In the inimitable words of the great Ken Wolstenholme – they think it’s all over – it is now.

That’s it til Qatar 2022 and what an end to the Euros it was!

I’d like to say that the game was the most entertaining, end to end pitch battle of the greatest football has to offer across the continent of Europe. Which, I would like to confirm – just for reference – the UK is still part of. We haven’t managed to extricate ourselves from the continent of Europe, we have merely left the economic shackles of the Federal state of Europe. Back to the subject at hand. I would love to have said that the display of the 22 men on the Wembley pitch was the pinnacle of footballing skill, a masterclass of managerial strategy and a feast of physical and mental endurance  ….. but it clearly wasn’t.

It was, in the end, 11 men holding onto a 1-0 lead for 88 minutes, with no game plan apart from get the ball to Kane, resulting in the dreaded dead ball situation which is England’s nemesis, and which Southgate should have avoided at all costs – but didn’t.

To be fair, they got to the final.

Pre tournament, the favourites were France, Belgium, Germany and Portugal going on the form of the likes of De Bruyne, Mbappe etc etc. So, realistically England although not rank outsiders, were not exactly going to be the ones that the bookies were panicking about. In fact, Wales had put on a far better show in the early round. Southgate had unsurprisingly picked 5 right backs and continued with his game plan of “get the ball to Kane”. The team selection was only ever going to revolve around getting as many behind the ball as he could in the hope that a lose ball would end up at Harry’s feet.

As usual I am biased, but if it hadn’t been for LUSC Sponsored player, Kalvin Phillips putting that sublime pass in to Sterling, there wasn’t going to be a goal in that game against Croatia. Apart from Pickford’s display last night in front of goal, there hasn’t been anyone else in the England team who has stepped up to the plate more than Kalvin.

This was Kalv’s first tournament, hopefully the first of many. He had his doubters in the press and social media as usual at the start, but he had a solid, resolute display in all of the games which any hardened international midfield veteran would have been proud of.

After their first game, I said that Italy would be a difficult team to beat. A team not unlike the old Championship teams, with a wall of giant immovable defenders and a Goliath between the sticks. That coupled with a bit of pace on the wings and a presence in front of goal was going to be difficult to wear down, but even worse, would be even harder to fend off once they were camped out in the oppositions half. As the second half wore on, it was like watching the Siege of Troy, with wave after wave of  destruction. Their goal was inevitable and the trio of Kane, Sterling and Mount could merely watch in horror as the onslaught on Pickford’s goal gathered pace.

As with all games, the keyboard managers out there and the armies of armchair know it alls – albeit with the benefit of hindsight, could see that Southgate needed to make changes early in the second half. If England had come out with guns blazing in the second half and scored a quick goal, I would have been happy with just defending the lead. But they didn’t and as the game wore on, Mancini used his subs to good effect, while Southgate kept Kane on, trying to add another £10 million onto his transfer fee in the coming weeks. Granted, taking the Captain off may have seemed a difficult decision, but you pick your players to win the game – at any cost. And that game needed to be won in 90 minutes – or at least in 120 minutes. There was no way – short of Pickford growing another two feet in height and width and another couple of limbs – that England were ever going to win a penalty shoot out.

Southgate didn’t change it soon enough though. Even though he had the likes of Calvert Lewin to give him an aerial advantage or Reece James to give him a bit of pace. He left it as it was, even though Mancini’s defence had already been booked.  By the time Grealish got on – it was too late.

So it came down to pens. In truth, had the ball had not gone out in the 119th minute, there might not have been the opportunity to bring on two of the youngest and most inexperienced England players. I wish he hadn’t.

In the after match commentary, it was said that Gareth had already picked the penalty takers going on what they had demonstrated during the practice sessions. As if the practice sessions could replicate the pressures of a  situation after 120 minutes in the final of the Euros – Gareth.

Regardless of who took the penalties, whoever missed was always going to get sorely abused. The idiots who have added racial slurs to their social media viciousness have no shame. They are probably the same ones who slated the Whattheheckingbottom Leeds side. The ones who said that the likes of Cooper, Dallas and Bamford weren’t good enough to wear the shirt and that there needed to be a wholesale change of the team if we were ever to get promotion.

These so called “fans” are the ones who want the instant success, the ones who expect and want the glory of winning but who have no concept of the hard graft that comes beforehand. The scenes of people storming the entrances on Sunday and at the semifinal game as well, without tickets, are a sad reminder that there exists a group of so called “fans” who think they deserve to watch a football game simply because they want to. The ones who have no idea of the hard work that goes into supporting your football team through thick and thin. These are probably the same ones who get a ticket somehow to a game and then spend the whole game on their phones taking selfies of themselves at a game that they are only ever going to watch if the team is winning.

Despite all of this, when it comes to a penalty shoot out, the rule is hard and low. Pick your spot and put your foot through it …. There is a time and place for hop, skip and jump – it’s called dinnertime and a playground, not Wembley .

https://images.app.goo.gl/N2GHbokMvTgLZhvb6

Fans Don’t Matter 3. My own continued biased view of how little respect the average match going fan is given in these “Modern Football” times. It’s something that I’ve been going on about for ages, in this blog and on noseybook, and will continue to do so until such the time is reached that matchgoing fans are given the respect they truly deserve. I thought that the hammering the Breakaway or at least WantAway 6 got, would have changed something. But sadly, as it goes in these “progressive” “modern” times – it only mattered for the very short length of time that the column inches warranted it, and now it has faded into obscurity until Barca and Real Madrid get really really skint again.

