I’ve looked at this from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow – no,  I still can’t see it.

It isn’t just the football club with it’s lackadaisical attitude to the FA Cup, it’s the fans as well. The ones who think the league is more important than the Cup. They might as well just take off with the team on some money spinning Asia/Australasia/America tour on the FA Cup weekends. They might enjoy themselves more doing that, seeing as The FA Cup just isn’t relevant to them anymore. After all, it was only Don Revie who said that winning the FA Cup was the best day of his life.

It is just too easy to forget the days of the whole country grinding to a halt on Cup Final day and everyone crowding around the one telly in the street to see the game. The days when you only got 3 live games on the telly a year, the FA Cup Final, England v Scotland and occassionally the European Cup Final if an English team was in it.

Following on from my letter to the Club, here is the letter to the fans (in the loosest possible terms of my understanding of the word “fans”).

Dear Football fan

The time is drawing near for you to plan your football watching season in 2019.

If you are one of those who think the league is far more important that the FA Cup, can I please request that you book your holidays for the Cup weekends, thereby sparing the rest of us from your negative defeatist attitudes. As the FA Cup weekends are generally in winter, warmer climes are appropriate and you will reduce the demand on school holiday time for the rest of us.

In the extremely unlikely event of the Club taking the competition seriously and progressing into the later stages of the FA Cup, please can you spare us from the whingeing about not being able to get a ticket to that “glory tie”.  If your mantra is “The Cup doesn’t really matter”, this smacks of total, utter, complete hypocrisy and someone needs to slap you in the face with a cold wet fish. I wonder how many of you were clamouring for one of the 8000+ £48 tickets for Old Trafford a few seasons ago? More importantly, how many of you would admit to it?

I would also like to point out that joining in with the “January 3rd, remember the date” is also seen as hypocrisy of the highest order, please desist with immediate effect.

Losing any game is not to be taken lightly. Losing to lower league opposition, is particularly damaging to team spirit and the knock on effect of a defeat by minnows will invariably affect the performance in the subsequent games. As a fan, your objectives should always be to celebrate a win.

Yours truly

A football fan from days gone by

ps

Shame on you for forgetting your history. Shame on you for forgetting the great Revie era. Shame on you for forgetting Side before Self. Shame on you for forgetting that it is all about for playing for the team and the pride of the shirt. Every game matters, week in, week out. That is just how it is.

Like the Pilot song, January – sick and tired, you’ve been hanging on me. This has definitively been a January to forget. I had written a very upbeat blog just after Birmingham, but completely forget to click that publish button. Thank God I didn’t, as reading it back now, after those terrible decisions TC made yesterday, I would have looked a complete Monk, sorry fool.

This has unfortunately all stemmed from the mistake of fielding a weaker side against Newport County. You would have thought that after the buzz phrase of the decade “lessons have been learned”, has been hammered round from successive Government failures/NHS and banking crises/police f**k-ups over the last 15 years, someone would have taken a bit of notice.

Sadly not. So this is my letter. A letter that I would send if I thought the Club had any sense of humour, dignity,decorum, faith, honour in traditions etc.etc.etc . However, I think that our Club, along with the rest of the 72 other football league clubs have about as much respect for our footballing history and  traditions, as they have for the fans that pay their hard earned cash, and give up their time to travel to watch their team around the country.

Please see the section from FA Cup website ( I will attempt to attach the PDF of this just in case anyone wants to read the full rules). I had no idea that a football club has to actually apply to compete (in the loosest possible terms of my understanding of “compete”) in the FA Cup.

A Club wishing to participate in the Competition must complete the application and payment
process on or before 1 April in the season previous to the season in which such Club
proposes to compete in the Competition. A Club that is either a Full or Associate Member
of The Association who fail to pay The Association’s Membership subscriptions by 1 August
may be subject to removal from the Competition.

Dear (insert as appropriate) Football Club

The closing date for your application to play in next season’s FA Cup is looming.

Please can I request that if you are  not intending to FULLY participate in the competition, please do not bother to send in your application form.

If you have little or no respect for the history and the traditions of the oldest football tournament in the world, please do not waste your time.

If you intend on making 10 changes from your league side,  fielding your 2nd/3rd and/or youth team players, entering this competition would be a pointless exercise.

If you cannot see the value of using the Cup ties as an opportunity to develop your squad players, practice new playing systems and configurations, and see these games as a distraction from the more important league games, please desist.

