The Leeds Thread

[Glasgow Loon]

Two in and two out.

Ramón Núñez and Adam Clayton in, Michalík and Sheehan out.

Michalik on loan to carlisle till jan and Sheehan contract terminated so he can join swindon town.

[Kris Boyd]

Two in and two out.

Ramón Núñez and Adam Clayton in, Michalík and Sheehan out.

Michalik on loan to carlisle till jan and Sheehan contract terminated so he can join swindon town.

World cup player and a guy from the worlds richest team, on paper they sound good.

[repeat_offender]

Was announced a couple of weeks ago that LUFC have £4.5Mil in the bank.

Really where?

LUFC announced a £4.5 million pound profit in their accounts posted June 2008

LUFC accounts June 2008

LUFC then sell Fabian Delph to Villa for between £6-8 million (depending on performance).

Bates & Harvey state the repurchase of the Thorpe Arch training facility is a priority as the rent paid to a 3rd party is crippiling.

In Oct 09 the club had the chance to re-purchase their Thorpe Arch Training facility for approx half the market value they didn't because they didn't have the cash and couldn't secure the finance.

LUFC fail to exercise Thorpe Arch buy back clause

At a time when the club should of been cash rich it seems they we're broke.

The latest set of accounts show a very slender trading profit, many people believe the profit posted in the accounts June 2008 was repaid to those who funded the club's administration process (gone).

LUFC Accounts June 2009

To try and understand whats going on at Elland Road you need to examine the accounts for the company that acts as a holding company for LUFC & also the accounts for the radio station the club operates.

Leeds City Holdings accounts 2009

Yorkshire Radio 2009

The £4.5 million is long gone.

Kris I hunted around on the net & found this article printed in The Mail on the 6th of August, in it Ken claims the club has a cash reserve of £4million pounds http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1300970/Leeds-United-chairman-Ken-Bates-trademark-blast.html

So Ken claims Leeds have £4 million but failed to exercise the clause to purchase Thorpe Arch at approx half it's value?????

Now the right to purchase at reduced rate has passed.

Makes very little sense, either Leeds don't have the cash or Ken is happy to pay crippling rent to an unknown party based in the West Indies. ideas on a postcard anyone?

[Kris Boyd]

With the bearded wonder anything is possible, There probably is money in Leeds but it's not getting put where it is needed.

[Glasgow Loon]

From the OS:-

FAYE SIGNS UP FOR UNITED

Former Portsmouth and Stoke midfielder Amdy Faye has signed a short-term contract with Leeds United.

The 33-year-old Senegalese international has signed a deal that will initially tie him to the club until early in the new year.

Faye has been training with the squad over the past week and United boss Simon Grayson watched him play 90 minutes in the reserves on Tuesday at Grimsby.

"Amdy did what we expected he could do and we're pleased," said the United boss.

"He's been training with us all week and we sorted things out on Thursday morning.

"He's an experienced player who has played at the highest level and he is proven.

"He's a different type of player to the midfielders we have here and he is a good addition to the squad.

"He is short on fitness, but that will come with time. He's here until January initially and we'll see how things go."

0

[Kris Boyd]

Was he not with Rangers for a while? I remember us having him or another faye, I think he got karate kicked by JVOH in an old firm game

[Glasgow Loon]

Interview in the independant with Ken Bates:-

Sitting with Ken Bates, at his usual table outside the Cafe de Paris in Monte Carlo – "this is my office," he says – is something of an education. In half an hour the Leeds United chairman, very happy to be an expatriate on account of everything that is wrong with Britain and right with Monaco, offers me the potted life histories of four passers-by, points out Turkey's richest man, recounts his last exchange with the retail magnate Sir Philip Green (who was shabbily dressed, so Bates quipped that he'd clearly been shopping in his own stores), lambasts the late Chelsea striker Peter Osgood, flirts with a toddler peering over her mum's shoulder, and earns the devotion of a pretty waitress by pressing an extravagant tip into her hand. Through all this, his charming wife Susannah and I scarcely get a word in edgeways. Undiminished at 78, Bates didn't get where he is today without exerting his forceful personality.

We move on to a swanky hotel, where he is well-known by the staff, and well-liked, doubtless thanks to his tipping policy. He has booked a table for lunch, at which he sits alongside Susannah. He commands me to sit opposite her, so that she won't feel left out of the conversation, and later, when she briefly leaves the table, he half-rises, another display of old-fashioned gallantry which seems at odds with his enthusiastic effing, blinding and occasional C-ing. "Please don't use that word," says Susannah, gently. It is a futile protest.