No quarter will be given today though, no holds barred, everything from Egotistical Super Losers or Entitled Self Centred Legitimisers to our own Club, dealing out misery again to the loyalest fans – again.

Now that Bojo and his clown club have decided that we can go back outdoors safely again, the last available game of the season was always going to be difficult one to juggle. I was hoping that the PL, in it’s usual omnipotence, would just tell the Clubs what to do in regards to who and how many get to go in. I was half wanting it all to go to the essential workers who got us through the last 12 months of hardship myself. That way the decision would have been taken out of the hands of our club and then no one could be blamed for who did or didn’t get a ticket. When I say essential workers, I don’t specifically mean the NHS frontline staff, I mean everyone, especially all those lorry drivers who worked tirelessly to keep the shops stocked up, even when they couldn’t get parked up or even get a decent meal through the day.  I mean the volunteers who delivered food and supplies to the elderly and vulnerable who couldn’t get out. All those local heroes who worked for food distribution networks in the area. Even more pertinent, all those who helped staff the jab centres, not just at ER but all over, from the vaccinators to the people who show people where to go park and made sure that the process went and still goes at a steady rate. That would have been the easy option.

Sadly, no!

So once again, the opportunity for Leeds United to screw over some of its and the Premier Leagues  most loyal fans, was there again. And I don’t say the loyalest Premier League (or if we hadn’t have gone up – Football Leagues) fans  lightly either. No other club has been through such tumultuous times in the last 30 years than our own. When it comes to footballing highs and lows, as always, with everything really,  Leeds do it better. I’m not saying what happened to Blackpool and Bury wasn’t a terrible thing, but let’s face it, Leeds United has been through a hell of a s**tstorm since we got promoted in 1989/90.

Promoted, then win the league as the last true 1st Division winners. European glory, setting the example for playing on through some of the greatest adversity imaginable. That semi-final in Valencia, to then fall foul of mismanagement on the pitch and in the boardroom. Court cases, consortium after consortium, then serial relegations, points deductions, Ken Bates does he or doesn’t he own the ground?, Weasel Harvey, skint Arabs, managerial merry-go-rounds, Neil Redfearn 6 times, Paul WhatTheHeckingbottom. I could go on and on and on – as they say.

But through it all, what has remained that one constant? What? No, WHO?

Who has remained that one constant? Us. Me – mebbe not, but certainly, many, many people who I know.

Through the last 30 years, there have been a small number of folk, who quite literally (this is a modern “progressive” way of saying it – using the word literally but not in the correct grammatical pedantic sense), a small number of the Faithful, who have “been through it altogether”. These fans matter.

Yeah, you all sing the words to the song when we are winning, but there are a small select group of fans who have genuinely been through it all together, who have been there through the ups and downs, and have been ‘Marching On Together’ in the true sense of the words since that fateful promotion day at Bournemouth. These fans matter.

This small number of people who have paid their season ticket / membership for three decades, deserved to get a ticket to the West Brom game. Some are the ones who forked out to get the 20 year season ticket, some are the original 350 who got away season tickets and were there for every long midweek away defeat in the lower leagues, some are just those who decided that every year they would commit to going to watch Leeds United, win lose or draw. And, don’t forget, you never needed to get a season ticket when we were rubbish, you used to be able to pay on the gate – you still could at Villa away not so long ago! Plus, there never used to be a pay more on the day charge – otherwise known by the capitalists as dynamic pricing. That was brought in by Bates initially and it’s been continued since, seeing as we aren’t shit anymore, they can get away with it, because everyone wants a ticket nowadays.

I have no idea exactly how many people have achieved this amazing feat, but it is definitely less than 8,000. If I was to hazard a guess at how many people have held a season ticket for 30 years, I would say maybe 2,000. At best 4,000, but certainly less than 8,000. As for away season tickets, I think there were 500 originally, but the take up fell to around 350 when we were rubbish and promotion was a pipe dream. Given that the LUSC used to have first dibs on 50% of the allocation and then any unsold went back to the Club, if Eric was still alive, he would be able to tell us. In fact, knowing Eric, he would probably know who they were. It’s easy to be dismissive, but no one can pretend that following Leeds United home and away was everyone’s cup of tea when we were shit. Up until the last 5 years or so, it wasn’t the “in” thing, and in fact judging by how many people returned their Ipswich tickets and cancelled their travel and accommodation 2 years ago as soon as it became a “dead rubber”, following Leeds United still isn’t an “in” thing. Or am I just being pernickety? Nah, I don’t think so, seeing as social media was full of outrage when we lost against 10 men Wigan, with people so disgusted that they threw their season tickets onto the pitch and were threatening to stick them to Billys statue and never waste their money on another one ever again. Or was that just an urban myth?

Leeds United would know who these dedicated people are though, and could have identified them from their records. These fans matter.

Given the last year, where people have been furloughed and lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic, I would have liked to see Leeds United do something nice. Some of us haven’t seen friends and family for a year. Many of us have missed out on the physical and mental benefits of social interaction, and no matter what people say, Zoom and Teams just doesn’t cut it. Football is so much more than just the 90 minutes on the pitch. We are one big Leeds United family. I’ve said it before, you don’t have to like all of them, some of them just piss you off breathing the same air, but we are all family. We share the ups and downs, the celebrations and the mire and we do it together. The ones who have unswerving and unconditionally been doing that for the last 30 years, deserve to see the last game of the season at ER. That would have been a kind gesture to reward loyalty.

Loyalty. But, remember, fans don’t matter.