If you cannot see the benefits of beating a lower league side comprehensively, both in the confidence boost from scoring and winning, and increasing the goal tally for the season, you are best to avoid the Cup.

If you choose to ignore the fact that there may be a boost to the Club revenue from full house cup ties from ticket sales and the subsequent merchandise/ retail outlets /catering streams income, that is your choice.

If you cannot acknowledge the importance of the fan experience at both home and away games, and realise that the fans that travel round the country are just as, if not more valuable, than the ones that watch on which ever random television channel decides it wants to inconvenience the travelling fans with, that is your perogative.

If this is your approach, we look forward to not receiving your application.

However, if you were simply concerned that you were going to miss the Royal wedding and had already applied for your street party licence, I fully understand. After all , moving the kick off til 5.30pm, just simply isn’t enough time to enjoy the full day of celebrations with Harry and Megan.

Yours truly

A football fan from days gone by

Smiles on the faces of Leeds manager Don Revie and club captain Billy Bremner as they hold the FA Cup which the club won in 1972 when they beat Arsenal

Not wishing to hijack the Movember project at all, which is a worthy cause raising awareness for men’s health issues, I would like to propose “Move-ember”. Move-ember is a cause designed to raise awareness of playing your players in the right position thus facilitating said players to move into the best positions to score a goal or defend the goal as a team.

Since my last blog in September, I like the team have taken a short leave of absence due to various problems. Unlike the team, however, I have not headbutted / kneeded anyone in the short and curlies to give me a 3 match suspension, I was not taken out by my own player, I did not dislocate my shoulder nor has my wife given birth to a child. I am back now and hopefully hot on my heels, so is the team.

After last night’s display against Derby, unlike a large number of fans who disgracefully boo-ed the players off the pitch, I was still strangely calm in the face of such adversity. If we had scored another goal just before half time, if we had continued playing in the second half as we had in the first and if we hadn’t gifted both those goals away, it would have been ok. Plus, there are no excuses for the shoddy effort from the referee and the linespersons in that game (how anyone could give a penalty for that is pitiful). There are flashes of brilliance in our team, the problem just seems to be exactly that – there are flashes of brilliance but no consistency. I don’t mean thick enough to coat the back of a spoon either (Chef reference there!)

It isn’t as if Lasogga cannot score. It’s not as if Saiz cannot make a decent run at players. It isn’t as if we cannot close anyone down effectively in midfield and peg them down in their end. It isn’t as if we cannot defend our goal. Simply put, we can do all of this, just not consistently throughout an entire game, let alone lately, string a few wins together. After all, we are still 7th in the league. We can get to the play off positions if we beat Brentford. It’s not even Christmas yet!

I can see how some fans are a bit despondent, especially those whose interests were only recently rekindled by the new era of Radrizzani and Orta et al. You were fooled by our fantastic start, the first 6 games where we looked unbeatable, and everyone was calling TC the Messiah. More fool you, dear Hector, I still remember Sutton. The season is played and won across 46 games, and it doesn’t really matter where you are until after Christmas, as we all know well from last seasons monkfoolery!

So, where do I start? Good question? Let’s start at the defence.

In the first seven league games we looked unbeatable. Everyone said we were going up as Champions ( including me). The defence looked rock solid and Felix – Felix didn’t concede a goal in 6 games! Cooper looked a changed man from last seasons (Sutton) debacles and the team picked him as Captain. Many ate their words in a 2016/17 Chris Wood -esque turnaround with a massive helping of humble pie and despite Beradi dislocating his shoulder at Bolton, our back four looked pretty darn good. Whichever combination of Ayling, Cooper, Pennington, Shaughnessy, Jansson, Borthwick-Jackson and Anita, TC picked, it worked! It worked so well that Ayling turned into a right winger and started flinging in some seriously good crosses.

Then Millwall, and reality hit, and it hit us hard, right in the balls. If the bottle that got chucked on the pitch that day, which was ignored by the referee, the linesman, the EFL etc.etc. had hit the ground as hard as our team got hit, there would have been a meteoric hole in the den, and I don’t just mean in our defence either. Felix tried his best, and to be fair, had he not pulled off some cracking saves, we would have been 5 nil down. The goal wasn’t his fault, the blame for that goes to Jansson for hoofing the ball into the air in the penalty area rather than clearing it. There was a school of thought that it was offside, but the ref having already risked life and limb for disallowing that Morrison goal, caved under pressure. Jansson then went off injured and we were down to 10 men for the rest of the game.

