Lost In Translation, despite being nominated for 4 Academy Awards, was sadly exactly that to the MPO (In fairness, Bill Murray as his Garfield persona would have been made it a better film), and much is the case in point at Leeds United right now.

I don’t mean the Club itself, as frankly the team is going great guns at present and as I said before Excelsior! The dizzy heights of The Premiership beckon. Don’t get me wrong, I am still VERY cross about Sutton, and as far as I am concerned, it will be a monumental stain on the history of Leeds United for the foreseeable future. Every cup draw, whether FA Cup or League Cup, Sutton will be mentioned in the same breath as Histon and Colchester ad infinitum.

What I mean is, that in this age of social media, it has been far too easy for fans and fan groups to get carried away with what they think being a fan is all about. Twenty years ago, the only opportunities fans had to make public comments about our beloved team was via the then Yorkshire Post (and after 3pm the Yorkshire Evening Post) fans page on the Wednesday after the Saturday game. The Leeds United fanzines, like our own “We Are Leeds” were another outlet for fans to voice their opinions in writing.  Old fashioned writing I mean.  By letter, relying on Royal mail of course, and often by the time your letter got to the required destination, things had changed anyway, so sometimes you were unlucky enough to be out of date with your comments.

Enter the age of social media, where you can communicate to the world in seconds in 140 characters. You can post pictures via instagram and snapchat, post youtube videos and live stream via facebook. Even the Luddite led Harrogate branch have begrudgingly had to go into the internet age! Alas, with this great power there needs to be great responsibility, and this is so very sadly lacking.

I have always said that all fans are entitled to their own opinions. We pay hard earned money for the season tickets, gold memberships, away tickets, bus travel on the coach etc. Not to mention those that actually buy programmes and other Leeds United merchandise and of course there is the food and drink that we spend our pennies (pounds more like) at the home games. So, people have the right to say what they want. Within reason of course.

As Sean Connery would say, here endeth the lesson… within reason.

I had quite a bit of feedback from my rant the other month, some people agreed with it, some didn’t. Some people have added us to groups on facebook as well, so when I get a spare few minutes, I have a little perusal and I have seen some of my comments repeated on others posts. What is disturbing of late is the number of comments, whether in jest or not, of fans calling other fans “plastic” and some fans / fans groups generally thinking that they have the right to call themselves better than others.

I believe that this started when a certain person took over our club. As a result of his sad misguided belief of his own self importance, a wedge was driven between us. I remember having a heated discussion with someone who continually sang “Dennis Wise’s Barmy Army” politely referring him back to frequent visits to Stamford Bridge and having to put up with Wise and Le Saux on that touchline. He was a bit miffed when I said I would never sing his name, even if he got us promoted and won the Champions League. However, the munchkin helped us into Division 3. Enough said about that ! Subsequent years under the (un) shrewd guidance of the puppet master and his muppet / puppet, including the takeover by the poorest Arabs on the planet, led to further divides, with fans getting involved and taking sides vociferously. Fast forward to the press heyday of our current owners landing blows with everyone from the FA to the television gods, and every man and his dog has an opinion. It’s like a mad Venn diagram!

Back to the point, no one has the right to say that they are a better Leeds United fan than the next bloke. I certainly don’t agree with anyone speaking on my behalf either, I am very capable of making my views known. Whilst we ( Harrogate branch) are members of the LUSC, anything that the LUSC says publicly is only said with a majority agreement of all members. This does take time given that LUSC members are spread far and wide, and some don’t use social media. It is hard enough to get the Harrogate branch to tell us who they want to vote for as player of the month, let alone any major issue like what they think of new Chairman. So, transpose this on hundreds of thousands of Leeds United fans all over the world, and I find it difficult to believe that any single fan group can wholeheartedly say that they speak for the majority of Leeds United fans, even when blessed with fibre broadband!