After the temporarily thwarted attempt by the Euromaniac Supremo List teams – don’t forget Juve, Barca and Real Madrid still don’t think they have done anything wrong – the column inch munchkins and keyboard warriors were all up in the arms of Gary Neville with fake impassioned outrage. SkyTVisf**kings**t were all over it like flies over a pile of horse manure for … oh at least a week …. until they got bored and put Alan Shearer’s best goals on. They had to briefly reignite the flames of indignancy when the LiVARpool / Scum game got stopped in it’s tracks by the kind people who left one of the gates open at Old Trafford. Luckily, when they realised that the footage of these fervoured, faithful fans showed some bloke with fake bottle of Blossom Hill’s finest Zinfandel and another one wearing a pair of with Bet Lynch’s old leggings, the editors thought enough was enough, and packed it in, anything to reduce the risk of Echo Falls rose shaming.

When the potential breakaway 6 was announced, you couldn’t get away from it. Not just on SkyTVisf**kings**t Sports 409, but even on the local and national evening news. There were interviews after interviews, soundbites after soundbites, of fans, fans groups, has-been footballers, current footballers, managers (some current and some well past their sell by dates) and even old Chairmen, embittered or otherwise. Boris and Oliver got involved, even Prince William dived in with his two penn ‘orth. I was waiting for Ginge and Whinge to jump on the bandwagon, but then I realised that they probably couldn’t blame football for any of their suffering, so that ruled them out. I’m pretty sure if “Hello” had offered them some money to stand outside Stamford Bridge claiming that they’d once been forced to stay in the cheap suite of the Bates Hotel because they weren’t royal enough, they’d been there like a shot though.

The European football saga isn’t even over. There are still some clubs wanting places in the Champions League guaranteed for teams who haven’t won anything for ages but think they are Entitled to play in it. It should really be called the European Entitled League because that’s what it is. It can’t be called Elitist, because that would signify that some of them were actually any good at football. If you call failing to finish in the Top 3 year after year, Elitist – then yes, that pretty much sums up Spurs. The fact that Juve, Real, Barca, Scum and LiVARpool, and Citeh in some respects have all bought their titles in the recent years, demonstrates that Elitism is not defined necessarily by how competitive a team is on the pitch, but more by how financially competitive they are off it, which gives them the edge because they can buy all the good players, so the rest of their leagues suffer. Look at the £40 million squad players keeping the benches warm. It’s a lot of money to spend just to have grown men sat on a nice comfy seat for 90 minutes, but if it means they aren’t playing against you and scoring so you can stay in 3rd comfortably, why not?

Whilst I admire Bayern for not willing to engage in discussion with the Supercilious 12, aka the Dirty Dozen, they are still a bunch of cheats, never forget, never forgive Beckenbauer – and as for Milan – well we all know the only way they can win a game is to pay the ref off. Juve got relegated for bribing their way to several Scudettos and as for Inter – they are all as bad as each other. Athletico Madrid, I was surprised at, unless they aspired to get into as much debt as Real did and were. I really hoped PSG would win the Chumpions League, but realistically it’s Citeh all the way, hoping they do the treble, just so it pisses the Scummers off.

The crunch for these Toxic twelve clubs though, is fans don’t matter. At least match going fans don’t matter.

Don’t get me wrong, the ones that only watch on the telly and never ever want to go to a game do matter –  to subscribers of the Toxic Twelve Tournament. They are the ones who this League is aimed at. Football, just for the sake of 90 minutes of going through the motions. No relegation, just the same teams over and over again, regardless of if they are actually any good or even if they are entertaining or not. Just 90 minutes of advertising and betting opportunities.

But it’s different for the fans who faithfully trawl round every city, home and away, every single game that they possibly can. This includes the fans who don’t live in the UK by the way. When I say match going fan, I know there are fans who live in different countries, on different continents, who desperately would go to a live game given the chance, but can’t. I still count you as match going fans, even if you aren’t technically going anywhere, you are the ones who give up everything, just to watch Leeds. You may well be thousands of miles away, in a completely different time zone, but if you still make sure that those two hours of time are reserved for one thing, and one thing only, week in, week out, you technically are an immovable match going fan. Don’t forget, there are people in Africa and Asia who have to crowd round one telly, like we used to do in the 70s when not everyone in the street had a telly, to watch Leeds United. I am not dismissing these fans at all. I am dismissing the ones who are only watching because it is popular to be a Leeds United fan and as soon as we lose will go on their next vanity trip. At the moment, under Bielsa, with the side that we have (even though it is 80% the same Championship players that weren’t good enough to get promoted not so long since), we are popular. Everybody loves us, thanks to pundits like Neville gushing over us. It makes no difference to us though, we will still be there, win, lose or draw.

Shakespeare wrote, “friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your ears” – Owners, Chairmen and board members – please listen to us. Fans Do Matter. Match going Fans Matter. Don’t marginalise us, we are Leeds United too. When we are allowed back into the grounds, remember who we are and what we have done for the Club – maybe forget about what may or may not have happened in the late 80s / 90s – we were young then – but we are as much, if not more Leeds United than you, the current custodians, are.

By the way, just to reassure anyone who thinks that I am bitter and twisted because I didn’t get a ticket for West Brom, I’m not, this is just me, I’ve always been like this, probably getting mellow with age though.

Nope. I’m not bitter about West Brom.  I didn’t even bother applying for a ticket.