Since then, our defence has been a bit of a mess. But not without reason. Multiple injuries have seen off a regular back four, Anita picked up a knock and got subbed at the Ipswich game, Pontus carried the injury he got from Millwall into the next few games. The relative inexperience of Shaughnessy, Pennington and B-Jackson (all who had already picked up niggling injuries) was exposed as Ayling and Cooper tried to take the strain. It seemed to take ages for Beradi to get back after he dislocated his shoulder, and with the inconsistency of the back four, Felix suffered the most. Felix, unfortunately took the brunt of the abuse from the fans, which frankly doesn’t help anyone’s confidence, and subsequently his dip in form has put Warhorse Lonergan back between the sticks.

So, you would think that TC would just stick to playing a flat back four until his defence shores themselves up and gets a few clean sheets under their belts, wouldn’t you? Well, I would anyway. Sadly not. Ayling has been caught forward so many times lately, it seems inevitable that any team that makes even the feeblest attempt to trickle the ball down our right flank, is going to put the ball in the back of our net. Even O Kane was coming in to cover last night, and before anyone starts this whole, “midfield should be able to drop back” rubbish, this is what Bridcutt did last season, and look how well we did with that!

The fact is that there is no point us having a 40-goal-a-season goal machine up front if our defence leaks in 50 weak shots. I would much rather us win 1-0 keeping a clean sheet, after all if we keep a clean sheet for the rest of the season, that’s play offs a cert, isn’t it?

Anyway, the long and short of it is, we need a stable defence.

Secondly, our midfield, or whatever configuration we are playing vaguely in the middle of the park in front of the big guy Lasogga. Even he doesn’t know who is playing in the middle, so who is he looking to to get the ball off? That’s right – the keeper! Seeing as all we are doing is getting the ball from midfield, passing it back to the defence, who are giving it to the keeper to hoof up. Or is that too simplistic? This is of course, when we are not trying to walk the ball into the back of the net. I am a bit frustrated about this, as you can tell. We have the potential, we don’t utilise it.

At times, our midfield has resembled something from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, four hobbits and some bloke with a pointy hat (ok – no pointy hat) trying to get past a load of orcs to get the ball in the goal. It may seem a bit harsh comparing Saiz, Alioski, Pablo and Roofe to Mr Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry, as they clearly don’t have massive hairy feet and pointy ears, but we are dwarfed (no pun intended) by just about every team in this league. We are muscled off nearly every ball (with the help of the refs) unless we make a break for it. It worked in the book and the films, but these particular set of skills are just not transferable to a football pitch unfortunately. I am not saying most of Division 2’s midfielders are disfigured, slobbering, cumbersome, oversized goblins (I think) , but you get my drift – right?

Like all good battle formations, use the flanks to draw the foe and then deliver the killer blow. Players attached to the touchline on a piece of slinky which pulls them back when they get near the penalty box, just can’t cut it. If and when, we get the ball to Saiz, draw the defenders away, the cross goes in and Lasogga scores or Phillips gets the second ball from the flick on. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

No Formation + No Movement = Headless Chickens

Mind you, at least there isn’t some weird, creepy creature hovering around in the background, wringing his hands and  muttering “My Precious” under his breath. He’s gone to Boro

Don’t start pretending like you never thought of that either!

September sees us unbeaten in the league and the Cup. So far, so good. With a near sell out crowd for Saturday’s game against Burton, and probably the same for Birmingham thanks to the 33% discount offer, it is all looking rather good. Leeds United are moving in the right direction. The football we are playing is better. The team spirit amongst the players is better. The engagement with the fans is better. It is just a pity that for some bizarre reason, the spirit between the fans is going the opposite way.

The 33% off deal was brilliant, Leeds United giving something back. Yet people complained that it wasn’t fair on season ticket holders? Eh? I have been a season ticket holder for er… long enough.. and I think it is great. We wouldn’t have got this under Bad Papa Smurf. The ticket prices for children were slashed by Sig. Cellino and continue to remain low under Mr Radrizzani. Ipswich for £1 apparently now? Yes, they could have opened more seats up for the Newport game, and in fact were forced to open the North East and North West corners on the night due to demand, but I can let that slide. We are drawing in bigger crowds – brilliant.

So, as the great Marvin Gaye said, what’s going on?  What’s happened to “all Leeds arn’t we”?

Much like the classic George Orwell novel, Animal Farm, we are all Leeds, just some think they are more Leeds than others.