The new man Andrea Radrizzani met with some selected fan groups earlier this week, we are being told that the Club would like to engage with the fans more. What I would like to see is that we all have an equal voice about the issues we feel are important to us, and not whoever shouts loudest. We have an opportunity to start a new chapter of the history of Leeds United, so rather than argy bargy, lets get our heads together and bring our collective voices, whilst still maintaining our individual entities and merits, around the table. I am sure there are some good ideas that we can all agree on, which we can realistically take forward. When I say agree on, I don’t want a repeat of the “Who votes for a move to Swillington?” debate in the 2000s where allegedly we all wanted to move out of Elland Road…….

I want us to buy Elland Road back and get the West Stand redeveloped, I would gladly buy a bond to help….. anyone else?

As I write there is still the question of the fate of Garry with two Rs hanging over our heads. Unfortunately this is not the first time that Leeds United fans have come across this phenomenon – der der – der der der. So I thought I would handily summarise at least some of the past events in our history, which I feel (and again I MUST reiterate – my words are my own, read The Disclaimer) have blighted our glorious history. The Imbalance of power that controls the destiny of our beloved Leeds United in summary.

These are a selection of some events which I believe Leeds United have been discriminated against unfairly, and if it were any other club / Chairman / manager / team /players (you get my drift) , the result may well have been different. The list is by no means complete and exhaustive, but I haven’t got enough time to do a  comprehensive one now, nor never really.

The Cup Winners Cup Final in 1973.

Bent as a two bob note referee who never refereed another professional international game in his life. Richard Corbutt (MEP for Yorks and Humber) took a petition to UEFA with thousands of signatures regarding that match. Even the local fans boo-ed the lap of honour in Salonika and some Milan fans are still embarrassed by the sad affair. Even the Daily Telegraph did an article on it ( see link below)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/leeds-united/5159007/Uefa-asked-to-probe-Leeds-Uniteds-1973-Cup-Winners-Cup-defeat-to-AC-Milan.html

The European Final in Paris 1975

Robbed again by dodgy referee and cheating Beckenbauer, who years later admitted that the tackle on Clarke was a blatant foul and we should have had a penalty. In an act of shame, after the ref clearly pointed to the centre spot after giving Lorimer the goal, Beckenbauer “had a word” with the ref about Billy being offside and the rest is history. In an article to the YEP in May 2015, Allan Clarke said that he still hasn’t spoken to any of that Bayern team nor the referee since that game, and hopes he never will. Outstanding! There’s a man who can hold a grudge, the MPO has a long, long way to go!

Playing league title decider two days after the FA Cup final in 1972

48 hours after playing Arsenal at Wembley, we were expected to be fully fit and rested for the league title decider. Nowadays, the Premiership teams are moaning about fixture congestion and wanting a winter break because players are playing too many games. This despite going to the USA and Asia to play in the closed season. Says it all doesn’t it. But lessons have sadly not been learnt and I think the same may well have happened this season too as the Championship play off final is within 48 hours of the FA Cup… lucky that we lost to Sutton then!

The Football Association Fit and Proper Test.

At the end of our 2005/6 season we were in all sorts of a mess with the problems with the court case and Ridsdale spending what he didn’t have, so we were “bailed out” by Bad Papa Smurf in an act of selfless humility. Under Bad Papa Smurfs reign of terror, Shaun Harvey was the chief exec officer and remained so until GFH took over July 2013. He was then appointed by the Football League as the new chief exec whose role it was to address issues with club ownership, governance and compliance with rules. This despite the fact that under his tenure at Bradford City, the club collapsed into administration and almost full liquidation. Whilst he was at Leeds United, in 2007 the club collapsed into administration owing approx £35 million with reported £7 million in taxes due. He told a parliamentary select committee that despite being Chief Exec at Leeds, he had no idea who owned Leeds United. He was also found guilty of harassment using Yorkshire Radio and the Leeds United matchday programme. Something that to this day he has never apologised for. Somehow, the Football League felt that this man was qualified for this job! Hmmm. In March 2014 Carson Yeung ( Birmingham City owner ) was convicted and jailed for 6 years for money laundering. Meanwhile, Owen Oyston (Blackpool owner) served nearly four years after being found guilty of another crime, his son was also found guilty of offensive language and was banned for six weeks from footballing activities. Before anyone does a Donald Trump at me, this is NOT fake news, it is in fact, well, fact. If you don’t believe me you can google it, plus it’s on Wikipedia, so MUST be true. There are others such as the Blackburn, Coventry City and Charlton owners, who aren’t exactly shining lights of propriety either, you can look them up yourselves and make your own minds up, if you think I am being too harsh. Meanwhile, Mr Cellino appears to have some issues with a boat and some cars and was immediately banned by the same Football League who appear to have no problems with any of the above. The initial conviction in an Italian court was appealed and it has now been completely quashed, with Mr Cellino acknowledged as having done nothing wrong. Whatever you think of our Chairman, still not right is it?