Bates operates according to his own rules, and hang those who do not like them. That's how he made his millions, initially in ready-mix concrete, and how he runs football clubs. He has been owner or chairman of Oldham Athletic, Wigan Athletic, Partick Thistle, Chelsea and now Leeds United, although there remains some uncertainty about who exactly owns Leeds. It appears to be the Forward Sports Fund, registered in the Cayman Islands, but when I invite him to explain who this organisation comprises, he picks up my tape recorder and threatens to throw it into the sea. "Don't sour a nice lunch," he snaps. "We have complied with Football League regulations, it's all on the website, and there it is." I venture a supplementary question. "I've just said I'm not going to elaborate, so don't push it. Better men than you have failed."

"Lesser," murmurs Susannah, sweetly. "Lesser men."

We move on to the slightly less contentious issue of his managers. Kevin Blackwell was in charge at Leeds when Bates took over in January 2005, and lasted until September 2006. Blackwell was followed by Dennis Wise, then Gary McAllister, who was sacked, though the chairman considers him "a very honourable guy". He pauses to order an expensive bottle of Sancerre, and to kid the waiter that I am actually an inspector with Relais & Chateaux and that I think the service is crap. "Great players who become managers, and Gary was a great player, have problems adjusting to players not as good as them. 'I could do it, why the bloody hell can't you?' I had that at Oldham with Jimmy McIlroy, and I had it with [Glenn] Hoddle at Chelsea."

The incumbent, Simon Grayson, is by general acclaim one of the finer managers outside the Premier League; indeed, I express some surprise that he was not in the frame for the Aston Villa job. "Well, Simon was approached by Burnley last season. They offered him a lot more money than we could afford to pay him, but he said no. He wanted to finish the job he'd come to Leeds to do. But loyalty is a two-way thing. I'm loyal to my managers until they can't or don't deliver. Unfortunately, Dennis and [his assistant] Gus Poyet thought the grass was greener elsewhere. It wasn't. Dennis's time at Newcastle was a complete disaster. And I heard about Poyet leaving on Sky Sports News. Then he wanted to come back as manager. No fucking chance. Nobody lets me down twice."

Grayson, meanwhile, has taken Leeds back into the Championship, where they currently lie sixth. The present and future are manifestly looking brighter than they have for some time at Elland Road, and no fewer than 11 new players were brought in this summer (albeit not at much expense), yet several Leeds fans of my acquaintance tell me that there is more than a little disgruntlement with Bates, not least because of hikes in ticket prices.

He snorts with derision when I raise this. "It's the same at every club. They all want their club to buy Ronaldo and let them in for fucking free. Listen, [Peter] Ridsdale bust the club, and the guys who took over then sold the assets. We pay £2m in rent, which goes up 3 per cent a year, to play football at Elland Road. That works out at £7 per ticket per game. Then there's the rates bill, which is horrendous. The police charges are horrendous. People say, what about that money you got for [Fabian] Delph? Well, what about the wage bill? What about the £2m we've spent to maintain the bloody ground because it's falling apart? In fact, we've spent nearly £10m since we took over."

Irritation flushes his cheeks. "People say 'Let kids in for free'. Why should we let kids in for free? One woman asked me to do a deal for students. She said her son can't afford to come. Then get a bloody job. The disabled get a helper in for free if they pay for a full-price ticket, which means they both get in at half-price. I'm not being funny but if you've got a bad back, do you need a helper? We asked them to come in to prove they're disabled, and some of them did a runner, which isn't bad if you're disabled." A bellow of laughter; I suspect that nobody amuses Ken quite as much as Ken. "The worst scroungers," he continues, "are those who can afford to pay, and that includes pop stars. There's no such thing as a complimentary ticket; it's just paid for by someone else." At least he doesn't have a problem at Leeds with ex-players demanding freebies, which was one of the banes of his life at Chelsea (a cue for Osgood to get another dishonourable mention). Most clubs, he thinks, are far too indulgent. "All over England you find Mr Bigs throwing tickets round for free. As soon as a clever businessman goes in the boardroom door, his brains go out the window. But if you give away free tickets, you're being generous with the money of the guy who stands behind the goal and can't afford to go on holiday. When I was chairman at Wembley [for a time he chaired the Football Association company charged with redeveloping the stadium] we had Tony Blair as guest of honour. That meant an invitation for him and his wife. But we got a request for five tickets, all in the front row. I told them to f**k off."