As regular blog readers are aware, my words are my own, and frankly, I don’t care what people think of me. This blog was never intended to win me any friends ( haha and hasn’t!). I’ve been a Leeds fan for long enough to have formed my own opinions. Admittedly, given my age, not as long as The Chairman or certain other branch members, but long enough to have gone through sufficient good times and bad. I’ve been an LUSC member for at least 90% of that time. It was Eric Carlile’s fault that I became a member, and the condition of my liver, lies squarely at his feet!

I blame social media for most of this (not my liver- that’s my own fault). In the 90’s we never had any of this and the only time you heard anyone else’s opinion was stood at the bar pre match or in the ground. There was chatter on the bus on the way to the pubstop obviously, but there wasn’t that much in depth discussion on the way back for other drink related reasons. The fanzines were the only other outlet for topical debate on all things Leeds. So, if you didn’t see anyone for a week, any het up frustration you had about Sergeant Wilko going mad buying Tomas Brolin or the the fact that Carlton Palmer couldn’t pass to a white shirt in a coal shed, had more or less waned. Nowadays, as soon as something happens, the world is on it (via Sky Sports News) and then anyone who is anyone has their say. Then it escalates into a full-on-fisticuffs-at-fifty-paces, with the inevitable fall out over probably nothing much at all, like Chris Wood for example. Thank heavens The Chairman hasn’t got a computer or a smartphone!

Joking aside, the dissatisfaction comes from all corners and it is difficult to identify and quantify it in order to stop the rot.

It started with the gaping chasm opened up by Bates. Even after we had plummeted to the depths of Division 3 football, there were still people who defended him to the hilt for “saving the club”. Despite the fact that we probably would have been better off going into administration and clawing our way back up the leagues, even now, he still has his band of admirers. The bad blood between the LUSC and “his Bad Businessship” made matters worse, and the divide deepened. This resulted in people forgetting what the LUSC was all about, and subsequently, newer Leeds fans don’t really understand what the Supporters branches do.

Needless to say, we, the LUSC are still here supporting Leeds United, with our Centenary round the corner. With any luck, the last remnants of Sad Santa will be eliminated by Mr Radrizzani in his new era of Leeds United Football Club. If I had my way, Sad Santa would be blown into smithereens with a bazooka as soon as you could see the whites of his eyes.

A.B. (after bates), we had a certain group claiming to be the “true voice of Leeds United fans” proclaiming our new saviours aka GFH. After the fallout from that disaster, yet another group was formed, which claimed to bring even more voices of Leeds United fans together. Enter Mr Cellino, bringing in even more pro/anti groups, with increasingly louder voices and bigger budget publicity campaigns in order to get their own points across, and hey presto, a schism similar to the Mariana Trench in size has formed in all four corners of the globe.

I think the discontent generated from various groups trying to be ” the voices of the fans” has unfortunately contributed to disenchantment, with fans nowadays thinking they have the right to be consulted about everything Leeds United say or do. Speaking from my own experience, it is hard enough to get a consensus amongst the branch members of player of the month once every 4 weeks. So trying to find out what Leeds United fans think when there are fans spread across the 7 continents is a nigh on impossible feat. No one short of Professor Charles Xavier from the X-Men would be able to purport to having that kind of information.

The away ticket allocation debacles have not helped either. As much as no one wishes to admit it, there are more people wanting to go to away games now than there used to be. I have previously stated, I don’t like the term bandwagon jumpers. It is wrong. Some people have had genuine reasons why they stopped going, and now are coming back. These people, and completely new fans, are contributing to the difficulties of acquiring tickets for those of us who have been lucky enough to have continued going all these years. I have no doubt at all that some have been very vocal on social media and to Leeds United directly, about the perceived unfairness of using last season’s tracker.

The fact that Leeds United still bears the tag of “Dirty Leeds”, the long lamented hooligan element of the 80s remains another sad nail firmly esconced in the away travellers coffin. The police and the home clubs do not need an excuse to reduce our ticket allocation. Despite the sad times that the EFL find themselves in, where people prefer to watch the game on telly, the 72 clubs hardly work hard to promote attendances at stadia across the country. The sight of a full ground cheering on the team is a thing of beauty. Nothing can compare to the feeling you get when we score at an away game, when the home crowd is stunned into silence and all you can hear is Marching On Together. The one true voice of Leeds United.

This should be celebrated. Welcomed with open arms. Our support should be talked about with enthusiasm, everyone should be extoling the virtues of our fantastic fans and not just at away games either, at home too. At our home, Elland Road. With Mr Radrizzani showing that the club is valuing the family atmosphere and encouraging the younger generation to actually go and watch a live football game, we should be all singing from the same hymn sheet.