The Football League Television Deal

The thing that hardly any of the English Football League Chairman have actually seen , let alone read, that was signed on behalf of them by, you guessed it, Shaun Harvey. Since when do you put your name to something you haven’t read? So Mr Cellino just before Christmas 2015 decides that moving games for the benefit of TV whenever the TV companies dictate it, isn’t really something he signed up for it and would like to see a copy of said contract. For his efforts he gets a rollicking, a lambasting even, by all corners of the media and fans and chairmen alike. Even though, most fans secretly agreed with him. Come December 2016, there is a meeting at Pride Park, where all 72 of the EFL clubs were invited. The meeting was to discuss what the Derby County Chairman, Mel Morris, described as a lack of transparency when it comes to the major dealings with a significant financial impact to the EFL clubs. Cellino was hailed as a madman clutching at straws at the time, it only took a year for the rest of the league to realise what was going on. Their rights signed away by someone who saw two clubs go into administration.

Excessive celebration of a goal.

Pontus got a yellow card for jumping into the crowd after he scored his first goal in Nov 2016. Meanwhile on Sunday, the Hudds Town manager not only leaves his technical area, but runs 50 yards on the pitch to celebrate the goal. The referee and the linesmen do nothing at all, until Garry decides to block him as he is running through our technical area. Me? I would have slyly stuck out a foot to trip him up, in a Roadrunner v Wile E Coyote move, hoping for a classic fall flat on his face. This is because when it boils down to it, I am not a responsible grown up, I am a petty minded child at heart. Sadly, unlike me, Garry with two Rs isn’t, and didn’t, and had to put up with a load of earache until Pep and the rest of the team piled in. Earlier this season Fulham and QPR were fined about £40,000 each for their touchline brawl. We wait with bated breath to see what happens……

Indignity or indignation, or even in dignity –  however you choose to read it.

After the horror show that was Sutton, I expected, nay demanded, a fightback. Blackburn at home and then a trip to the John Smith stadium was on the cards, and I, like many others basically wanted blood.

The Blackburn match was uninspiring and unenthusiastic to say the least, apart from the last 15 minutes of the game. I thought the first half was terrible, and spent most of it fuming about how annoyed I felt at Sutton, and thinking up various expletives to shout at the team if we didn’t get a result after 90 minutes. Luckily enough, up popped Pontus for a fantastic header and the lad saved the day once again. So, I was placated and though still very cross about Sutton, went about my business, and branch business, preparing for the away game at the weekend. This was of course made difficult by Huddersfield deciding to limit the away allocation by segregating the stand behind the goal, rather than giving us the whole end as in previous seasons. To be fair to them, they did fill the ground. Or at least what was left of it after their sponsors decided to maximise advertising space by using huge flags which drastically reduced the number of available seats, rather than the bog standard advertising hoardings. I can’t say I have seen such dedicated sponsorship packages before at a stadium, normally seats are for sitting in, but hey, this is Huddersfield, and this must just be how they roll.