Football is nothing without being with your mates … and even those who aren’t your mates. I don’t pretend to know the names of everyone I regularly see at football. But you know who you are, I miss you and I miss the banter, I miss talking bollocks before the game and after the game. It’s been horrible missing out on our first season back in top flight football. Forced into watching it on the telly, it’s just not the same. The atmosphere at the grounds without fans is not right. Fans matter. We need to be back in our stands. We need to be there, getting behind the team and enjoying football how it should be.Through the ups and downs, like the song says. Football is more than 90 minutes watching 22 men kick a sack of air about on a pitch. Back in the Division 3 days, if it was just about the 90 minutes, most would have cracked up and packed up, it was that bad. But as the saying goes, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Fans do matter. Match going fans matter. Listen to your fans – please.

Roll on next season. We WILL go again.

The last 48 hours has demonstrated the desperate fight to keep it in the family of the Entitled Elite v The Masses.

Who is going to win? Well Adam, in this battle of Man v Fools – who knows?

But what I can tell tell you is that the display yesterday at ER, although initally may have been borne from well meaning genuine gestures, played right into the hands of the greedy JP Morgans of this world. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

There’s going to be many of you who will take instant insult and indignation at that, after all, what harm can the team wearing T shirts in solidarity for fans, a plane fly by and a few banners do? It sends a message to the Italian, American and Middle Eastern owners, right?

Wrong. All it tells them is that their plan of over the top sensationalism and their mantra of “no publicity is bad publicity” is “selling” and they need to wholeheartedly carry on. Those clips and pictures will have flown round the world in the last 24 hours, via youtube, instagram, tiktok, whatever and be all over the global news channels. And all those platforms will have added their logarithmic click bait, tracking cookies and the rest of the s**t, and right now they are rubbing their tight fisted, grubby little paws in glee. Because all this publicity for them has given them access to all the data that they can now harvest and make money off – and they love it. Because that’s what they truly want.

There used to be a saying in the 90’s when the war lords were taking over the world “Peace Sells, Who’s Buying?” (also the title of an excellent Megadeth album). Well now it’s “Advertising Sells, Who’s Buying?”, because the Rich and The Entitled have bought most of the material possessions that they can buy now. They have moved onto the only thing that is left – fame, publicity and power to influence over the rest of us minions, and tell us what to do. That used to be down to Governments, now it’s down to Corporate Banks and Bill Gates.

That display yesterday really only affected the team and the manager. None of whom were guilty of anything. Unless Klopp and those players actually stood up and said they were completely happy to play in this new league, it’s nothing to do with them. I really felt for Milner last night, it’s not his fault. Ultimately, short of refusing to play, there was nothing he, nor the rest of the team nor Klopp could have done. ***Disclaimer Alert*** As I have repeatedly said, what I write here is what I think and doesn’t purport to be any reflection of anyone else. Certainly I am in a minority of one right now, as I don’t think that it was right to do that yesterday. T shirts, big flag, plane fly by, supporters shouting “scabs” / “greedy b******ds”. Everything, the whole kit and kaboodle. Shouldn’t have done it.

Anything and everything needs to be aimed at the owners of these clubs and anyone else who agrees with the Elitist. The players and the managers are pawns in this. Until any manager or player of the 6 clubs in England or the rest of the Judases in Italy and Spain openly agrees to this league, they aren’t to blame. The blame lies with the Elite Entitled owners and the governing bodies for allowing this to happen on their watch.

I have been harping on about this for ever. I saw a T shirt or a meme or whatever they are called, yesterday “Against Modern Football” it said.

Ha – bloody ha! 

SkyTVisf**ings**t and The Premier League have been at the forefront of “Modern Football” since they took it off us in 1993. Many of you younger folk have been indoctrinated into it, and can’t even conceive that there was any football before 1992. The concept of Division 1 as the top league and then Divison 2 etc. etc has completely passed you by, all you know is “The PL and The Championship”. Division 2, incidentally is where we used to belong, with the likes of Scum and Chelski, Nottingham Forest, in fact Notts County were the top clubs in this country. When SkyTVisf**kings**t first said they would televise games, they promised that they would compensate the match going fans for the inconvenience if (yes – IF) games were moved for TV! Effing joke isn’t it?  The only saving Grace is that they weren’t allowed to schedule any live matches at Saturday 3pm – because that’s when football used to be played. 

Do as I say, not do as I do.

Thatcher started it in 1985 with the Sporting Grounds Act (look it up younger ones – this is the thing which effs up our away days). Yeah, there was the odd skirmish, but Mrs Thatch DID NOT LIKE FOOTBALL FANS – FACT. The Act was drawn up and has been repeatedly used against match going football fans to stop us doing what we want to do. It doesn’t stop the coach loads of racing or rugby or cricket fans having a drinkie on the way to the game – because it’s not football. But it stops us. The fans of these other sports a) more or less do the same as we do and b) are probably THE SAME people who do THE SAME thing because there isn’t a football game to go to. And, bless them, it’s only been the racing fraternity who in recent years have had to endure “dry trains” on the way to York or Aintree and that’s their own fault for being posh, dressed up to the nines, getting inebriated and being daft enough to get their picture spreadeagled all over the broadsheets. 

SkyTVisf**kings**t and BT –  The True Gods of Football, and now Amazon and Netflix are getting in on the act. Power and greed, all driven by the desperate need to have more influence over us and the continual need to have the opportunity to advertise the “brand”. More fame, more notoriety, more presence in the TV and social media universe. Ultimately they all end up kowtowing to the people with all the money. They end up cowering to the Corporate Animals that are the global banks and corporations … and Bill Gates. Who just use all the subscription information to gather more knowledge about individuals, which can then be passed on to whoever the highest bidder is.