Sadly, the away game atmosphere, while enjoyable when we are winning and playing well, suffers from the actions of a few, who ruin it for the others. Time for the miserable old git in me to put a dampener on things. Both the Sunderland and Notts Forest games were a perfect example of the opportunities that are flitting away from us. There was ample space in those stands to get more away fans in, at least a few hundred more. The revenue from those extra ticket sales would have benefitted those home clubs. The Stadium of Light and The City Ground were hardly at capacity, especially when compared to the 80s. So what is going on?

Is it the fact that Leeds United will only allow less than 3000 away fans at Elland Road, therefore the home clubs are merely reciprocating? Since the days of the Cheese Wedge and The South Stand being used for away fans, there has been a noticeable drop in away supporters at Elland Road. Before any Toon Army fans who may be reading this say anything, sometimes it isn’t for want of trying. I believe the West Stand cannot take anymore away fans due to the need to segregate the home and away fans, whatever rule that is. I can’t  see any South Stand season ticket holders wanting to be usurped by any away fans soon either. Again, the change in the area used to house away fans lies solely at the feet of Bad Papa Smurf. As I believe the EFL restricted the price of away tickets so that the home clubs weren’t allowed to charge away supporters more than the home fans in a similar area. As West Stand tickets are more expensive, the away fans were moved to the area down the side of the West Stand for monetary purposes, and now that can’t /won’t be changed as the police feel the area is safer in terms of crowd control etc.

Is it because the home clubs and/or the police feel that too many Leeds fans will cause too much trouble in the ground? Given that Fulham have operated a “neutral area” the last few seasons with no massive increase in crowd trouble, is this really the case? Last season at Blackburn, Wigan and Preston, we had massive allocations. Was there any more trouble at these grounds? Is it that different clubs and different police forces have different views on Leeds fans depending on previous experiences? Would it be better if there was a one size fits all? Is there anything that Leeds fans can do about this?

My view is yes, yes we can. The rules (whether we like it or not) are that following the Taylor Report, fans are NOT allowed to stand and block aisles or stairwells. Incendiary items such as flares are banned. There is a no smoking policy inside the ground, as is the norm everywhere now, now that the fun police have stopped innocent tax paying smokers from enjoying themselves. The more considerate fans amongst us would not create havoc if and when the home clubs decide that they won’t serve alcohol at half time because there are beer fights going on. The more considerate fans amongst us wouldn’t even consider having a beer fight. The tight gits amongst us would prefer to just drink the beer. The more considerate of us wouldn’t even think about climbing all over the walls / rafters just so someone can put a you tube video up on the internet for 5 minutes of fame. The more considerate of us wouldn’t bring a flare into the ground and hurl it from the stands, where it could hit someone, or chuck it onto the concourse at half time.

The sad fact is that, there will be people reading this thinking that I am a miserable boring old git, who doesn’t understand what awayday football is all about. The reality is that every time someone does something from the list above, you give the home clubs ammunition to reduce the allocation. I waited for the Burnley allocation to come out before I published this post, I nearly posted it last night, but I am glad I waited.

The last time we were at Burnley, I am pretty sure we were told that the behaviour was unacceptable the previous season(s). Still, our fans were climbing on the walls and the rafters of that old stand at half time. There was a huge bottleneck directly inside the turnstile entrance as people were trying to escape from a flare that had been chucked on the concourse before kick off. It was all a gigantic shambles, and not helped at all by our own fans who just continued merrily to abuse the rules. So no surprise at all today when the ticket allocation has been announced and we are only getting 2000 or so. No surprise either the response so far on social media complaining about the small allocation. What do you expect? That they are going to give us that whole end after what has happened in previous seasons? Who do you think you are kidding? Moaning about other clubs getting more for a Cup game and crying that they are picking on Leeds fans?

This whole sense of entitlement is so very, very, very annoying. Right from the people who are 1st time season ticket holders who think they are entitled to an away match whenever they want regardless of anyone else, to the “all Leeds Arn’t we” crowd, who think that they can do as they please at an away game without any repercussions. No one wants to take any responsibility for their actions, not one person is willing to step up and say, f**k it, we really need to think about what we say and what we do before we open our mouths or jump in feet first. I have, and now I will be lambasted by all and sundry, as if I care!

