Leeds Will They Or Won't They?

[jezchesters]

It ain't over 'til tha fat lady sings! (Mind you though, I've always been a glass half full type of person)

With our goal difference, we're 4 points from getting out of trouble. Agreed, at the rate we pick them up it coupld go down to the wire, but there are quite a few other teams who are in the mix - bear in mind, we've taken 7 points out of the last 5 games, which puts us on a par with the rest of them. At this stage it really is anyone's game...

[jezchesters]

I've just noticed what a cleverly titled thread this is - 'Leeds, Will They or Won't They?'

And to think that we were applying this to promotion rather than relegation at the beginning of the season

[ThaiPauly]

My Crystal ball tells me that Leeds WILL survive this season.

Southend, Barnsley and Hull will go down

[eddie11]

taken from MoT web site

(Braveheart )

Supporter: We didn't come here to play for them Bates and Wise.

Second Supporter: Let's go home, we have too many points to make up!

Sons of Leeds! I am Billy Bremner.

Second Supporter: Billy Bremner is seven feet tall!

Yes, I've heard that, and he scores goals by the hundreds. And if he were here, he'd consume our opponants with fireballs from his eyes, and bolts of lightning from his arse. I AM Billy Bremner! and I see a whole army of Leeds supporters, here, in defiance of tyranny. You've come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight and avoid relegation and the slavery of Division one?

Supporter: Against that? No, we'll run, and we'll live even though we get relegated.

Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least for a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM OR OUR PRIDE!

Come on Leeds!!!!

[ThaiPauly]

You have seen that film too many times for your own good Eddie.

But nice sentiments

Good Luck

[keddy]

You have seen that film too many times for your own good Eddie.

But nice sentiments

Good Luck

Yes, but wasn't he hung, drawn and quartered in the end.

[eddie11]

You have seen that film too many times for your own good Eddie.

But nice sentiments

Good Luck

Yes, but wasn't he hung, drawn and quartered in the end.

Who, Billy Bremner ?

[ThaiPauly]

No- Dennis Wise !!!

[eddie11]

No- Dennis Wise !!!

Any tickets on sale yet ?

[warriors]

Seeing I started this tread in the first place.

I will now add my answer.

NO not go up.

YES YES go down . Gone but not forgotten . Gap is far to big and the games to little to be able to now make the gap up.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

[taxexile]

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

too right , it's looking very much like leeds will be relegated again , nothing has been heard from ken bates about the dire straits that leeds find themselves in after 2 years of his leadership , what can he be up to ?

and wises upbeat managerspeak announcements after each drubbing remind me of the band on the titanic.

its hard to believe and even harder to stomach.

it must be miserable on the chilly windlashed damp terraces of elland road these days.

division 3 next season.

may god have mercy on their souls

[warriors]

[

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Whats Bates up too.

Maybe looking to flick Leeds off to a Arab or a 2nd hand car sales man

[taxexile]

Wise lambasts wantaway Nicholls

Nicholls has made just 15 appearances for Leeds

Leeds manager Dennis Wise has hit out at club captain Kevin Nicholls after revealing the midfielder has asked to leave Elland Road and return to Luton.

Nicholls joined Leeds from the Hatters in the summer in a £700,000 deal, and was made captain when Wise took over.

However, he has now asked to leave and Wise admitted: "I'm gobsmacked that he wants to go back to Luton.

"I wasn't interested at all in letting him go but he has made his mind up. He feels he made a mistake joining us."

Leeds are currently bottom of the Championship and five points adrift of safety - and Luton who lie in 20th place.

And Wise added: "I'm very disappointed in him, they're a team fighting us for relegation. I asked whether it was me and Gus that was the problem, he said 'no'.

We want our money back, simple as that - do they think I'm mad?

Dennis Wise

"He came to see me on Thursday but I had already had a phone call from Mike Newell on Wednesday asking me if I was interested in letting Kevin go.

"I'm very disappointed at the way I've found out. It takes Mike to ring me.