UEFA have now come out with the same snivelling “football is for fans” bollocks. This is the same UEFA who not two weeks ago were advertising on their own website corporate packages for 23,000 quid or euros (it’s more or less at parity now anyway I think) to watch all the Euro 2021 games in the best seats in the house. £23,000 – an entire years wages for some, two years for others, for essentially 2 and a bit weeks of watching 90 minutes of 22 men kicking a ball on the pitch. A brilliant “punishment” for this new league – they won’t let any of these players play in their National teams. Gary Neville – what do you think about that then? The same Gary who under Fergie’s reign played in a side many who mysteriously had “injuries” just before International Duty, but miraculously recovered the very next game. Gary – how many games did that proud Taff Ryan Giggs turn up in for Wales? Scum and Livarpool are hardly going to see that as punishment, they’d be ecstatic at the thought of not having to risk their star players getting injured in any of these meaningless competitions. They’d much rather be enjoying the break and effing off to USA or Asia in some overseas friendly, promoting their brand.

Exclusivity / Elitism / Entitlement. Call it what you want. UEFA are only up in arms about it because FIFA are going to rob them of some of their exclusive advertising revenue, threatening their livelihoods. They couldn’t give a crap about the fans. UEFA had already gone back on their principles and “let” teams who hadn’t qualified for the Champions League spots by actually playing good football into the league, in anyway. After all, why should you need to be good at winning to get a place in a competition featuring the best teams in Europe? It should be a given that Scum and Livarpool get into the Chumpions League every year, because they deserve to – right? As for Spurs? When was the last time they won anything? Answers on a postcard to The European Super League Headquarters…

Whilst I am on about it – the FA and PL / EFL and Boris (or the other bloke had he got it). What did they care about the Oystons of this world when Blackpool supporters were having their club ripped away from under them? What did the EFL do to stop Bury, one of the founder clubs of the Lancashire League in 1885 from going under? Bolton Wanderers was one of the ORIGINAL founder members of The Football League in 1888. What help did they get from Weasel Harvey? When Charlton basically turned into the feeder club for Standard Liege when the owner realised that the EFL actually expected Championship clubs to make losses. 

https://talksport.com/football/efl/579976/charlton-athletic-roland-duchatelet-efl/

What did they do? Jack all. Fans matter though.

Football is unique in that in the UK certainly and South America,  it has come from poor working class roots. This is the time if this was an interview on the telly, to switch to a scene of young children kicking a ball about in the dust in the favelas. In the US of A “football” is soccer. As much as SkyTVisf**kings**t have been trying to make “Morning Football Show” into a “thing” (yes I mistakenly clicked onto it on Sunday thinking it was a re run of our Citeh game) , our American cousins know it as soccer. In America, football is what I call Gridiron football. It is basically some sort of rugby, with helmets, a lot of padding and a funny shaped ball which isn’t even round, so I’m not sure how it can be a ball? Anyway, in America there has been a bit of spate of TV / movie / reality stars / sporting stars investing in soccer teams and becoming part owners of these franchises. Why? maybe because all the American Football teams have already been taken. It’s so popular that Ryan Reynolds who did that classic “Green Lantern” has become a part owner in Wrexham. Well done Wrexham FC by the way for attracting Ryan! Let’s hope the next Green Lantern film gives some exposure to sunny Wales.

There was an interview with Ian Wrighty Wright and Kalvin this weekend featuring shots of Kalv walking down terraced streets in Armley . Kalv told him about growing up in Leeds and how proud he was to play for us and how Granny Val told him to sack Villa off. How many other PL teams can boast the same? Home grown youth players brought up the ranks? Rashford and McTominlay at Scum? Foden at Citeh? Maddison at Leicester – (oops not Top 6!). There’s few and far between.

In the same breath as fans have hailed our under 23s for being Champions, there was even a 1st team guard of honour at some point, the same ones are going on about which “star” player we need to buy in the summer to keep us up. Where are these U23s going to be next season? Probably not in the 1st team, and probably not even here, is the answer. All these keyboard warriors who have been outspoken about comparing them to the “true class of 92” , were all sat in the close season and the January transfer window furiously going through the stats of our next Jean Paul Augustin. How many of these were the same ones slating Cooper, Dallas and Kalv 3 seasons ago as part of Whattheheckingbottom’s failures? How many of them can stand up and say that the names of Vydra, Rhodes, Charlie Austin, Grealish, Forestieri, Eze, Pukki never passed their lips as players who needed to be brought in as a wholesale replacements for our crap team?

Not many is there?

Money, greed, power and Elitism. Here’s what you could have got for a years wages from UEFA.

      

This week marks 21 years since two Leeds United fans went off to a game of football and never came back. Never has the phrase “never forgive and never forget” been so apt. Although my blogs are rarely contain any serious material, it would be remiss of me not to mention it. RIP lads.

Coincidentally, this week, branch member and ex (old) Knaresborough Branch secretary, Dave Rowson, has had his book published, which vaguely chronicles, those heady European days. There are many many stories from those days, some we’d rather forget and some we will fuzzily remember fondly. All I can say is, thank The Lord there was no such thing as social media and camera phones at the time. Some memories we will treasure forever and some, simply put, we won’t.

A fair few of the branch were in Istanbul that night. Some were waiting at LBA for a flight because they could only get the day of the game off work. And, as much as I dislike our then Chairman, Peter Ridsdale, to be fair, that night he did the best any Chairman could have done. That was probably his finest hour, at a very distressing and difficult time.

There has been enough written about that terrible night and the days after, and the subsequent lack of justice since. There is nothing I can add to this sad story, but it was good to see that excellent banner and the tribute from Leeds United at T’Blades game. Well done to all those involved.

My piece today however, refers to one of the many (many) failings of our then Chairman, Peter Fibsdale ( and don’t even get me started on that terrible book he “wrote”).  

