football is the main selling factor to the global TV audiences, isn’t it? The home nations Cup competitions are minor inconveniences, apart from the fact that winning the FA and League cups still get you into Europe – until they eff around with that one, of course.

Did you know Leeds don’t have another scheduled away 3pm kick off on a Saturday after the Chelski game until February? Unless the True Gods of Football decide different in the meantime. But fans matter?

Clubs like Spurs and Man City (albeit without consultation of the fans) have bought in paperless e-ticketing. Most have gone cashless. Why? Because it’s convenient for them. With the plus side that they can monitor your every purchase and tailor you ads on all your devices to their company sponsors. Hmmm. Did they ever ask what we want?

If you ask the average match going fan, they would rather the club spend money on decent beer and food and facilities, and make it cheaper, than splashing the cash on swanky turnstiles and MORE electronic payment systems that crash when the going gets tough. At the start of the season they introduced touch screens for beer that didn’t have the capacity to recognise that a product was sold out, so people were merrily ordering and paying for something that just wasn’t available. Would that have happened at the cash till? 

As for the e ticketing. What happens if you have someone who doesn’t have a smart phone because they can’t afford the £35 (and the rest) a month for one? What about people who still have a Nokia 3210? What about people who can’t afford the latest tech? This is active discrimination against the digitally excluded. Paper tickets are green, can be recycled, but more importantly are a lasting tangible memory. Even plastic season ticket cards can be recycled. E ticketing requires electricity and no end of tech management to protect your security and data from being hacked, all which requires masses of servers using masses of power. Not as green as what you think.

My final salvo is banking.

When Leeds first introduced card payments for tickets, it was a given and accepted- progress. They started with the initial admin charge for using a bank card. It was just one charge for every time you bought something regardless of how many tickets you bought. Fairs fair. The banks charged them for using the service. Then under B*tes, they said that they had to charge a transaction card for each ticket you bought. Eh? Why should the banks charge them for every ticket you bought in a single transaction? They were only processing one event, surely? Now it’s common place.

Recently Amazon have decided to stop letting us use UK based Visa cards for purchases. Why? Because the bank charges are too high? Given Amazon make so much money from UK sales, how much can UK based Visa companies  be cutting into the mass wealth of Jeff Bezos? He’s sending weirdly shaped rockets into space for a laugh. He doesn’t need the money. Are the banks so ruthless?

If we go completely cashless, we will be at the mercy of the big banks. Then they can do what they want and hike up the “transaction charges” as they like. We are not going to be able to stop them. It’s a quid now, but once the system gets ingrained, the routine £1 may well end up a fiver, and we will be powerless, slaves to the big banks and big corporations. If you stick to contactless, you won’t even see the money leaving. You could be paying anything to get into the ground, and no know about it – but hey – that’s progress. NO! Cash is king

Swim against the tide.

RESIST 

I was pleasantly surprised by this unexpected highlight at the “fancy new” Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the other night when I saw this being flashed around the shiny new electronic advertising hoardings.

Yes, there it was, emblazoned round the ground “Tottenham Hotspur welcomes all of our supporters clubs”. Going the extra mile by putting each of the individual names up of these supporters clubs too! (see picture 2). What an unexpected treat!

Advertising displays which would, I am guessing, normally cost advertising space “big” money, but being used to welcome – yes – welcome – supporters clubs. Wowsers!

Can you imagine that at ER?

Nope, neither can I!

By the way, I’m hoping it was free, but don’t hold me to that – they might well be paying a lot of money for this display. But given when B*tes took over, he refused point blank to let the LUSC even hold a function at ER, let alone have the name paraded round the ground in lights. To me, this is a mark of respect. A massive nod of acknowledgement to and recognition of the dedicated, longstanding, loyal supporters clubs.

Before anyone can say anything, I know there are differences between the official LUSC branches, what used to be the old B*tes RMCs, and other independent supporters clubs who have been going for decades as well. We are not all the same. We function in our own ways, each to their own. In this particular example, I’m not drawing any distinctions between the LUSC, the branches in the Leeds United Network and all the other groups, we are all Leeds United supporters. For whatever reasons, some just don’t want to join up with the LUSC. Some aren’t bothered with the fortnightly meetings, some think there’s too much admin and formality, some don’t see the value in it, some have far too much water under the bridge and some have set a flame thrower to that bridge. As long as we are all here to support Leeds, that’s what counts. No one should be forced to agree with everything, everyone has the right to choose.