The biggest of football's Mr Bigs, if only in terms of financial means, is of course the Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour. Does Bates despair at the economic lunacy being perpetrated in order to give a very rich man what he wants? "No. It goes in cycles. [Roman] Abramovich [to whom Bates sold Chelsea in 2003, reportedly making a £17m profit] is cutting back, isn't he? And at the end of the day, there's no achievement. If Man City do the treble this year, big bloody deal. So what. What have they achieved? f**k all."

Yes, but the record books in 50 years' time will still show a City treble. "Yes, and it will still have no value. Let me tell you a story. The moment my relationship with Mr Abramovich's entourage went wrong was in August 2003, when [Abramovich's adviser] Eugene Tenenbaum said to me, 'When are we going to make a profit?' I burst out laughing. I said, 'You've just put £20m on the cost structure, and you've done it without speaking to the chairman', as I then was. I would have been a good chairman for Abramovich. I bought them in 1982 [reportedly for £1] when they were bloody bankrupt, and for 10 years from 1994 we played in four FA cup finals, won two of them, won the League Cup, the Cup-Winners' Cup, got to the quarter-final of the Champions League, all on the smell of an oily rag. Now that's an achievement. I genuinely thought when Abramovich bought the club that he would use his money to accelerate down the road I was already on. Instead he went mad. I said to them, 'Man United must be laughing their fucking socks off. [Juan Sebastian] Veron and [Peter] Kenyon... they've sold you two lemons in three weeks.'"

If Bates had known before he signed Chelsea over to Abramovich what he knows now, would he still have done the deal? "I couldn't possibly answer that question over a lengthy alcoholic lunch without due notice." But with the benefit of hindsight, I suspect he might have done things differently. "Look at Alex Ferguson. Not a very likeable person but you have to admire what he's done without any external funding. Look at Arsène Wenger. I dislike him immensely, and it was me who nicknamed him 'Arsehole Whinger', but again, look at what he's done. He has a fantastic scouting system, his teams play exciting football..."

Another pause, to order another bottle of Sancerre and rib the waiter again. "People talk about Arsenal's debt, but you have to distinguish between debts against assets, and debts against waste. Ridsdale borrowed millions and pissed it up against the wall on players. Nothing to show for it. Arsenal have £300m of debt but that's against property. When I left, Chelsea had £90m of debts, but they had assets. At Leeds, I'm building the castle on stone, not sand. What you have to do in football is generate business that doesn't depend on that 25-year-old pillock who misses an open goal in the 89th minute. You use the supporter base but generate non-football business: weddings, conferences, bar mitzvahs. I preached that at Chelsea and they all took the piss, now they're all copying me."

What nobody has copied is the notorious Bates programme notes. At Chelsea, and now at Leeds, he shamelessly uses his chairman's page to peddle a decidedly right-wing (he chuckles when I say Thatcherite) view of the world. Take this example, from the Leeds v MK Dons game shortly before the general election: "You could, as I have been urged to do, vote for the Icelandic Volcano Party. After all, they have done more to stop immigration in the last seven days than Labour has for 13 years." And that in the city that returned Denis Healey to Parliament for many years.

But Bates insists that supporters love his programme notes. "When I stopped writing them at Chelsea, programme sales fell by 10 per cent. At Leeds, it's the first page people turn to. The media call me controversial because I talk straight. They slag me off from their ivory towers." He names the journalists he considers the worst miscreants. "Sports writer of the year, what does that mean? A load of plonkers voted him the least worst of the rest of them." He asks why [Premier League chairman] Dave Richards got a knighthood. "For the bloody work he's done for the NSPCC over 40 years, that's what. What have they ever done for charity, these slaggers-off? What have they ever achieved? I woke up at two o'clock last night and what did I do? I redesigned the East Stand."

Unarguably, Bates has wrought considerable improvements in the infrastructure at Elland Road, and despite embracing the Leeds cause so late in life, maintains that nobody values the heritage of the club more than he does. "Howard Wilkinson is the second-most successful manager in Leeds' history, yet there was nothing there in his name, not a thing. So we opened a pub called Howard's Way, and now we're opening a new restaurant called Howard's. It opens this Saturday, and he will be our honoured guest."

I have an irresistible question: what happens if Wilkinson wants to bring along the rest of his family for a free dinner? "Then he can f**k off." This time, Susannah and I laugh heartily too. It has certainly been an entertaining three hours, my lunch with Mr and Mrs Bates, and it ends on an interesting note. He normally charges for interviews, he tells me, but this time he will waive his fee, as long as I pick up the (€296) bill. Inwardly, and possibly outwardly too, I quail. I would normally expect to buy lunch for an interviewee, but he has invited Susannah, he has chosen the venue, he has ordered – and reordered – the wine, and I have assumed all along that his largesse with the staff would extend to the very substantial tab. It is only as I walk back to Monte Carlo's station that I realise what a stupid assumption this was. A free lunch? For a hack? You must be bloody joking.