Peter was ultimately one of the architects of our ruin. However, as The Secretary rightly points out, there didn’t seem to be much corporate oversight either. The rest of the blame for our initial fall and then repeated falls from grace could also be laid at the feet of our manager, a certain Mr O Leary and the air of complacency that had developed at ER, along with certain off pitch antics from a number of our squad.  But for your delectation, here is the article that still vexes me from 20 years ago:

https://www.leedsunited.com/news/team-news/20019/ridsdale-backs-skelton-stadium-switch

and for you none believers, it even made it to The Grauniad:

There are a few who might say that I am still quite bitter about this.

As the old saying goes, a grudge is for life, not just Christmas. I am not exaggerating, but to me it is probably THE biggest lie ever told. Yes, since then, there’s been multiple others that I can trawl up e.g “Fabian Delph is NOT for sale”. There’s the usual comical ones “Ken Bates saved Leeds United” , “It’s (CVA) the only way to save the Club”,  “GFH will save Leeds United”, the Shaun “Weasel” Harvey famous ones of ” I have no idea who owns Elland Road, but it definitely isn’t Ken Bates”, “I have NEVER known who owns Elland Road”, “No-one knows who owns Elland Road” . The clear codswallop that we as Leeds fans have had to endure is endless, not forgetting the most one current one of “The design of the new crest was done with consultation of tens of thousands of Leeds fans, and fans are happy with the result”. 

This lie of lies, however, that we wanted to leave ER, was full on bulls**t. 

Yes, we all got a vote on whether we thought Elland Road should be moved to a “better” site …. er… Swillington. Swillington …. seriously …. near the sewage works …. anywhere but Swillington …. so they called it Skelton instead. And remember, this was in an era when many clubs were getting rid of their old grounds, and moving to wraparound newer, modern grounds, which promised better facilities and increased capacity but were all built out of town, in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest pub, all in the name of progress. Not for the benefit of normal fans though. None of this getting off the train and walking down to the ground via the pub. Nope, only for the ones who drove to the game or got a coach, where’s the fun in that? Not for the benefit of the businesses in the  local community either, who used to get the football trade. Nope.

It was never anything to do with selling off the valuable land that the old ground was on and getting minted on the profits from the Barratts / Wimpey / Persimmons of this world (remember this was 2000s), though. So, this was the major discussion in the pubs and clubs around the country, and the YEP and Radio Aire had their two penn’orth as well. Fibsdale announced that there would be a consultation, and he would go with whatever the result was.

No-one and I mean, NO-ONE I knew actually voted for the move away from our home. EVERYONE I knew wanted to stay at ER. So, imagine our surprise when, in the programme notes and the YEP, Fibsdale comes out with “more than 80% of our loyal support have voted for a move to … Swillington …. er Skelton”.

That’s full on vote rigging to the scale of most third world, sub continent, despotic countries. How concerned was I? Concerned wasn’t the word. I was LIVID. I spent the whole of the time in the pub before the game, after the game, and in the Kop, during the game, going all Tommy Torquemada on everyone within 5 square foot. I stopped at burning people at the stake, but  Inquisition mode was on, and no-one, not even the stewards was spared. For those of you who don’t know who Tomas Torquemada was, look him up. Whilst you can’t help but admire him for his work ethic, I fear he enjoyed his job that little bit too much. The man was the epitome of taking religion to that extra enthusiastic mile. Unfortunately.

Why am I harking back to two decades of newsworthylessness?

It stems from hearing a snippet from TalkSport or Radio 5, where the two commentators were going on about how Leeds United needed to get a more “competitive” edge by building a new stadium. As if the only way team would get better and be able to compete in this league would be if it had a new stadium. 

We’re 10th in our first season back in the PL and we have had most of our defence out for most of the season. How not competitive are we? In the alleged, most competitive league in Europe, how does being 10th with a makeshift defence for 80% of the season transpire into not being competitive? Do I not sound like Graham Taylor?

What they really mean is that they don’t like being sat up on that gantry above the crumbly West Stand. And why would the metropolitan snowflakes want to sit there? You are basically swinging in the rafters up there, right above the pitch. None of this nice warm studio, shielded from the baying fans below stuff. That gantry is as unique to ER as the old Stadio Delle Alpi was to Juve. No one can compete with that.

I hope that when we do get a new stadium, things like that are remembered and retained, within the limits of Elf and Stacey of course, as much as possible.

I don’t want the new ER to welcome the away fans and the journos. I want them to dread coming to Fortress ER. I don’t want an IdentiKit ground with a running track separating us from the pitch. I want us to be there, right in their faces. I don’t want the opposition and their fans to have an enjoyable experience, I want them to dread every single second of it, and be able to watch it on a nice big screen, which doesn’t look like it’s been rescued from a skip outside the studios after they filmed The Running Man in 1987. I don’t want the new ground to be an overwhelming monstrosity, just tidy up the West Stand so it doesn’t look like Wembley in 1936. Stick a museum in it, sort out a decent scoreboard and telly, put some decent bogs in the stands, get some proper beer and more importantly proper functionning beer pumps in. It doesn’t need to look like the Starship Enterprise, all shiny and new, it just needs to have 50,000 capacity, at least 48,000 for the paying fans and then the rest for the necessary corporate animals. 

Statesman like but under stated – like Bielsa.