Apologies by the way for the quality of these photos, my phone is so old it thinks UHD is the milk you don’t have to put in the fridge.

The other unexpected highlight, was the pleasure of watching that first half, actually the first 60 minutes of the game. We totally outclassed them, but then, as we do post International break, we ran out of steam. We used to run out of steam when we were crap and never had any participating players in the international competitions. It’s just how it’s always been. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because the team need to be playing competitive football continuously, without a break to disrupt our momentum. Maybe the players have a binge week of pizza, curry and chinese watching the competition, like the rest of us. It could be anything, frankly. Having said that the winner was spawny. A lucky bounce off the upright, right into the path of Reguilon. A draw would have been a good result after the first hour display.

So that was the unexpected highlight of the shiny new Tottenham Hotspur ground. The rest? Was it any different from White Hart Lane?

Well, given the new ground is a stone’s throw from White Hart Lane, unlike the mile or so between The Emirates Library and Highbury, it’s still in the same run down area, so no real change there. The main difference is that whilst WHL was your typical 4 codged together stands forming a grey rectangular reflection of football in the Capital, from the outside, this is just a greyer, rounder version of it.

As is with all the grounds situated in London and some other cities in the UK, football stadia were built for the fans who were local to it. The roads and the back streets which were perfectly acceptable in the 1900s, and probably still ok in the 1980s (albeit perfect altercation territory for certain fans!), are far from ideal in the 21st century. Now that the cost of watching live football has risen way beyond what normal people earn in the capital, the fans who live in close proximity to the shiny new Spurs ground don’t stick a chance of getting in. It’s almost a p**stake really. Those of you who were lucky enough to get a ticket last weekend could see for yourselves what the area around there is like. It was probably a little worse than the area around the Emirates Library from what I could see. It must be really galling to live there, and every day see the contrast between the economy of the locals and the money that went into the Shinyness of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But this is corporate sport – not just football. By the way, yes – I know its for American football as well. Does that make it worse or better? I don’t know. Corporate sport is corporate sport.

I have nicked this picture off some tabloid rag showing you the prices of the cheapest season tickets in the league.

Don’t forget, these are the cheapest season tickets you can get according to this rag!

Also, don’t forget how much money these clubs get from TV money and advertising and sponsorship. But you also can’t forget how much these clubs are paying in wages to some of these players. If the players wages weren’t so disgustingly high, the clubs wouldn’t even need to charge that much for a ticket.  Income from ticket sales are a drop in the ocean compared to the obscene amounts of money coming in. But those obscene amounts are completely eclipsed by the disgraceful millions going out in wages.

Wages all negotiated by greedy agents and players. Sums of money that the normal fans wouldn’t even dare to dream about. As I have said before, there are players in this league making more money in a year than the sovereign wealth of some nations. Yet they have the audacity to tell us what we should be doing, and some are more than happy to abuse the rules, go to a party, get drunk and crash their £80k 4×4 whilst wearing a furry slipper on one foot and a sandal on the other. Lockdown unexpected highlight? Not quite. Why would you wear socks with a furry sandal? Who knows what the Rich and Famous get up to when they’re not a work.

As usual, I’m digressing. Back to the Shiny new stadium.

It looked good from from where I was sat. The height of the stand behind the goal was almost of St James’s Park proportions – and you know what I think about those stairs at Newcastle! It didn’t look as steep though, more like a considered, staggered gradient, suitable for less mobile fans for a change. The wrap around style is identical to all “new” grounds. No thanks! The entire corporate ring in between the top and the lower tiers? Just like the Emirates Library. The atmosphere? Just like the Emirates Library.

I thought it was just that the acoustics were a bit shoddy to start with. I could hear our end but not theirs. It wasn’t until the second half, when I saw Conte running up and down the touchline waving at the fans to make some noise, that I realised, it wasn’t the acoustics. It was just that they were really quiet! But it looked good on the telly, right?

The last unexpected highlight was that rail seating.

Rail seating / safe standing. It’s not my favourite topic. I’d just prefer safe seating myself. I’m old now.

That rail seating though, now that was an unexpected revelation. The last time I stood at a rail at a game was at the old Ninian Park. I have no idea what year that was – remembering games is The Chairman’s job. There may have been a rail at Salford – but that doesn’t count. It was nice to lean against a rail again though. It was even nicer knowing that there wasn’t going to be a massive crush against said rail if we scored, like in the old days. This was because I was on the back row and no one was behind me. It still didn’t stop people just standing in the aisles and on the stairwells  though. No surprise there then.