"He was the captain of this football club and you expect him to dig in like the rest and get us out of this mess and not jack it in. This really, really disappoints me and this is just some of the things you have to put up with."

Nicholls has made just 15 appearances for Leeds after suffering with a knee ligament injury earlier in the season.

When asked if Nicholls had played his last game for Leeds, Wise added: "We'll have to wait and see.

"What do you say to that? I told him I had to accept his decision and told him he wouldn't be captain and wouldn't be involved in the game this Saturday.

"He actually wanted to go straightaway. To go to Luton to try to help them and I can't understand it.

"We want our money back, simple as that. If he wants to go to Luton, give us our money back.

"Do they think I'm mad, to go and loan him to Luton for the rest of the season? Is he seriously crazy, or what?

"This is what you deal with, chaps. Good isn't it?"

bbc sport.

[ThaiPauly]

You do indeed have my sympathy...but when the Captain comes out with this sort of request you have to wonder what on earth is going on behind closed doors.?

But even if he does get the money back he can't spend it this season can he?

[mrbojangles]

I feel for you Leeds, i really do. As you know we went down to that division not that long ago.

But look at the positive side, where are Man City now, eh. Oh wait a minute, one above the relegation zone again

[taxexile]

Three ring circus by Davies on Soccer

Posted on 4 March 2007

A thick pall of despair clings to all of us who support Leeds United, though you would never know it from reading the club’s official website.

For those of you whose English soccer intake is limited to the goings on in the money-splashed Premiership, spare a thought for those of us whose fate it is to follow a side now rooted firmly to the foot of the Coca Cola Championship.

Leeds United have not been out of the bottom three for the past four months, yet there is a singular lack of accepting the inevitable among some. Whenever I log on to the club’s official website, I have to sift through ludicrously upbeat stories that would leave Bush regime spin doctors blushing. One day there’s the story of a Falklands War hero’s ‘call to arms’ message. The next a youth team goalkeeper who has signed a two year deal. Or how Leeds fans are among the best in the country, and how Leeds is such a big club, with such a big stadium and a great training ground. All retch-inducing slush designed to take one’s mind away from the impending and, in my mind, inevitable calamity of relegation to the third tier of English football.

Routinely, as the disappointment of another Saturday setback dissolves into a more optimistic midweek frame of mind, the Elland Road truth-benders will publish a ‘XXXX sounds the rallying call’ featuring a gushing interview with a player who will bumble his way through a predictable slew of cliched rot that ends with the firm assertion that 'this is the weekend when the corner will be turned'.

Only it never is! Leeds have failed to win back to back matches the entire season. With ten games left, they are running out of rope. The reality is that here is a club in utter crisis. Remember just six short years ago Leeds were competing in the semifinals of the Champions League. Less than a season ago they were playing Watford in the Championship play-off final to see which team would be promoted to the Premiership. Now with ostensibly the same squad of misfits, er players, they are clinging by the fingertips to their second tier status.

The current manager is Dennis Wise, the ex Chelsea hot-head with the dangerously close-set eyes. He’s not a favourite among Yorkshiremen, who seem to have an inbuilt mistrust of anyone emanating from London. The fact that Wise was hand-picked by old Chelsea chum and current Leeds chairman Ken Bates adds fuel to the conspiracy theory that Bates in fact wants Leeds to go down. Ludicrous to anyone with half a brain, true, but Leeds’ fans aren't noted for their logic. (Take me for example. Why would I support this manky lot in the first place?!)

As it happens, the defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend was the least of Leeds’ worries. Before the match, the current skipper, Kevin Nicholls, approached Wise and told him that he no longer wanted to play for the club. The gist of his gripe was that he had made a mistake moving from Luton a year ago, and would now like to rejoin his old club as soon as possible. It was a staggering piece of television to wake up to on Sunday morning. In fact Wise used the term ‘gob-smacked’ four times in his inarticulate fifty second soundbite. Of course the Leeds website had nothing on the matter by late Sunday, even though it was splashed all over the likes of BBC, Sky and sporting-life.com.