Yesterday we lost Eric Ware, one of our longest serving branch members. At 74 years of youth, Eric was supporting Leeds United and travelling away, way before most of us, and continued to hold his season ticket and travel when he could, right until we were stopped by bat flu. Eric was there from the very beginnings of the branch, travelling on the old Pynes and Murgy’s buses. He was there in Paris in ’75, he racked up many, many football miles in a time when travelling by coach was realistically, the ONLY option because trains and cars, simply was not. It might seem very easy to book your seat on trainline nowadays. You can get yourself to London, see the game and get back for a couple of pints in Leeds, long before most of the late night revellers have even left home to go into town. It wasn’t so easy in the old days. Even in the 90s and early 2000s, cheap reliable train travel was hard to find, and depending on who you were travelling with, might not have been much fun.

Unlike the song, Leeds fans don’t look back in anger. Anyone who has been a long standing, long suffering Leeds fan, can only look back in honour at what has happened to us in the last three seasons of Bielsa.

At the last monthly branch meeting that we were allowed to hold, I had a chat with Eric about what he thought about Bielsa and the football we were playing. 

Those of you who knew Eric, will know that he loved Leeds United, and he loved talking about Leeds United. Eric could talk the hind leg off a donkey. He remembered all the games he’d been to and had so many stories of following Leeds over the decades. Stories now lost, but those of us who heard him speak about the old days, will treasure them. That evening he was so excited about the football we were watching. The team were playing as a team, and he said it was like watching them in the old days, how football should be played.

And Eric is not the only one who has said this. Most, if not all the pundits on SkyTVis f**kings**t, have come out with this comment. Begrudgingly to start off with, but the likes of Souness, Merson, Carragher, Neville, Hinchcliffe et al are all reading from the same page nowadays. I can’t really speak about BT Sport or Amazon, as I haven’t really seen much of their games. I know some woman who nobody knew said something and because she got slated for it, she got a bit upset and then people jumped to her defence. But, there’s very few who haven’t subscribed to Bielsa Ball.

My point being, everything that Bielsa has done to this team in the last 2 years and 8 months is harking back to the old days. The Old Leeds, and not just on the pitch either.

The game he plays is his way. 

Measured and dictated by facts and figures of the opposition. He researches every team (and makes no secret of it) , just like Revie did. The team plays as a team with no big personalities or individuals. Each man mucks in, the embodiment of Billy’s “side before self – everytime”. Each player battles to the very end of the game. They cover for each other so no gaps are left. Like Bamford’s clearance last night in front of goal, even though Meslier was behind him, he kept his keeper safe. It’s been said time and time again this season, we play as a team.

Yet Bielsa remains a humble man.

His quote this week “I am managing in the Premier League because of Leeds” or something like that. He is so respectful of the fans, because he recognises how important we are. He replies to his letters personally and continues to thank us for supporting our Club. He acts like he is doing it for us – the fans.

In a previous blog, years ago it seems, I made this very wish, the hope that we would finally get a manager and a team (and a club) who would give us, the long suffering fans, the respect that we deserve. After all win, lose or draw , we are the best fans in the world!

And this takes me to my point. We should look back in honour.

This week, Boris announced that we might get into the last game of the season. It sparked off massive debate about who gets to go into ER for the first time in a year – well, it’ll be more like 15 months by the time we physically get in. There were people saying it should just be a ballot, some saying it should be just loyal season ticket holders, some saying everyone should get a chance. The “newer” fans preferring the open ballot system of course. 

If it was left to me, if I got given the chance to go in, I would have surrendered my ticket to Eric. Just like I have done previously, I will do it again. Because there are people who deserve to watch Leeds United more than me. The likes of Eric, who have followed Leeds all their lives. The Chairman, Charley Megginson, we may jest with, but you cannot deny his loyalty and his commitment. There’s others like Phil Beeton, both Little and Big Mick Hewitts, many devotees, who deserve to be in the queue way ahead of me.

I cannot see anyone agreeing with me, and this is will be a hotly debated topic of discussion, just like the away tickets discussion, which incidentally seems like a lifetime ago now. But if we have learnt anything from the last year, it is that life is short. The odds of going to one more game is considerably higher for a 30 year old than it is for a stalwart of the Revie era. This might be their last chance for those 65+ ones who actually saw Billy, Norman, Jack, Trevor and Terry play. Many might not want to go to the game for medical reasons etc. but I hope the Club will just give those long standing, loyal fans that one chance in the summer.

Similarly with the redevelopment of ER.

We all know we need a bigger stadium. The facilities are a bit rubbish in the Kop and West Stand, compared with the “Magnificent New” East Stand (younger readers look it up!). The extra investment from the 49ers has been secured and the plans that were drawn up a season or so ago for a “Citeh” style ground / training ground / sports and leisure complex may be getting nearer and nearer. The board has already said they don’t want a lifeless “identikit” stadium like the Riverside or Reebok or Stadium of Light (not the famous one in Benfica), but they would like something that reflects Leeds United. 

I hope they do look back in honour and give the older fans, some input into what they would like in the new ER. After all, they were the ones who have such vivid memories of our famous history, Paris in 75, Salonika, the atmosphere in ER during the Revie Era. The ones who sat on the roof of The Peacock for that midweek Cup game in the 70s. Even the people like me who were there for those European nights in the glory days of the Champions League.

I’m not saying get a draughtsman into a room full of old codgers and go from there, but I am saying that iconic grounds grow from memories that are imprinted from a proud history. No one is ever going to say “oh remember those nights at under the famous floodlights at the JJB” are they? They’ll remember the stabbing risk outside shaky Ayresome Park, the odd hotch potch stands at the Baseball Ground or even the bogs at Oakwell,  before that. Those European games in the Champions League under the lights of the “Magnificent New” East Stand were kind of special. For me, Jimmy’s hat trick at Monaco – now that was a spectacular ground, even if I can’t remember very much about it.