The actual folding seats were huge though. Much wider than I thought they would be. Probably bigger than my seat in the Captain’s Corner and twice as big as the seats in the East Stand, very roomy indeed. The rail was a bit lower than I imagined it would be, and still as painful when I landed against the upright bit when we scored. Despite my initial misgivings and apprehension, it seemed ok.

If this is going to be the way forward however, rail seating will not increase the capacity at ER. It’ll probably reduce it, as these seats are enormous. Like the seats are Arsenal, they are definitely designed for those with a larger “spread”, and I don’t mean Lurpak. More comfort for those who want a seat through the game, but it will be capacity that is sacrificed in the long run. If these get installed in the East Stand, even I might get a ticket in there for a Cup game. It’s a long way off though.

What is a tangible asset?

Tangible assets are something you can touch, something you can hold on to. 

Why do you need something to hold on to?

If you need to ask that question, you shouldn’t even be reading this.

Everybody needs something to hold on to. It’s what being human is about. If we weren’t human, we’d be mere machines, just a load of  0’s and 1’s (plug for the new Matrix film – which surely cannot be as bad as the last one but will never be as good as the first). Nothing in the Matrix was tangible, challenging the age old adage that if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck…. But then again, anything could be anything in The Matrix.

From the moment we are born into this world, the first thing a human baby does is reach out for something to hold. After it’s took it’s first breath and screams, obviously. It’s inherent, it’s biological, it’s clinically known as  the grasp reflex for you non medical people. We then spend the rest of our lives searching for stuff, whether it’s ethereal and perceptual, like knowledge or wisdom, or material, like money or bricks and mortar, or emotional like friends and company, or impalpable like love and devotion. Whether we can physically grab a hold of something, or treasure it in our hearts and minds, everybody needs something to hold onto. True to form, we search for things, find it, treasure it and then invariably lose it (mostly after putting it in a really safe place), but then we find it again. Bit like Leeds United’s  form over the last decade or so.

As Jake and Elwood famously sang, Everybody, needs Somebody

As seasoned Leeds United fans, what are our tangible assets?

At the moment? Well, that’s easy – Marcelo Bielsa.

The obvious aside, what have we, as Leeds United fans, actually got as our tangible assets? Realistically, right now, our long term tangible assets are few and far between. I guess we have ER back now from whoever B*tes sold it to. IF he ever sold it, that is. Apart from that, we have our club, our season tickets, about 850 of us have their away season tickets too, but most important of all we have our mates and our fellow Leeds United fans. And drink – we have drink. And, in 6 weeks ………. IT’S CHRISTMAS!

Unfortunately, in this new age of the “modern game”, football is strangely bereft of anything of value which lasts longer than a couple of seasons. Long gone are the days of enduring symbols of our great club. Even our beloved badge has changed over the last 50 years. Luckily the most recent threat of a 21st century update was thwarted in it’s tracks, at the first hurdle, by change.org. But long gone are the one club stalwarts like Gary Kelly or Stevie G in the PL, there’s always Billy Sharp in the Chumpionship though.

Bielsa himself is one of the longest serving managers in the PL currently. Our players, our managers and I guess our owners, are all but temporary members of staff and custodians in truth. As soon as the next “big thing” comes up, they will be off. That of course, assumes that we stop being the next “big thing”. Luckily, despite the doom mongers peddling the “second season” wet blanket / glass half full misery, following that solid display against Leicester, it looks like our momentum is starting to build again.

Once we get all our team fit again, we have potential to start climbing back up the table. Ultimately, we are only 6 points off Europe still, and it’s only November. It’s in all our best interests to stay in the PL, play exciting football and go for the victories in the Cups, as well as the league. The more success we have, the more likely we will stay at our status quo, or even improve our standing in the “best League in the World”. With more success, comes the added security that no one will want to leave, and barring massive fall outs between the team, coaching staff and the owners, we may finish with the same, or similar, complement of players and coaching staff that we started with at the start of the season. God willing.

It’s not only “modern football” that is the problem. It’s “modern 21st Century life” in general which confounds us.

We can argue that given football in the 21st Century is still just 90 minutes, divided into two 45 minute halves, with 22 men and 3 officials on the pitch (until FIFA / UEFA decide otherwise and split it into 4 quarters so it’s easier for the Yanks to understand), football hasn’t changed much. What has changed is that football has become less and less about the actual game, and more and more about the revenue that comes from it. Not just in TV rights and advertising opportunities, but all the gambling opportunities that are generated from it and all the shady deals that happen behind closed doors between agents, managers, players and chairmen.

