Heard someone criticising the leadership at boardroom level at LUFC. So whats new? Going back to 1974 manny Cussins and his board completely ignored Revies recommendation about his successor. At the same time Liverpool appointed Paisley to succeed Shankly and their success continued. We appointed the wrong man for the job and then epically failed to support him and back the decision. Then in 78 they sacked Armfield who had painlessly moved the Revie players on, got to a European cup final, two domestic semi finals and finished in the top half of the table every year. Way below Revies achievements but better than all of his successors bar Wilkinson. He also started to build a team around Currie (still arguably our best player post Revie) and recruited some decent players. However, we could have shown some ambition by going for Trevor Francis and Souness. It was lack of ambition that was cited by Jordan and McQueen when they left Leeds. Then we had another 44 day farce when they appointed Stein. Stein had no experience of the English game and did not want to be in England. He was using Leeds to get the Scottish FA to make him their manager. Armfields team looked to be coming to fruition under Adamson until Currie left for domestic reasons. Adamson wanted Peter Reid but, on principle, refused the inflated fee. The board should have said pay it because its the going rate. Without Currie Leeds were poor and Adamson didnt have a clue. Eventually Allan Clarke was appointed. Clarke was the fans choice and a logical appointment so any criticism of the board would be harsh. However, board room incompetence reappeared in the summer of 81. Clarke lined up Gary Thompson (a big centre forward) and Peter Barnes (an international winger). Barnes was signed and then the board said the money had run out. If theyd said that sooner Thompson wouldve been signed instead. We went down not because we were crap (although that helped) but because we did not score goals. In the autumn Wolves were desperate to offload Andy Gray for a cash deal because they were skint. It didnt happen and he eventually went to Everton and success (in a team with Peter Reid). On deadline day we signed Worthington and he scored a shed load of goals and almost rescued us. Personally I thought Clarke shouldve had the opportunity to get us back up but he was sacked. Eddie Gray was appointed because, in his own words, he was cheap. He got rid of the high earners and brought through Irwin, Phelan, Linighan, Sheridan and Sellars without any financial backing. He tried to sign Kevin Drinkell, Kerry Dixon and Bobby Davison when they were unknowns but couldnt afford them. Then along came Leslie Silver and a P45. Again my personal opinion was that I and many others could see good things starting to happen, especially when the board allowed Ian Snodin to be bought. You then had the situation of most peoples all time favourite player appointed into a job that they thought should still be in the hands of his predecessor. Bremner dismantled the team selling most of them to Oldham and replaced them with the worst Leeds team ever (Caswell, Robinson, Harle). He then, after wasting a season, dismantled his crap team and put together a decent one especially after selling Snodin and buying four players. At this time the board started investing and Billy bought more players than Eddie ever had in his squad. Silver then sacked Billy. Ironically at the same time of year as Eddie three years earlier. To be fair, I thought Silver did a good job alongside Fotherby. They made it possible for Wilko to do his job and get us promoted and ultimately win the league. However, did they have the ambition to keep us there? We were the champions of England but did we pursue players such as Shearer and Keane? Then David Batty was sold to balance the books and an inferior player was signed to replace him who cost more money. When Silver, Fotherby and Gilman sold up Gilman, for whatever reason delayed the sale. Im sure he did that on a business principle but it caused Wilko to miss out on Poborsky and someone else who had played in Euro 96. Whilst checking something in relation to this rant I found a report in the independent saying that we were 10m in debt at this time. Wilko went into that season as a dead man walking because of the previous season but to not be able to strengthen properly in the summer because of the boardroom didnt help, especially as it was common knowledge the new owners would bring George Graham in at their first opportunity. Lufc 0 Scum 4 was that opportunity. The new owners installed Ridsdale as the chairman. Theres nothing more to be said there. He said hed never go to another club, apart from Barnsley, Cardiff and Preston of course. It beggars belief that they would want him. I do not see how he can be involved at Preston since he is banned from being a company director until 2020. Not sure how Alan Leighton walked away from this shambles with his reputation enhanced. Then we had Professor McKenzie who actually, as the club was in meltdown, did nothing at all. Then Krasner who, according to Uncle Ken was useless and finally Uncle Ken himself. Currently on Emmerdale the blonde Dingle is taking her company into administration and setting up again to avoid paying a debt that she doesnt want to pay. There was a documentary about LUFC a while ago and it featured someone I know called Stuart Russell. He was one of the numerous small local businesses who were owed money that they will never get because of us going into administration. That embarrasses me. So uncle Ken alienated the local business community, alienated the local media and called the fans morons. Well the fans have a word for him on social media and he is, indeed, a prize one. Then he sells the club to the only Arabs who havent got a pot to do anything with. They then try to sell the club to someone that anyone could see would not pass the football leagues test. To compound this they let him keep the club afloat. Now Cellino says hes not putting any more money in (and who can blame him?) and GFH say that hes legally obliged to carry on funding a club that he does not own eh? And Haig says administration? Noooooooo. Tomorrow (28/3) the players are due to be paid, or not, as the case may be. The club is currently scrambling for a loan but who is crazy enough to loan them money. This looks bad. The future seems to be F.C. Leeds United playing Ossett Albion at John Charles in Evo-Stik league 1 north.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:26:03 +0000
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