There was much discussed on the way to Stoke, fortunately, I am not going to go through all of the stories though, as the tone was significantly lowered a few times too many.

Songs To Watch The World Go By

CC: This must be one of the best songs about Brexit and the EU.

A: Eh?

CC: Hotel California

A: Eh?

CC: Well, just listen to it.  It’s just the same as what’s going on now. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

A: Point taken

Food For Thought

CC: 10cc did my favourite song

Q: what’s that then Charley?

CC: You’re not in love. Great song

A: Not as good as Hotel California

CC: 10cc, what a brilliant name for a band. Do you know why they were called 10cc?

A: No, not really, kinda unusual.

CC: Well, it’s because it’s supposed to have something to do with the amount of “fluid” that comes out when you have sex.

A: Eh?

CC: You know when a man (the rest of this conversation has been redacted as too delicate for you, dear readers)

MPO: Brilliant. I am trying to eat my ham sandwich….. Cheers

CC: Did you have any mayo on that?

Lessons In Love

CC: All I had to do was post “The Perfect Year” by Dina Carroll, and it all fell into place

A: Eh?

CC: The Perfect Year – “I don’t need a crowded ballroom, everything I need is here”

A: Eh?

CC: “If you’re with me, next year will be, the perfect year”

A: Eh?

CC: It’s a classic, you don’t even need to say anything else. The song says it all

A: Is this the sure fire way to pick up women, Charley?

CC: Works for me, every time.

Charley’s Angels

Q: So who would be your favourite Angel then Charley?

A: Farah Fawcett Major. Has to be

Q: Wasn’t she replaced though?

A: Farah Fawcett, the other two weren’t anywhere near, couldn’t touch her.

Dave: I thought the one with the black hair was alright.

Steve: Kate Jackson, yeah she was ok

CC: No, Jaclyn Smith – she had the black hair

Dave: No Kate Jackson

CC: No, everyone’s favourite was Farah Fawcett Major

Steve: Isn’t she dead now?

Dave: Is she dead? How would you know if she is dead?

CC: Well she wouldn’t be moving would she? Go up to her and prod her.

MPO: Just Google it

CC: No honestly, you don’t need to google it. If she doesn’t move, it means she’s dead.

 

thanks to google images for the picture of Charlie’s Angels

Here’s to hoping that this will be the last word on this subject, but obviously the Leeds United hate mob on BBC Look North have yet to summarise on the Monday evening football round up, so we will just have to wait and see 6.30pm tomorrow night.

After this morning’s rather refreshing snippet on SkyTVisf**kings**t’s Sunday Supplement, I live in hope that the hysteria on Friday and Saturday will have finally died down. When the dust settles and SkyTVisf**kings**t’s carefully orchestrated pre-match build up is finally revealed as the cheap attempt to get viewing figures up, that it was, the truth will out.

It is a sad state of affairs when something like this is used as a soundbyte and manipulated so badly that even the washed up hasbeens that they dragged out to tow the party line are sweating so much, it looked like they’d had twelve rounds with Josh. No amount of make up is ever going to get that shine off your forehead, Keith.

Apparently even the Rozzers had put out a tweet that showed someone sat in the back of a police van. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? What happened to right to privacy? What happened to confidentiality? On an even more serious note, what crimes were not being dealt with, whilst the Derby constabulary were sent to the training ground on an errand of “something really important?”

The sad fact is that as soon as the news broke, SkyTVisf**kings**t and the (tax payer funded) BBC just could not help themselves. There was no way they would not jump on this opportunity to bump up the ratings. You can see the “kerching” dollar signs and Pulitzer prize eye balls flicking furiously along with the slobbering jowls of sports editors. Not until the hysteria had dampened, after they had speed-dialled every single old player/manager at whistle stop speed to get their “reactions”, did someone realise that they should really have checked their information.

By then it was too late, the damage had been done and all they could do was hope that no one would bring up Fergie sending drones to the Blue side of the city in 2009 and that they was no evidence of what Mourinho got Villa Boas to do (whilst Lampard was at Chelski). The beauty of social media though is that nothing ever gets deleted for good and sure enough, the pictures of articles and tweets etc. were swiftly put up on Facebook, twitter etc. to remind folk that the truth is out there.