Football used to be just a game. Now it’s net worth, not just to the Clubs and the Football Associations and organisations around the world, is so huge that, football has basically become a commodity. And, as with all commodities, their sole purpose is just to be traded and passed round or shared between the rich and the powerful.

There is more money in and around the likes of Chelsea, Citeh and now Newcastle, than some nation states and small countries in the world. The increase in money surrounding football has meant that the actual net worth of football, as in the 90 minutes on the pitch, has become so devalued, it is more or less meaningless. Worthless to anyone outside of those lucky enough to attend live football matches, and those who can’t get to the game but watch it on the telly like a c***.

Win, lose or draw the money still comes in from the broadcasting rights and the gambling companies. The wealth managers and the commodity traders are not bothered about the result either. If a team wins, the commodity becomes more valuable, if the team loses, the commodity becomes a tradeable asset, which may yet yield a net profit, depending on how much you paid for it at the start. It’s not just the team either, the same goes for the players, with some individuals racking up more in a week than most of us will ever earn in our entire lifetimes. Some players are shamelessly earning more in a year than some countries entire GDPs. Yet they still seem fit to lecture us on what we, the fans, should be doing to “help out”, meanwhile driving around in a different 4×4 everyday and gazing down from the lofty heights of their £2 million luxury pad. That’s capitalism for you!

What does it all mean to us (lucky) season ticket holders and (unlucky) gold members on the 22,000+ season ticket waiting list? It means that the rich and powerful (or in the case of GFH – skint and powerful), can do what they like with our club, on whatever whim they have, and there’s not a lot we can do about it. Like modern 21st century life, if you have the money and the means of the Entitled Elite, you can do what you want. Us plebs? We get what we are given. Capitalism is great isn’t it?

What can I do?

Fight back. Rebel.

There’s many who wonder why I am so vehemently opposed to cashless. There’s many who wonder why I object so much to social media and companies who want me to use my phone to bank with and interact with. There’s many who wonder why I moan all the time about modern life, full stop really.

It’s mainly because I don’t like things imposed on me. I want to choose what I do and how I interact, thank you very much. And yes, I don’t like be told what to do, no one does. It’s what being independent means. I’m unique (thank god!), I don’t fit into any tick box, I am NOT just a number – I am not Number 6.

You can be forgiven for having no idea whatsoever what I am going on about. However, just to let you young folks know, being independent, being your own person, being allowed to think for yourself and be free to make your choices, isn’t a new thing. Being an individual and valued, and not being conditioned by society, isn’t just a millennial thing. We’ve been trying to free ourselves from the shackles of conformity for decades. Rebellion isn’t a new thing. Those of you who have no idea of the excellent Patrick McGoohan and the brilliant TV programme The Prisoner, here’s another a link https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061287/

Rebellion. It’s all we have. And it can work.

They told us, for example, that vinyl was dead. Once we got cd players and then now this streaming nonsense, they said that records would be defunct. They said digital music would take over the world, and that people would “benefit” from the convenience of the latest music (24 hours a day, 7 days a weeks) and sounds at their fingertips on their devices, without needing to “bother” with physical, tangible music like vinyl. Vinyl, all crackly and noisy, without the “clean” sound of enhanced digital. Vinyl – with all the problems with distortion and feedback – who under the age of 50 would want that? What’s happening now at the moment with vinyl? Massive resurgence, I hear you say? And it’s not just the dinosaur purists amongst us either. Can you believe it? “Young” people too? Well, I never.

They told us that books would be confined to libraries, and libraries would be relegated and consigned to online only. With kindle and audio-books – why would you want to bother with actually holding something and be inconvenienced with – wait for it – turning pages over? Hmmm. Sales of books have now gone up to 200 million in the UK and 650 million in the US of A. Yes, in America – the land of convenience, printed books sales are going up.

I’m not knocking assistive technology. If you’re disabled, with physical or mental limitations, then assistive technology is fantastic and can help you live some semblance of an independent life. That’s not what I am saying. What I’m saying is that technology should not have to interfere with all aspects of modern life if we don’t want it to, we should be allowed to choose. These technological advancements were supposed to help, but like many things, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Some of these well meaning developments have led to abuse of information and trust and have allowed hackers and unsavoury people with ill intent, easy access to the vulnerable and easily led. With further advancements the makers of electronic devices are hoping to give people the ability to have access and control of every aspects of your lives in one device. But what happens when you let your life be controlled by AI and the people in charge of that technology? You lose your independence and free will, and become reliant on someone telling you what to do. Might as well be in The Matrix.