I’ve heard noises about a walkway on the new roof and whilst it sounds great, it would be much more dramatic to do that at St James Park (the original one) overlooking Newcastle and the Tyne, than a view across Beeston, Holbeck and the M62. That’s my thoughts anyway. But who’s to know, the redevelopment of Matthew Murray might look spectacular. It would be even better if Leeds City Council would seriously consider putting a train station in / or linking up the old tracks so there’s a direct link between the new Leeds Bradford Airport and ER for all those Scandinavian and Irish fans. Now wouldn’t that be a good idea? Maybe a partnership agreement between Leeds Bradford Airport and Leeds United to get our international fans to games? Blue sky thinking? It’s worth an ask. 

Fans input into the redevelopment would be great. A nod to the Spirit of Revie Era would be fantastic. We can only hope that the 49ers and the rest of the board will do as Bielsa does, and respect and value the old timers as much as these “newer” fans.

To finish with, Eric Ware, bus bingo caller extraordinaire – “Are you sweating at the back yet?”

Today, February 2nd 2021 is Groundhog Day.

For those of you who have never seen this classic Bill Murray film from 1993 – SHAME ON YOU! Get yourself down to Blockbuster and rent the video out now. Anyone born after 2000, you have no idea what I am going on about, so just read on.

Groundhog Day is one of those films that they put on every year at Christmas because it’s a “feel good film”. One of those ones that people watch over and over again as, when it seems all hope is lost, it rekindles your faith in the human spirit, making you all warm and fuzzy inside (bit like when Bamford scores!). It is certainly much more heart warming and much milder than the Frank Capra great “It’s A Wonderful Life” , which really at times actually is quite bleak for a Christmas film. Incidentally, it’s also, in a manner quite unbefitting of the usual rubbish of SkyTVisf**kings**t, been on constantly on the film channel 302 all day …. as if it was Groundhog Day! Da dum.

However, Groundhog Day for me is a perfect example of life imitating art, not art imitating life.

Without going too much into the teachings of that old bloke Aristotle in Ancient Greece in 300BC, and then it’s subsequent 180 degree flip by Oscar Wilde in 1880, it is loosely translated as when real life starts behaving like a work of fiction e.g. in a film, or a book or (in a more current setting) when something on social media starts being taken out of proportion / and or context and people start believing it, even though it may be completely fictitious.

In my mind, Art, whether it is a book or a painting or a film is someone’s take on what is currently happening and therefore an individual’s own way of capturing or mirroring or a glimpse in time. Life is what is factually, physically and mentally occuring at any given moment – life is life.

Groundhog Day is definitively an actual day. February 2nd. It’s a day when Punxsutawney Phil from Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania US of A, peeps out from his hollow tree stump at dawn, and if he sees his shadow it means there is going to be another 6 weeks of winter. Punxsutawney Phil is a Marmota Monax – technical name for a groundhog, which is essentially, a whopping great big rat. Groundhog day is real life.

In 1993, Harold Ramis (one of the original Ghostbusters – not to be confused with that crap unfunny version they did the other year) wrote the screenplay and directed his Ghostbusters’s mate, Bill Murray, in a film about a weatherman forced to go to the real life event, and what happens to him. Thereby – Art.

28 years later, someone says it feels like “Groundhog Day” meaning it feels they are living the same day over and over again. Luckily, it doesn’t mean that they have a dog sized rodent hanging out at the bottom of their back garden in a tree stump.

What has this got to do with Leeds?

My point is, in the current pandemic tradition of the “three – word – phrase”, “Doing A Leeds”.

Doing A Leeds was and still is, a phrase which relates to an unhappier time in our proud club’s history. Once upon a time, many moons ago, in the time before Bielsa, our then Chairman spent beyond his means and well, I needn’t go through the grisly details, things just went horribly wrong. Since then, every club that gets screwed over by the owners or the Chairmen or both, resulting in a fall from grace, plus or minus relegation (in our experience serial relegation) and accruing massive debts, plus or minus players and staff not getting paid … I needn’t go on, need I? You get the picture, “Doing A Leeds” has become synonymous with failure, abject failure due to poor judgement and financial mismanagement of a football club.

Since we laid that rock steady foundation, many clubs have “done a Leeds”.

But if a fan had only recently started following Leeds and was completely oblivious of our history, “Doing A Leeds” , in our current standing of heart stopping, breakneck speed, edge of your seat entertaining football excellence, would be the complete opposite. Who knows what lies in our future under the tutelage of Radrizzani and the ever increasing stake of the 49ers. It may well be that, five years from now, we have a fantastic stadium with state of the art training facilities, the envy of the country, and  we are top of the PL and talk of doing the triple will be common place. In which case, the link between total, laughable, abject failure both financially and in playing terms, will be consigned to the annals of history, in a box sealed in duct tape, marked DO NOT OPEN EVER AGAIN. 

There are some sayings though, that will stand the test of time, and no one will ever get confused about what they mean. There’s the usual famous  ones like the often misquoted, “some people believe football is a matter of life or death, I am very disappointed with that ……. it is much more important than that “. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1232318/Bill-Shankly-The-quotes-Liverpool-legend-50-years-day-took-over.html

As you can see, even the most famous quotes can be sometimes get muddled, there’s one however that will always stand the test of time, and that’s our own

“Side before self – every time” 

Thanks to Leeds United for the picture which came from last March when they deferred the wages at the start of the lockdown https://www.leedsunited.com/news/team-news/26446/club-statement-side-before-self-every-time