When they came to Elland Road earlier this season, simply put, we could not cope with their midfield. That guy Mooy did all the damage, so this time round I thought Garry with two Rs would have learned from his mistakes, and fielded a stronger and more steadfast midfield. Unfortunately, lessons had not been learnt, and whilst our defence coped admirably in the beginning, our midfield was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. And before anyone starts on me about how brilliant Bridcutt and Vieira are, what we needed on Sunday was Batty and McAllister, not Torvill and Dean. We needed a midfield who could trap the ball and hold it up until the wingers and Wood regrouped, not someone who got the ball but then just gave it straight back, or lost it straight away. There are some games when you need a couple of quick flair players, others when you just need a big brick wall. From where I was standing time and time again, I saw high balls being foisted across to two of our smallest players in the middle, who frankly never stood a chance. As for the substitutions, well, I agree that something had to change, but given Pablo looked like the bunny with the crap batteries in the Duracell ad, I would have taken him off before Dallas, who looked better when he switched to the right side. Apparently Roofe and Sacko weren’t available, so Garry with two Rs had no option but to play his two new players. Two players who had only just signed up and had maybe just two days of trying to fit in to a team. The lad, Pedranza had a chance at goal early on, but poor Mo Barrow may have well have been sat in a barrow. Me, well I would have started with Phillips and Eunan O Kane, and then brought on that bit of pace in the second half, to try and get a winner. It was always going to be hard going, but you have got to learn from your mistakes. As for those free kicks that Pablo pretended to take, I have two words to say, Matt Grimes.

I can’t finish without mentioning what happened at the end. I haven’t seen a copy of the YEP yet, but I am pretty sure words like “disgraceful scenes” and “shameful behaviour” will be up there. The YEP have got their predictive text down to a tee when it comes to Leeds United. I didn’t see very much myself when their winner went in. I remember going, “don’t let him cross” and then the inevitable happened, somehow the ball hit the back of the net. All from our free kick, which we gave away. I didn’t even know the bearded one had run down the pitch to celebrate, so when I saw the melee by the dugouts and the Leeds players, led by Captain Bartley all diving in, I just assumed that we were bad losers and just couldn’t take it. When I got back to the bus, there was talk that Garry with two Rs had shoulder barged him and got a big shaking off the bearded one for doing it. I didn’t realise that this had all happened in our technical area and he shouldn’t have been in there in the first place. Having seen the stuff posted on social media, I thought I had better share it myself, as Garry did walk across him with his hands in his pockets, as I probably would have done myself. The reaction he got from the little bearded man was excessive really, and although it was good to see all our players going in to defend Garry with two Rs honour, there will be repercussions.

Whilst many focussed on the fisticuffs, Garry with two Rs nonchalantly wandered off with his hands in his pockets, sloping away like Paul Kersey in those fabulous Michael Winner films did. One of my all time favourite actors Charles Bronson, the gravitas of the man, the dignity

February Update

Monthly Branch Meeting

The meeting was held in the Londesborough Club at 8pm on Sunday 5th February. Thanks to all who turned out (in a fashion). Special thanks to Dave Rowson who made sure The Chairman duly arrived in the “ruined” state as requested by The Secretary. A bumper crowd turned out, including Makaela Rolph (taxi driver) but sadly Deputy Andy Yates was a no show ( part-timer). This was a “lively” meeting with The Chairman in a much more vocal mood than he is normally. The meeting was slightly held up as The Chairman decided we couldn’t start until Mally Appleyard turned up, as apparently Mally has never missed a meeting. Mally duly got his round of applause when he arrived eventually 10 mins late.

As part of the LUSC Sponsored player package the LUSC gets tickets to a training day at Thorp Arch, a lunch with the sponsored player and two pairs of tickets in hospitality in the Magnificent New East Stand at the end of the season. These tickets are raffled by the LUSC. The Thorp Arch tickets were available at this meeting, if anyone wants any more they are now on sale at £1 per ticket, please contact The Secretary before the next LUSC exec meeting, which is 16th February. There wasn’t a date set by Leeds United for this Thorp Arch event, so you need to be able to get the day off at short notice I am afraid, but according to Eric Ware and Makaela Rolph, who won it 2015, and 2016 respectively, it was a good day out and the players were happy for photos to be taken etc. As soon as the other events are organised, the branch will let you know.