And who are the winners and losers in all this? There are no winners. There is just us,  the loyal fans who spend our time and money doing something we love – watching Leeds United, we are not losers – but we lose.

photo removed as requested 4/7/2025

Although I have had my fair share of outbursts… Sutton to name one… now that the deal has been done, how about just a little bit of decorum and some home truths? After all, honesty is the best policy.

He’s gone. Wood has left the building. He was tempted away by the premiership. Whether it was the money, the status, the money, the thought of playing the likes of Arsenal/City/Spurs etc. week in, week out, the money, the claret and blue strip, the money, the chance of playing at home in that fantastic stadium at..er.. Turf Moor, or the money. Whatever the reason, he has gone.

As I said before, thanks for scoring all those goals last season. Thanks for putting up with all those Wood haters the season before and proving them wrong. There is no doubt at all that most of us went home last season very happy, because of his efforts. I have no doubt at all that had Monk played a better system at home, with two strikers up front, that bit of support would have made a difference. If Monk had taken into account the fact that Wood played more or less every game, as well as going the furthest on International duty trips, therefore would have benefitted from a strike partner, things would be different. We would have been in the premiership ourselves for a start!

To all those who are saying that he was useless, be honest, just admit it. The guy was top goal scorer in the league. Remember that goal at Newcastle? He wasn’t that bad. If he wasn’t that good and Burnley didn’t think he would be able to help them fight relegation, they wouldn’t have put three bids in for him. Whether or not he makes any impact at Burnley, remains to be seen. Time will tell. Will he even get picked for a start? At £15 million, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.

If he was just up front about it and said, yeah, I have the opportunity to earn twice as much as I am getting now, to do more or less the same job, he would have got a bit more respect. If he had the balls to say, I know you fans idolised me last season, but realistically, 20,000 people cheering me on isn’t going to buy me the lastest SUV or 80 inch telly for my front room, he wouldn’t have so many people calling him names. If he said, yep, Leeds United did me a massive favour when there was no way I could stick a chance playing next to Jamie Vardy, so ta very much Mr Cellino. Again, a murmur of approval. If he said, yeah, the atmosphere winning at Elland Road and playing away with such fantastic support, it was brilliant. I am going to miss it, and I know that I will never experience that sort of adulation ever again, thanks for the memories, it would be gracious. If he said, I’m not confident that I will get promoted with Leeds United, at least if I go to Burnley now, I can stick it on my CV that I played in the top flight of English football, and then maybe some American or Chinese side will pay me oodles to play in their leagues once my English League career is over in 2019. Point taken, a nod of acknowledgement. If he had just said, I know I am letting the fans down and my team mates down, but honestly, I am looking out for myself. I know it’s selfish, but hey, that’s how life is. The reaction would be massively different. Sadly, honesty was just not top of his agenda.

So, I will say it again, he was top goal scorer in the league, however, the Premier League is a completely different animal to the Championship. Will he be able to adapt? Just look at Newcastle and the transition they had to make when they came down. It took months to adjust. Benitez had to change his game plan, much to the dismay of the Toon Army, and eventually had to grind out that promotion push. To his credit, he did. But he lost the favour of many Newcastle die hards, who just didn’t like the style of football he was forced to play. Will Wood be able to cut the mustard? Bovvered?

Monk, well he just didn’t change his game plan at all, did he? Apart from Sutton, of course, and heaven knows what he was thinking then. Home or away, the same old same old. Full backs playing as wingers, central midfielders going back to help the defence, wide midfielders  struggling to get a consistent cross over to the one lone striker, no one to run onto the final ball. When Doukara did come on last season, he made an impact straight away. So had Monk been a bit braver, and believed in his squad a bit more, how many more goals could we have scored? How many more games could we have won? Would we have beaten Newcastle at home? Could we have keep a clean sheet at Villa after Christmas. Barnsley, yes, Barnsley away, 3-2. Could we have ground out results against Fulham away and QPR at home? Reading and Brentford away were terrible, and as for losing at home against Wolves and Burton, flipping Burton away. It’s enough to drive you mad with frustration.

For once in my life, I am not going to dwell on this…..unlike Sutton. On Tuesday we are playing Newport in the Cup. TC has promised that he will put his best team out as he wants us to win every game. I will understand if he leaves the likes of Pontus, Ayling, O Kane and Phillips out. They played a lot last season and by jingo, they and Cooper played their socks off on Saturday.  We have a tough game on Saturday, and letting some of the less experienced squad have a run out tomorrow will be good. No disrespect to Newport, of course. After Sutton, lessons have to be learnt, I doubt if TC will be putting two youth players on to make their 1st team debuts though.