I want to choose.

Football isn’t a commodity for match going fans (and those watching on the telly, like a ). It’s an experience. It’s not even just about the 90 minutes either. It’s about the whole day / weekend. I don’t need to remind you, if it was just about the 90 minutes, even some of the most hardened of us would have packed it in by 2013/14 season.

Honestly?

I don’t care what happens in the boardrooms. I don’t care unless it directly affects the team and frankly, I only care if there is something I can do, that can directly affect the decisions being made. I would love direct fan engagement, but given most of us cannot agree who our first choice 11 should be, there is no way a consensus can be reached across the whole fan base. It would be physically impossible to say that every Leeds fan can have the opportunity to be consulted in every decision made at Leeds United. Then again, there shouldn’t be. It’s not our money is it?

The things we can do? Choose how our match-day experience should be.

Namely, the right to pay by cash. It’s sterling, it’s legal tender – no one should refuse it. We are the customers, they are providing a service. That’s consumerism. Season ticket cards and gold membership / myleeds cards. Every Leeds fan needs to be able to flash something in their wallets / purses to show off that they are a Leeds fan, should the occasion arise. Paper tickets. It’s recyclable, it’s difficult to fake (unlike the QR codes on your phone which anyone with a decent phone can take a screenshot off) and it’s something that you can hold in your hand and keep as a memento of the day. These are tangible assets. They may be little, but they are something you can hold on to and treasure as a keepsake.

I’m not saying that I treasured, nor needed the tickets from Rochdale away in 2014, or any one of our lower league opponents in the League and FA Cup defeats, to help keep those memories alive. But, if you remember the lowest nadirs in your footballing life, it makes you enjoy the zeniths and apogees much more.

I appreciate some people do want to do everything on their phones, and so much in modern life is geared up to that. But it’s run of the mill, boring, everyday life.

Football is different. It’s not routine, it’s special. It’s not something you can describe easily, but it’s something you can hold onto. It’s a tangible asset. Can you imagine if I could bottle it up and sell it. I would make a mint!

Football fans, we too are tangible assets to the Club. I wish they would realise that and not dismiss us so readily at times. When the chips are down and we are losing, the matchgoing fans give the team the uplift they need. Look at the Wolves game and the Leicester performance. What a difference the crowd made. Yet the beer is crap, the food is crap and it’s overpriced. The stadium is ageing and the traffic around the ground is appalling at best. The touts are still making money by grabbing all the tickets that they can on ticket sales days and flogging them at extortionate prices to ordinary fans who haven’t got the skills and the tools to buy one themselves. As for all the fans that can’t make it to the games, they are still the ambassadors of Leeds United, spreading the gospel across all four corners of the globe. Something, anything for free would be great just to acknowledge them. Leeds supporters are some of the best in the country. There’s not many PL sides who can boast of such an amazing fan base.

Give us the recognition we deserve.

There’s been a recent upsurge in interest in the branch lately and enquiries about becoming a new member.

If you want to join the branch, please complete the attached pdf which is the new members form.

Sign it and post with two passport sized photographs and a stamped, self addressed envelope to the address provided. Once the form is processed, you will receive your membership card and your photocard and free LUSC card wallet.

Any email enquiries, please use pjmcmanus2011@yahoo.co.uk or facebook https://www.facebook.com/HarrogateWhites/

Things to know about Harrogate & District LUSC.

We are an official LUSC branch and abide by the rules and regulations of the LUSC.

If you want to travel with the branch, you will need to become a member. You can join up from wherever you are in the world. Our furthest paid up members are in Norway. The branch is Harrogate and District – Norway is kind of a district. However, you can only be a member of ONE LUSC branch at a time, we are not in the business of poaching from other branches.

If you just want to follow us on facebook, the public page is open to all. The closed group is just for branch members only, and this is where the departure details for away games etc. is. We don’t routinely accept or send friend requests on facebook, nothing personal, just don’t do it. But if you wish to join the closed group once you have joined up, we will message you directly. We do not have any other social media presence.

Please note, we have NO exclusive access to away match tickets or home match tickets.

We do not have a magic ticket tree. If we did, I wouldn’t have so many grey hairs.

We can help you order your own tickets on ticket sale days if you do not have access to a computer / device, but you need to have a Leeds United customer number.