Away Games

We will be ordering the gold members tickets for Ipswich on Weds 8th February, or at least trying to. Once tickets have been secured, we will let everyone who has managed to get a ticket know and then communicate the departure times and details in the usual fashion. Fingers crossed please! We are currently taking bookings for Birmingham on Friday 3rd March, we will be running a bus to this fixture. Deputy Andy Yates will be running a minibus to Fulham, we are happy to order branch members tickets for this fixture but please get in contact directly with Mr Yates. We will be running a bus to Reading, tickets permitting, but no plans at present to run a bus to Brentford.

Memberships

Membership Secretary as usual MIA. The Chairman has decided that memberships will close in April, as in they will close at midnight on April 1st. And no, this is not a joke! The website is generating more new members. The MPO would like to reiterate that admin on the closed group Harrogate Whites Supporters Club page do not add new members to this group until we get their £7 membership fees. There will be a cull next season.

Website

After the MPO went off on one and wrote that blog piece there was a massive spike of about 2500 views to the website. Paul Yates has requested that more of the website links are shared on our normal facebook page, to increase publicity. Any comments on this are welcome. If anyone is reading this via the facebook link that I have shared this on, then please feel free to comment. We will also consider putting a sponsor page on the website for branch members to advertise, again, only if there is enough interest.

Quiz

The Annual LUSC quiz will be held on Thursday 23rd Feb in The Eddie Gray Suite in the magnificent New East Stand. 7.30 bar  to start promptly at 8pm. Teams of four and the branch will pay the entry fee. This is open to all LUSC members and there is a pie and peas supper included. Questions will be provided by Andrew Dalton (“Stats” as I was informed by Dave Rowson on Sunday). Several rounds of questions including Leeds United, general sport, general knowledge, general football etc. The branch has won the quiz a long time ago, sadly in the last few years we have managed one trophy for joint runner up in 2009. This was a magnificent effort by The Secretary and The MPO who were flying high at the end of round 7 in first place, but failed miserably to answer any of the Leeds United questions in round 8. It was a little disappointing but demonstrates clearly how much The Chairman was missed… Our last trophy below:

That is putting it mildly. Disappointment, outrage, disgust, embarrassment, a tumult of feelings, not one of them good. I had my little rant last night after getting home at nearly 11pm following that poor excuse for football match. After getting up at 4.00am, that was nearly as bad as Brighton, we lost there as well.

I wasn’t planning on anymore complaining, as it was plain to see that the keyboard warriors were already out in full force. At least I wasn’t, until I saw the ridiculous number of piteous “meaningless Cup” remarks. In the past I have tried not to get annoyed by these throwaway phrases that people use, and I have tried not to make disparaging comments about those people who say these things who don’t actually go to games. Unfortunately I am rising to this because frankly these people really piss me off.

I am so riled I don’t even know where to start. So, in no particular order:

Garry with two Rs

I can’t even pretend I know or understand how/why you picked your team. I do understand that you wanted to protect your first team players on that pitch, especially those who have just come back from injury like Pablo and Jansson, and those who have played a lot of games this season like Captain Bartley and Chris Wood. I understand promotion is high on the agenda. So why didn’t you field the team that played against Cambridge, or even the team who did so well in the League Cup? It felt like you were running a Sunday morning pub game. You just waited to see who would turn up for the team bus outside Elland Road, picked the ones who didn’t look hung over and then randomly pulled names out of a hat for the rest. What happened to the famous half time talk, and those brilliant substitution decisions? Thanks for not taking into consideration the time and the money that those fans who turned up to stand in the cold and rain wasted.