To save face, none of this was mentioned in dispatches, as of course, no one likes to be told that they are wrong. So the perpetuation continued until Charlie Nicholas, on the programme which was directly after the Leeds v Derby game, unbelievably (Jeff), said it was going on in his day. Ouch!

As I see it, the only good thing to come out of this will be that in the run up to the January transfer window, SkyTVisf**kings**t will have to choose their words very wisely. The norm is that they have reporters, standing outside training grounds, trying to look into cars and over walls etc in the last week of January, waiting for “the sensational latest news”. All you hear is the phrase “reports from Sky Sports sources is…” or “we have inside information from sources at the Clubs…” . It is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a weeks if you have the Sky Sports 409 news channel on in the background through January. You also get it on Sky news on their sports updates.

Who are these “sources”? Is this not just the same as some bloke looking over a wall at Derby?

 

credits to John Takai at Dreamstime.com for the photo via googleimages

Never known to shy away from the important business of the day, here are The Chairman’s observations from a trip to That London on Sunday.

Dua Lipa

Can you believe that we come all the way down to London and I get served by one of the most glamorous famous singers in the country?

Q: Who’s that then Charley?

A: Dua Lipa

Q: Who’s that then Charley?

A: Dua Lipa, one of the most beautiful singers in this country

Q: Who’s that then Charley?

A: Dua Lipa she sang New Rules, you know, her and Calvin Harris

Q: Who’s that then Charley?

(this goes on for a little bit in a similar rein)

Q: So are you saying that one of the biggest selling artists in British pop culture, has a Sunday job in Spoons and served you breakfast then, Charley?

A: Well no, but it did look a lot like her. Can’t believe you don’t know who Dua Lipa is.

Meaningless music

Q: Can you imagine Sting and The Police go up and do a gig in Scotland and they get introduced on stage as “The Polis”

A: Eh?

Q: Like what can you believe what these old bands got away with in the 80’s?

A: Eh?

Q: Well, can you imagine if nowadays someone released a song title that was just a load of old nonsense?

A: Eh?

Q: De do do do, de da da da, that’s all I want to say to you. That’d get slammed on social media.

A: It’s a good song that.

Q: Imagine if I put that up on facebook as my status – de do do do, de da da da, everyone would just laugh

A: No comment

 

The song lyrics have been investigated for this piece, and lo and behold, Sting actually had an important message in the title, please see link below.

I am not casting any judgement about how pretentious Sting was (is) but anyone who saw Dune might understand where I am coming from..

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-police/de-do-do-do-de-da-da-da

 

Thanks to nightflight.com for this picture, not sure how many people will be thanking me for reminding them how bad he was though

http://nightflight.com/i-will-kill-him-david-lynchs-dune-featured-stings-brief-appearance-in-flying-underpants/

 

 

 

Those of you who know me well, know of my admiration of the great Brian De Palma. One of my favourite films is the epic, The Untouchables. Not just for the cinematography of the sweeping Chicago skyline. Nor for the attention to detail of the costumery by Giorgio Armani. Not even for that fantastic Oscar winning performance by Sean Connery and his perfect delivery of that tremendous Irish accent. No, it has to be for the classic one liners. One of my favourite ones (see the picture below) is – “never stop fighting til the fight is over”  Eliot Ness to Capone in the final courtroom scene. Never stop until it is done.

And that is what happened today, and at Villa on Sunday. Never stop until it is over.

I have just been watching the Red Button version of our game on SkyTVis f**kings**t. When Roofe makes it 2-2 he runs straight back to the centre circle, shouting for everyone else to restart the game. When Roofe scores the winner, Bielsa can be seen on the touchline screaming for everyone to get back to the centre circle, for ANOTHER goal. None of this sitting back on your laurels business. None of the wild celebrating thinking you have won the game (like Blackburn – ha ha ha ha ha). No.  Back to business. Back to scoring another goal.

If Blackburn hadn’t spent so long wasting time in vain doing their inglorious celebrations, who knows? There may not have been so much injury time, and we may not have been able to score the winner.