We can only offer a reasonably friendly group, albeit a little sarcastic and cynical at times, who like a chat and a seat (and a sing song) on the bus, if you are lucky enough to get a ticket. The days of the LUSC getting tickets have long, long gone. Most of us enjoyed those times when we had them and are now embittered about the how times have changed. But we do enjoy a reminisce about the old days – at least The Chairman does.

The branch meets every month, normally on the 1st Sunday of the month at 8pm at the Londesborough Club, Bower Road, Harrogate, unless Leeds are playing, in which case it is the next Sunday. All current and prospective members are welcome. The branch regularly attend the fortnightly LUSC exec meetings (alternate Zoom ones). Anyone can attend the exec meetings at ER, you just cannot speak / vote unless you are on the exec of the branch. There is an AGM every year in July for the branch and the main LUSC. Every member is welcome to attend. Every month we have a vote for Player Of the Month, this gets collated and then at the end of the season, the LUSC Player Of The Season gets a nice shiny glass trophy (if we are ever allowed to get near the players again to award them it)

Our branch is non profit, any monies raised just goes back into the branch via reduced coach fares to away games and prizes etc. for our raffles, and on the end of season BBQ.

We do currently sponsor a Leeds United player and any funds that are generated go towards that sponsorship as well. Our current sponsored player is Harrogate’s own, Ryan Edmondson, who is currently on loan at Fleetwood Town. According to the Leeds United programme Joe Gelhardt is standing in for Ryan at the moment on the sponsors page.

There is an end of season BBQ normally which is our main fundraising event. There is also a chance to participate in the weekly football card, again to raise funds, via our Fundraising Secretary, Andy Yates .

The Chairman Charley Megginson and ex committee member Dave Rowson are normally found at the Peacock matchdays. Some of us spend pre match and post match at The Golden Lion in Holbeck, where the steak and chips is excellent!

Dave Rowson is also responsible for the Stan Bowles calendar, which is aiming to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimers Research. Dave has also written a book “We’re not Leeds, We ARE Leeds”, which describes some of our memorable moments from our European days. Branch member Phil Reeves has also written a book “You Are My Sunshine” which describes a cracking few years before the Premier League took over everything. Both available via Amazon or direct from the publishers. If you get in touch, we can give you a cheapness code, as we are from Yorkshire and that’s how we are.

The website is run by The Secretary and the Media and Publicity Officer in between proper (paid) work and running the branch. We are not the quickest to respond to things, but all good things come to those who wait.

The blog is the blog. If you get offended easily – don’t read it. It’s completely independent of everything and everyone. It is just opinion and thoughts. You are allowed to disagree with it, but the MPO will just ignore what you say anyway.

Any further questions, please get in touch. If you cannot print off the pdf, just email us and we will send a form out in the post.

Cheers

MPO

New members Form

It seems Leeds fans as a collective have been wishing for lots of things lately. A new stadium, somewhere to go for a drink with your mates before the game now that the Pavilion is out of bounds to us non corporate plebs, three points at home, three points away, the midfield stringing three passes together. How about a new striker, maybe a new defender – but definitely not any more new midfielders. Getting straight onto the website on ticket selling day, actually getting a ticket on ticket selling day, not seeing this on ticket selling day…

The list of things that we wish for is as infinite as the number of braids Kalvin can get in his hair.

In the main, most of these things are positive. In the main, aside from the initially fury at gifting a goal  because of a Cooper backpass gone wrong, or Dan James’s inability to get the ball out from under his feet in the 18 yard box, or after yet another 90 minutes of random refereeing decisions have flummoxed us, we are more or less grown up about these things. Once the frustration has passed after the in depth post mortem discussion in the pub, we calm down and we go again. In the main, most of us can come to the conclusion that it still isn’t Christmas yet, we’ve seen a lot worse with all our players fit, let alone with 5 of the 1st teamers out and realistically, we are still only 6 points off Europe as it stands.

I say in the main.

Fortunately, I don’t do Bunch of Titters, Instagram etc. and only go on facebook when I have to. I get people telling me second hand what’s been said on these social media platforms. Generally, it’s people who are new to the Leeds United ups and downs malarky. Some are recent returnees though, and old enough to know better frankly, but some are the newer fans who have never seen us in the Premier League. Apparently second season Bielsa tactics are wearing thin and we need to get rid of everyone apart from Raphinha. Apparently the Board need to spend at least another £100 million in the January transfer window and get a “proper” number 9 in. Apparently, Bielsa has lost it and we need Jose if we are going to stay up. Be careful what you wish for – I say.