As for Wood….

Like the song says and what Leonardo is smiling about… all about the money!

When I was young, I swore I would never turn into one of those miserable, grumpy old people who always went on about how “it wasn’t like this in the old days”. Sadly, actually, not sadly at all, LUCKILY I have! Even better, I have now got a website to spread my moans to cyberspace with, and with my fantastic disclaimer of course, basically I can say what want! Brilliant!

Bolton tickets!

What a palaver. The keyboard warriors, myself included (as I can now proudly class myself as a keyboard warrior albeit still only using two fingers to type) are out. A full on war of words. If I ever watched Game Of Thrones, it would be G.O.T but without dragons or tits. Having never watched G.O.T, I actually don’t know what I am on about, a bit like what has been said on social media about Bolton tickets.

I tried to order tickets for Bolton on Thursday for the people from my branch who have a proper job / don’t have access to a computer or phone / couldn’t operate a computer or smartphone for love nor money (you know who you are!). That is, those who can’t order their own. The Leeds United ticketing website booted me out after I put my credit card details in several times.  I was not pleased. As far as I can gather, this happened to quite a few people. So I can’t be solely blamed for my incompetence.

There have been problems with ordering tickets before. Generally worse for 1st and last aways of the season, popular new grounds and games with small allocations. This is not an isolated incident, and as usual I used facebook to report this to the members of the branch. Realistically, I use facebook because it is so much easier than ringing and texting people, like we used to do in the old days. Don’t get me wrong, there were still many members who were called and texted, as not everyone has facebook. Thursday and Friday were NOT good days.

My post prompted comments, as facebook does, as it is there to generate discussion, I suppose. Some were consolatory, some agreeing and some downright not very helpful nor sympathetic. I wasn’t actually asking for sympathy or random comments, I was just letting branch members know what was going on, and oh yes and venting my frustration. Unfortunately, however facebook works, I found that I was being notified to other comments on other groups etc. True to form, I found that the ticketing problems were being aired all Thursday, Friday and even into the weekend. My phone was buzzing all day, so much so I left it in another room, switched off.

With fake news being so prominent of late, it is hard to believe what is true or false. I saw someone repost a twitter message from someone who had got a ticket and was trying to sell it on. It looked like the Leeds United ticket office also saw that twitter message and kindly cancelled the ticket, so it could be sold onto someone who did want it. If this did happen, all I can say is that person deserved all he got. There was also a post from someone who said they had got tickets and had never been to an away game in their life before, and they were looking forward to it. Well done I say to them. This prompted a bit of anger from people who didn’t get one and then the discussions about who is more deserving of tickets started again.

In the old days, you used to contact Eric Carlile from the LUSC and he would sort out tickets for the LUSC branches. Yes, as easy as that. I think this was in part as a result of the role the LUSC played helping Leeds United with the problems in the 80s, i.e. the incessant crowd trouble and violence in and around away matches. The LUSC have only ever been about getting people to games and supporting Leeds United.  For their efforts, LUSC were given half the allocation of away tickets, I am sure if someone collars Eric one day, he will expand on this. In the old days, however, the demand did not exceed the supply as much as it does today. If the Supporters Club didn’t sell all the allocation they were given, the tickets just went back onto general sale at the ticket office. You could just queue up at Elland Road and buy an away ticket, as easy as that.

When Bad Santa got his grubby paws on the club , he stopped all of that. Totally opposite to the “if it works, don’t fix it” business model. This must have cost Leeds United oodles in delivery costs, sending out tickets indiviually in the post ( in hand written envelopes, one ticket per envelope) and in staffing costs, to deal with the tickets. We all know about his business sense, or rather lack of it. You had to fax your order in and if the fax machine wasn’t working, that was you stuffed. If you faxed it in 30 secs early they wouldn’t accept it either. Otherwise you had to post your form in, relying on Royal Mail and then Leeds United receiving it, which I can honestly say, was extremely worrying. I remember the days of trying to call the ticket office repeatedly to make sure they got my order. Not fun at all and definitely not the most efficient way to spend half a day. There were only 6 names per form and the aways were done in phases.  I still have paperwork from 2009/10 season where Leeds United had sent forms out individually for the people who qualified for Brighton & Hove Albion game at The Withdean. Yes, the club sent out individual forms. Unbelievable! How many of you younger folk even know what a fax machine is? I am sure many LUSC Branch Secretaries still have nightmares from back then.