The Team

I am not bothered how much you get paid a week, because you are probably not bothered about how much I get paid either. All I and other fans ask, is that when you pull on that shirt, you concentrate for 90 minutes whilst you are on that pitch and play the game 100% to the best of your abilities for the whole 90 minutes. It would be great if at some point, you could consider how the fans feel, but that is a bonus really, seeing as some of the fans do nothing but hurl abuse at you anyway especially when you do something wrong. So, because you can’t really reciprocate that and it is difficult to ignore it, walking off in a huff every now and again is fine too. A wonder goal once a month doesn’t excuse you for not bothering to chase a ball down or pass to another Leeds player for the other three or four games you play. Regardless of whether you are in the first team or in the 2nd or 3rd team or under 23s, you should still be able to string a couple of passes together, and more importantly take a free kick and help it towards the goal.

Moaning fickle Leeds United fans

Our branch, like most LUSC branches is a non profit organisation. That means that the reason we do what we do, is not to make any money, it is for the branch members. All the effort that is put in, is purely to do what we do best, and get our members to away games. I know many fans get their own tickets and many fans make their own way to grounds either by bus or train or drive themselves. It is up to you how you do it, and if you have the luxury of the time, the means, the money and patience to sort all of this out on your own, then fair dos, well done. Lucky you! Be happy that you have a job that allows you the time and the money to sit in front of a computer and order your match tickets and organise your travel arrangements. Be happy that you have an understanding family and friends that spare you the time to do this. Most, if not all of our members aren’t so lucky. Most, if not all of our members have jobs or other commitments like caring for relatives and families etc. Most, if not all of our members work hard for the money that they need to go to these games.

So we ( The Secretary and the rest of the branch committee) do it. We negotiate with the coach company in the closed season to make sure we get a decent deal for our members. We make sure we have a coach company who will turn up on time, who will give us a decent bus with decent facilities and a decent driver. We make sure bookings are taken in advance of the tickets going on sale, so any member who wants to go to a game gets as good a chance as possible of a ticket. We sit in front of a computer ordering match tickets on the day, and we pay for them. We sort out our refreshment stops pre match, so we all have a good day out. We make sure everyone knows the departure times and we sit and wait for anyone who is late. We liaise with the Police Liaison Officer to make sure we leave enough time to get the coach to the match complying with the police instructions. We, in short make sure we get our members to games.

So for you to chelp on about not caring because it doesn’t mean anything anyway, just have a think for one minute about how much this game actually did mean. You selfish, insensitive, miserable wasters.

It is not just about the cost in money terms. It is the time spent away from families, doing family stuff. It is the time spent negotiating time off work. Not everyone works 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, sitting on their backsides all day in front of a computer screen. Some people are self employed, that’s a whole day when they could be working, this includes on a Sunday believe it or not. Not everyone has jack all to do at the weekend and spends it slumming it in front of the telly watching Netflix or your box sets. Not everyone has no other responsibilities or commitments in life.

More importantly, its about pride. Pride in the history of Our Club. Pride in our loyalty to Our Club. When you start whingeing about why players, including our Youth players, leave Leeds United to go to another Club that pays more money, or has more opportunities, that’s because it upsets the pride that you have for Leeds United.

When you next sing about “January 3rd, remember the date…” think about how little the FA Cup means to you then. Should we have won on Sunday, we would have got Arsenal at home. How many of you would have been desperate for a ticket to watch the “Mighty” Arsenal? How many of you would be complaining about the crap service at Leeds United’s ticket office for your one home game per season for that “Glory Tie”. Oh sorry, 2nd because you obviously came to watch the Newcastle game, right? How many of you scrambled to get a ticket for that League Cup 4th round Norwich game, when you couldn’t be bothered to shift yourself for the Blackburn 3rd round tie ? How many of you moaned incessantly about “how unfair” it was when you couldn’t get a ticket for the Liverpool game at Anfield, because surprisingly enough, Leeds made it a “loyalty tracker game” in the first instance, and you had only bothered to go to one away game this season? All in your “meaningless Cup” or another Cup that doesn’t really matter until you get a “Big” game?

As the younger generation say, jog on.

(As usual, my thoughts are my own and please read the Disclaimer like it tells you to)