Honestly?

I have pairs of pants and socks older, wiser and with far more football experience than some of these whingers. I have more respect for the opinions of my Champions League lucky pants and the Europa Cup, now sadly singled, orphaned, lucky socks, than our new fans right now. And as for those miserable wasters who felt fit to run down to the front at Southampton away after the final whistle and shout abuse at Meslier, well they can sod right off. It’s fair enough to vent your spleen during the game at poor clearances and misplaced passes, but to run to your players giving them the w**ker sign after they know they’ve been a bit poor, that’s just pathetic. We are Leeds United, win, lose or draw. If they haven’t played well, by all means, don’t clap them off the pitch, but screaming abuse at them because you can’t handle us losing (with our makeshift defence and Lord  Bamford still out) is pitiful. You don’t do that, whatever you are on. Get a sodding grip. The next time I  see that, I’ll film you all and then name and shame you glory hunting kn*b heads. No doubt it will all be in complete contrast to your famous debut on “awaydays lads bible” when you’re stood in your skinny jeans, bomber jacket and flat cap proudly singing “All Leeds Aren’t We”, because you’re the bestest Leeds fan in the world.

Be careful what you wish for. Very careful. Fame is a fickle thing.

Should the fans with the patience and concentration of a gnat, or cat on a hot tin roof, even, get their way and Bielsa goes, who are we going to end up with? If Bielsa goes, I can’t see Kalvin staying, and if Newcastle put a bid in of £100 million, who is going to turn that down? Not Radrizzani. But all these keyboard warriors know more about the game than Bielsa does, surely?

If we get a new stadium, how’s it going to look? There’s so much corporate interest in Leeds right now, if the capacity goes up to 60,000, how much of that is going to be normal fans and how much is going to go to the money men who want to wine and dine their clients? This was Arsenal last week, the whole of that middle tier right around the ground disappeared at half time. You’re not telling me that they all just happened to go en masse to the bog or to get a pint in, at the same time? If they did, the bogs and facilities must be miles better than the ones in the Captains Corner.

I’m not saying that the team don’t deserve a bit of criticism at times, but it has to be taken in context of the situation we are in. Bamford is still out since that knock in the Newcastle game. In fact, Patrick hasn’t been the same since he opened that cycle lane outside the ground. Elland Road hasn’t been right since he opened that cycle lane. Probably one of the most ill conceived ideas by Leeds City Council ever, to reduce pollution around Holbeck and Beeston. For approximately 20 days a year, depending on Cup runs, the traffic is gridlocked for two hours before and after the game. No one can move. Cars, buses nor coaches. This doesn’t even include when they have the fun fair on or when there’s concerts or big events at ER. So, for the minor green benefit of the other 340 odd days per year, when realistically there might be 10 people cycling along ER per day, that carbon reduction is completely negated by the fumes of congestion generated by the 20+ days of static traffic, crawling double decker R2’s trying to get to the bus park and dropping people off on the motorway, taxis doing 6 point turns to try get back into town after they’ve dropped off, people (new fans) going repeatedly up and down ER trying to find somewhere to park and the massive queues trying to get in and out of the car parks, pre and post match. And this doesn’t even include the ones who to drive to ER and then have to swap so the Mrs gets in the front seat, normally blocking that bit before you get to McDonalds,  cos yeah, that’s a great place to stop.

Leeds City Council – ruining our roads since 1976.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/transport/leeds-united-striker-patrick-bamford-backs-new-cycle-lane-which-runs-from-elland-road-park-and-ride-to-leeds-city-centre-3389937

Kalvin has International Duty fatigue. He played his heart out in the Euros and now is suffering from England Lag. If you look at it, most of the England players who were in the Euros have got International Lag. None of them have genuinely competed much this season. £100 million man, Kane? Ok, he has his own, very selfish, reasons. But Rashford, Maguire, Mount, Henderson, Sterling, Rice – hardly any of them have even got to 50 fantasy premier league points this season. We were all very proud of Kalv, but what is the price Leeds has had to pay for such a good showing in the National Team? Is playing for your country truly worth it? Future captain at Leeds? Future captain for Engerland? Be careful what you wish for.

We are still on a second string defence with Firpo, Ayling and Koch out. We have no replacement for Kalvin, we just haven’t. If Ben White was still here and his Emirates price tag hadn’t gone to his head, he would have been a good option, but the £ signs have gone to his head and he isn’t here. It’s all well and good saying we need a better defence, where are we going to find them? If we do get someone, it’ll take them 6 months to get fit enough and used to playing Bielsa’s way. That’ll be no good either – the season will be over. New players in the January transfer window? Careful what you wish for.