So you’d think everyone would be happy following the last two games. The last two games where EVERY man played til the end, fighting for that win. Two of the most exciting games of football this Christmas. Two games where we turned it around, clawing back to victory from certain defeat. Two games when we were foiled by the ref and the linesmen at every turn. Everything against us (including the post and the crossbar). Against all odds, we won. We are unbeaten in 7, 7 wins in a row since the minor blip at West Brom.

22 year old Bailey Peacock Farrell had kept 3 clean sheets against Reading (including THAT penalty save), T’Blades and Bolton. He is still learning his trade. Alioski is still only in his second season playing in this league, battling not only a different style of football, but also being played in different positions on the pitch, sometimes covering as a left back. Between them, they probably make the same number of mistakes as Hernandez and Jansson do.  Unlike Pablo and Pontus however, BPF and Alioski get mercilessly boo-ed when they do something wrong. Leeds fans just don’t ever learn. Look at what all the constant booing and aggro did to Roofe when he first came to the Club. It knocked his confidence to rock bottom. It’s only thanks to Bielsa and sheer persistence that Roofe is what he is today, our top goal scorer. 5 goals in 4 games. According to BBC website he has scored 13 goals this season. It’s not even 2019 yet and he spent a month out injured.

At 1-2 down today, people were leaving in their droves. The day trippers who haven’t been to a Leeds game in ages sloping off, muttering “same old sh*te again”, you just couldn’t hold out could you? And, in the words of the great Jim Bowen, let’s look at what you could have won.. 2 goals in injury time, yet another turnaround. So the question is.. why would you? If you have paid your money and saved up all those brownie points all year from your missus and the kids, so you can go watch Leeds for one game, why leave before the end? The mind boggles.

The criticism wasn’t just from them though. Even as we were walking away from the ground, all you could hear was, “we need a decent keeper and a proper forward”. Eh? What game were you watching? We are top of the league. We have a massive goal difference. 7 wins on the trot. Jeez, what would they be saying if we were midtable and only two goals to the good? They’d be wanting two goalies, two forwards and a whole midfield.  I shudder to think what people would be saying if we were bottom of the league, battling relegation. There would be some sort of apoplectic crisis going on every week, liken to some mushroom cloud nuclear explosion, wanting to clear out the whole team…

Hang about that was the end of last season wasn’t it? Good job we didn’t sell all our players in June then, eh??

Even if we bought Messi, I still wouldn’t play him in this team. We are a unit. Not just a team of 11. We are a squad of 18. A gang of 25+. A side of 50+ including the youth and academy. This is our future. If things aren’t going well on the pitch, Bielsa will change it. Or at least threaten to change it by making Lewis Baker stand on the touchline! We do not need mercenary journeymen like we did in the days of Colin. We need to invest in what we have got. We are already the envy of most of the league, and indeed the Premiership. Constant whingeing about needing to bring more in is beyond ridiculous.

No one else could have done what we did today in the last 10 minutes of that game. Even Norwich, the crown princes of the 95+ minutes goals, could not do what we did today AND against Villa on Sunday (with one day less recovery time thanks to SkyTVisf**kings**t). I wouldn’t drop any of them. You don’t fix what isn’t broken. Yes, Cooper is out, as is Beradi and Bamford, and Izzy Brown has yet to kick a ball in anger. But I wouldn’t sideline any of our team, not whilst they can fight back like they did these last two games. Bielsa knows that he can make each player compete for their spot. He is willing to change the team at the time if he thinks it is necessary. He subbed Kalvin a few times and look at the lad now. One of the best players we have on the pitch, and still playing out of position. Talk about a utility player. We have been beset with injuries all season long, but we are top of the league. In the face of adversity ( and time wasting cheating teams and ridiculous reffing decisions), we are prevailing.

Keep the faith. Never, never stop fighting til the fighting is done. We rest when the fight is over. On On On

It’s Christmas, let’s spread a bit of Christmas cheer.