[Kris Boyd]

What a w**k Ken is, although I did laugh at his "I'm not being funny but if you've got a bad back do you really need a carer" line.

MOT with or without bates

[repeat_offender]

Interview in the independant with Ken Bates:-

So for the sake of a 296 Euro dinner tab, Ken has manged to piss off, Arsenal (remember Watt is currently on loan), Man City & the Labour party. Last time he pissed off Everton & Coventry City, I'm sure these articles are great news for journo's and brilliant entertainment for the neutral but I fail to see the positive outcome for Leeds United. Just an ego trip for a silly old fu@cker who hasn't been caught yet.

By the way Ken your bollox re the fans loving your program notes count for sweet FA, your program notes relating to former LUFC invester Levi cost £1.5 million, he had to settle out of court after calling the independant Chelsea supporters group a bunch of parasites in the CFC program. He might enjoy writing program notes but it seems quite an expensive past time for who ever picks up the bill.

I'd love a break down of the £10 million he's spent, admin, lawyers, cost of failed court cases??????????????????

So the fans at ER want Ronaldo and complain about the ticket prices Ken?? You promised us Permiership football for Premiership ticket prices, I've bought a season ticket every year you've been in charge. Last season my L1 season ticket was more expensive than several permiserhip clubs. Ronaldo?don't make me laugh, we coughed up permiership prices and he delivered Paul Dickov a 38 year old no fUcker else wanted.

Also don't moan about the rent Ken, you had the chance to buy Thorpe Arch but blew it & blamed it on LCC at the last minute you utter cu*t. How he is making us pay for wrecking that score board.

Lets hope Grayson can work his magic despite Ken.

I can't make my mind up who I'd rather have in charge at Scum, Ken or the Glazers.

[Kris Boyd]

There's surely not long left in him now, 78 years old he should retire in monte carlo instead of being a bearded c**t

[repeat_offender]

Always look out for Turks carrying knives!

Proud of yourself?

I can arrange for you to meet Chris Loftus's brother just drop me a PM if you fancy it.

Don't bother posting more shit on the subject, I'll wait for your PM.

[repeat_offender]

What's the story behind the Leeds fans a the Start of the game. I was watching with the sound off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/apr/05/leeds-yeovil-league-one-match-report

The game marked the 10th anniversary of the killing of Leeds fans Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight in Istanbul before the club's Uefa Cup semi-final tie against Galatasaray in 2000 and both teams wore black armbands in their memory and supporters marked their protest about the lack of justice in the case against the killers by turning their backs on the first minute of the game.

Yeovil Away

Istanbul April 2000

Waiting for your PM C*nt, are you going to melt like the qwerty ninja I suspect you are?

[Kris Boyd]

c***s just an Internet hardman I've yet to see someone who likes vinny jones, milwall and the bnp who isn't a total fanny.

For anyone interested, Leeds supporters are still very upset with the deaths of the 2 men in turkey and they are always remembered. We are also pissed off at harry kewel for his decision to go play football there, like many I think the Turks (who aren't really even fucking in Europe) should be banned by UEFA until they can show a much higher level of policing, security and low tollerance of this "welcome to hell" style violent culture in their game.

It's great to see how loyal the fans are to the 2 murdered supporters, always remembered at ER. MOT.

[Kris Boyd]

3 points today and 5th in the table, looking good so far, Becchio on target again, make it even sweeter seeing forrest, derby and boro playing utter shit! next home game against the blades, hope we pump them.

[repeat_offender]

For those interested, links for pages from the LUFC Vs Swansea Match day program 11.9.10 below.

Simon Grayson's program notes

Ken Bates program notes P1

Ken Bates program notes p2

[repeat_offender]

Intresting article in the guardian today about the so called owners of leeds:-

http://www.guardian....-mystery-owners

Here's the lads at the Square Balls best effort at an explanantion, even on full screen & with my screen turned side ways it's not making much sense.

No PM from Mangina btw.

LUFC Ownership

[Glasgow Loon]

1-0 Leeds Howson 3mins

[Glasgow Loon]

1-1 Gary O'connor on his debut for barnsley.

[Glasgow Loon]

2-1 Barnsley

[Glasgow Loon]

3-1 barnsley