This whole “second season” thing. These comments that Bielsa has been “found out” and we are going down. In a way, yes, other teams have found us out, but not how you might think. The rest of the league have learnt a trick or two from last season. They aren’t necessarily winning because they are playing the better football (apart from Scum raising their game). They are merely disrupting our game by falling over all the time and ruining our rhythm. The referees aren’t doing anything about it, so are complicit in the mass cheating that our games have become. The Wolves players spent more time rolling about and sat down on the turf than actually passing the ball to one another. As soon as they were about to lose the ball they just fell over, clutching a finger, a thumb, an arm, or a leg or nod of their head ( …. stand up, sit down, keep moving). When they did foul us, they fell over as well, so it deflected from the real suspect of the crime. They struggled to put a clean tackle in, so they just went down. It was like the paddy field scene in the last Rambo film, but without the explosions or bow and arrow. If you haven’t seen it, get it out from Blockbuster. It’s ok but it’s an 18 – for profanity and violence it says – honest. But, Bielsa’s way is not to play for a foul though, we just get on with it. Our players will just get up, carry on and not look to penalise the opposition. I’d rather we played like that, than play like Villa.

What I’m trying to say is, we aren’t playing that bad with what we have got. When our team is fully fit and we are still as bad? Then you can start moaning.

Finally, technology. Our next away game is Spurs. At Spurs, for your “convenience” they are doing away with paper tickets and the “ticket” is a QR code on your phone. Luckily this hasn’t extended to away tickets as we speak. I think this has happened at the Etihad as well, without, I might add, consultation with any fans or fans groups. Now you know how I feel about technology. It’s helpful at times, but it’s not the be all and end all. Cash is king!

Tickets on your phone?

Really?

Why?

My fondest memories are of football and gigs. Films and theatre shows. I still have a collection of my old tickets somewhere, and when I look through these little tattered bits of paper, everything comes rushing back. The younger / tech generation just want convenience, click, click, swipe, move on. Where are your lasting memories? Where’s your tangible mementos? There’s nothing like waiting for the postman for your little white envelope (when you actually get on the Leeds website and get a ticket!). There’s also nothing like feeling the panic when it gets to Thursday and everyone else has got their ticket apart from you. Then you ring up the ticket office and they tell you that it has definitely been sent out, but if it hasn’t arrived by Friday, you’ll have to ring them and arrange for a duplicate.

Think of all the fun things you would miss out on if it just came up on your phone. It wouldn’t be an away day if you weren’t sat there, the night before, making sure your ticket was where you put it. Then double checking the same before you go to bed. Then checking it the next morning when you wake up and just before you leave. Checklist – keys, wallet, ticket, head. This is providing it’s just your ticket, of course. Imagine how quiet life would be for all the branch secretaries out there who sort out transport and tickets for their branches! We’d have nothing to do and might actually get some sleep the night before!

Plus, you’d miss out on the fun of taking multiple shots of your carefully arranged ticket, beer and the pack of cards on the table on the train, so you get the perfect picture to upload onto social media. They’d also be no stash of beer soaked, crumpled tickets in your adidas trainer box to take a photo of at the end of the season. It takes time to arrange all your tickets out in order. It would be no fun if you just had print outs of black and white QR codes.

There is something unique and special about having a paper ticket. Plus, paper is recyclable, so it’s green enough. No need to charge up and take two power banks (with the leads) with you in case one runs out and you can’t get the code up on your phone at the turnstile. That’s provided you get enough reception, and if your phone hasn’t died after using the flash on the last 20 photos hasn’t drained it. You’ve already wasted enough charge getting your acca on and checking out the latest instas after the reception kept going down in the train tunnels. Too much stereotyping? Ok – I’ll stop.

Football isn’t just a spectator sport. Football is a ritual. It’s a routine. It’s a release from real life (spoiler alert – see next blog). It’s not about convenience. It’s not about the result. It’s about the experience and everything you have done to get there and back again. Fans aren’t just spectators, we are willing participants. If you want proof, just think about the build up to the last minute equaliser against Wolves. We are all individual, valuable assets and I don’t want us ending up as just another barcode, to be just scanned in like another number in the Big Machine.  Unless of course, you are a trained assassin who kicks ass – like this guy.