So, those people who still think the Supporters Clubs get an allocation, how wrong you are! However, Evil Incarnate did allow his RMCs to get a priority order in for 20 tickets for games that were local to the respective RMCs. This apparently was used effectively last season by an RMC from Aberdeen applying for the much sought after Newcastle tickets. I don’t even think there were 20 people in Aberdeen RMC, but apparently some guy advertised that he could get tickets for the game using this RMC bit of loophole. Whether or not anything was ever done about it, who knows?

So what about who deserves the tickets? How do you say who is more loyal or not? Sticky wicket I am afraid. Is loyalty all about the money? Is it all about the money you spend at Leeds United buying shirts, programmes and other merchandise? Is it about whether you can afford a home and away season ticket? Is it about how long you have been spending money on shirts and season tickets?

For those people who have been going to watch Leeds United most of their lives, giving up family time and using up every bit of holiday to trawl around the dark days of Division 3 football, I think the answer is clear. For those who kept travelling to watch us at Southampton on a Tuesday night, Bristol in the snow, Swindon Town etc. in the days of old warhorses and mercenary players coming in on loan because the warchest was empty, the answer is clear. For those who will spend the entire 90 minutes watching what is going on the pitch, rather than staring at their phones, the answer is clear. For those who get behind the team and support them win, lose or draw, it is clear. For those who scrape together every bit of spare money and holiday time they get so they can get to see a game, yes, it’s clear.

For the increasing number of people who are just going to say they have been to a game, it’s not so clear. For the ones who go and stand in the aisles, blocking everyone else’s view and not even watching the game, it’s not so clear. For those who don’t even get there for kick off and then spend most of the 1st half in the bar throwing beer over them and everyone else, it’s not clear. For those with the attention span of a fruit fly, who would rather be shouting at the home fans rather than getting behind the team when we start losing, it’s not so clear. For those who ruin it for everyone else by throwing flares because they are bored and think it improves the atmosphere at away games, not so clear. For those who get bored and walk out before the end of the game, it’s not so clear. For those who spend most of the game staring at their phones, telling people the scores from the Premiership, not so clear. For those who would rather go to a game just to boo the players / team/ management staff/ chairman (delete as appropriate), not so clear.

You can see where I am coming from here, can’t you? Don’t get me wrong, Harrogate & District like a good day out and an amiable pre match refreshment stop is one of the many highlights of the day. We all like a good sing song and may miss kick off depending on traffic / queues etc. The majority of us go to watch the game and support the team. End of.

I know there are people from Ireland and Scandinavia who desperately try to go to as many aways as possible. These are the ones who the television gods screw around the most. These are the ones who are stuck in the middle. I don’t like the word “part-timer”. Many people have gone from never missing a game home or away to a couple of games a season because of work and family, or geography. The MPO missed an entire season in protest against Evil Papa Smurf / Nasty Neil /Spit The Diouf. Many people have stopped going simply because of money.

Although the price of a season ticket hasn’t gone up too extortionately for those of us lucky to have a season ticket, it has gone up. In the dark days of Division 3 football, it was too expensive for that rubbish. To be fair to Cellino, the season tickets for juniors were very reasonable in his reign, and it was a good move to get a new generation interested seeing as previous ones had been lost. Yes other local clubs have dropped their ticket prices, and it is now cheaper at some Premiership grounds than us here. The latter in part to the ridiculous money that comes from TV revenue now, the Chelseas and Citys don’t even need the matchday ticket money. The Championship, thanks to Shaun “unfit and improper” Harvey couldn’t wangle a tenth of the the deal for the Football League games. If the EFL spent as much time getting a proper deal with the TV companies for the telly rights as they did trying to charge Cellino, the 72 clubs might have been on a bit more of a parity. Sadly, their priorities were elsewhere as a vendetta against Leeds United had more importance and gravitas.

In essence, following Leeds United away has sadly turned into an elitest debacle. It is all about the money. In 2014 (I think), Leeds United was proud to have the LUSC Co Chair honoured at the EFL Capital One event for being a loyal fan. Phil clocked in 2000 consecutive Leeds games. Those were the days, it seems that being a loyal fan nowadays comes at a price.

If you can afford an away season ticket at £800 a pop and £15 card fees, YOU ARE IN!

If you can afford to take time off at work on ticket ordering day, YOU ARE IN!

If you can afford a decent smartphone or tablet (and know how to use it), YOU ARE IN!

For the rest of us mere mortals, this could be the beginning of the end for our branch trips.

It’s gonna be a long season!