We have loads of things to be happy about, which is a rarity when you are a Leeds United fan. There’s just so many positives right now, it’s hard to find where to start…let’s see (in no particular order)

WGUAFC

Calm down, if we win on Sunday, we are safe from relegation for another year. Let’s just put it into perspective. Last season under TC, we had a really good run, although you’d never have thought that given the comments on unsocial media. It was only really after Ayling got taken out by Bridcutt (remember him?) at Forest that day and our injury list took hold that we started having problems. Plus then there was that little matter of fielding a terrible side and yielding to a lower league team in the cup that ground us to a halt. Yes, no one likes to be reminded of their mistakes, but we need to look back at our mistakes to go forward into the future. Like I said earlier this season, I’ll be happy with going up in second but with a decent cup run.

We are tip top, tippety top, top of the league

There is no need to put any stats up about how many times the team at the top of the league at Christmas is promoted, I’ll leave that to other sites. It is interesting though that the Scousers are currently sitting top of Division 1, and as usual Jamie Carragher is needing a nine pack of Andrex bog rolls, in an effort to curtail his excitement. There is something similar for that league in the last decade, in that the teams at the top at Christmas, have inevitably been champions, apart from Arsenal in 2007/08 (injury curse again)… and yes, you’ve guessed it, Liverpool in both 08/09 and 13/14. Could it be 3rd time lucky for the Bin Dippers? Better not be, seeing as my fantasy league team is basically built round Manchester City.

Burton are in the Semi finals of the League Cup

In the words of the great Jim Bowen, “let’s take a look at what you could have won”. I can’t stand Burton. I was ecstatic that they got relegated because having to fight to the death to get tickets for  that sh****y little excuse for a ground again would have seen me off. The only good thing about it was the fact that they served red wine in the stands, which kept me nice and warm. Dirty team of thugs who played us off the park. Grudges aside for a moment (you don’t hear me saying that very often), they did what any lower league club aspires to do every year, they scored the “Glamour Tie”, Manchester City. They’ll be rolling in the moolah after that. Enough to keep the vultures away for another season at least. I bet the Ipswiches and Boltons of this world are looking back in anger, and I reckon the Wendies will be diving down the back of the settee looking for pennies soon. The fact that Burton saw off Boro in the process makes it even funnier, and if Boro end up failing to get promoted again (hopefully), I will laugh at Pulis and Ayala. The antithesis of proper football – antifootball

SkyTVisf**kings**t is gaining momentum

Let’s all take a moment to laugh. Hahahahahaha. I watched the Forest v Derby game, and even they were singing it. In fact, not only was the “turning down the volume” tactic used, but it also sounded like they played some extra crowd noise over it. Like they used to put canned laughter on the TV shows in the 70s if they weren’t very funny. How very marvellous! Up to and including Villa, Leeds United have been on the telly 15 times this season (I think). That’s more than any other club in the EFL 72 and Division 1. Probably more than Cardiff and Huddersfield have been on, added together and multiplied by 5 – only joking – but you get the gist of it. Bonus for anyone in Oz, USA and the Far East, not so good for anyone who had planned out their holidays when the fixture list came out in June.

Patrick Bamford has got his scoring boots back

Now that he is fit (finally), within five minutes of coming on, he scored against Bolton. It was a scrappy affair, but a win is a win. 3 points is 3 points, no matter how you get them.

Leeds United were awarded a penalty!!

Our last penalty had been October 14th 2017, when Pablo ( in one of his worse runs of form) toe poked the ball straight to the keeper. But when Kemar Roofe wrestled the ball from Pablo’s clutches at home against QPR on 8th December, I knew we had turned the corner. Actually I didn’t, but I was so relieved Roofe was taking it, it was almost like we had scored anyway. I haven’t heard if the referee that day, Peter Banks, is still alive and kicking, but one of the QPR fan websites was calling him Mr Guessit, so they clearly aren’t happy with him. It doesn’t matter anyway, we scored, McLaren moaned (nothing new there then) and we won. If we have to wait that long again for another one, so be it.

They’ve given up with the yellow cards and penalties for fouls in the box when taking corners and free kicks

We were never going to get a penalty from these situations anyway, this is just for Beradi’s sake when he gets back in the team

Bielsa

Enough said. The End