This is the second piece of bizarre behind the scenes news to crawl from the Elland Road woodwork in recent weeks. Before the home match against Crystal Palace, a Leeds player was caught by Wise leaking the Leeds team line-up to the visitors. Wise blew his top, pronouncing loudly that the player in question would never play for Leeds again. Yet the issue has died a swift death. The identity of the player remains unknown, though Leeds fans on blogs and chat rooms speculate feverishly over the identity.

Leeds are down, and are being kicked from all angles. The above incidents, allied to the riotous litany of disasters that have befallen the club in the recent past, make a once-proud club a laughably easy target, and the punches are raining in.

Nevertheless, a healthy dose of mindless optimism, as prescribed by the Leeds official website, may just be what I need.

Excuse me if you would, I'm just going to log on to leedsunited.com. I think I hear the sound of a rallying call in the distance.

[bendix]

A much needed win against Luton and, by all accounts, thoroughly deserved. Finally a performance with some passion.

Come on Leeds - make it two on the trot for the first time this season against Leicester.

[taxexile]

Battle to beat Championship drop

By Charlie Henderson

The race to avoid relegation from the Championship is hotting up with as few as eight games to go until the season ends on Sunday 6 May.

Seven points separate seven teams vying to pull away from the trap door to League One.

And the bottom four are within four points of each other, with three teams set to go down.

Taking the last eight, nine or 10 games, if teams mirror that form through to the end of the season the present bottom three of Leeds, Luton and QPR are doomed, with the latter just missing out on goal difference to Burnley on 44 points.

But former Coventry boss Micky Adams believes the survival mark will be much nearer the division's traditional benchmark of 52 points.

"The clubs at the bottom have to be looking for more than 50 points," he told BBC Sport.

"That means some of them are going to have to find five wins from somewhere in eight matches, and when you consider that some haven't even won 10 games out of 38 it's difficult to see where those wins are going to come from."

Wins are imperative and for Adams, who had been pounding the Championship beat with Coventry for two years up until this January, the means to that end is experience.

"If they can win games against those around them all the better and teams with bigger squads and experience are the ones more likely to get out of it," he added.

"There are some teams we expected to be down there at the beginning of the season through lack of resources and experience, but then there are also some surprises down there like Leeds.

"But I look at Leeds and I really think they can get out of this situation. They have experience on the pitch and in Dennis Wise, who took Millwall to an FA Cup final.

"Any manager who does that has got a good pedigree."

Leeds have been bottom since mid-January, but if they are going to climb clear, who is going to take their place in the bottom three?

BBC Sport asked Adams, who describes himself as one of football's 'fire-fighters', to run the rule over the clubs in peril at the wrong end of the Championship.

LEEDS

Position: 24th

Record: P38; W10; D5; L23; F38; A63; Pts 35

Form: DLLLWD

Still to play: Southend (a); Preston (h); Plymouth (h); Colchester (a); Burnley (h); Southampton (a); Ipswich (h); Derby (a).

They've got strong characters, people who have experienced the good times and not just the bad at the club, and they need to stand up and be counted.

Leeds haven't scored enough goals, but if you take the last two games in isolation it has been a good return and that sort of form would be enough for them to escape.

The interest and hype can make it very, very hard for the players to perform and the crowd at Elland Road can go one of two ways; if they see their team giving 150% they will be supportive, otherwise they can be quite unforgiving.

But I think they understand the problems Dennis Wise has had, know he won't be giving up and are now backing their boys to the hilt.

Did you know? Leeds still have six players on their books who were in the Championship play-off final last season and four of them played in the draw at Leicester last time out.

LUTON

Position: 23rd

Record: P38; W9; D9; L20; F47; A65; Pts 36

Form: WLLLLL

Still to play: Ipswich (h); Burnley (a); Southampton (h); QPR (a); Plymouth (h); Derby (a); Southend (a); Sunderland (h).

They are in the worst form of any of the teams down at the bottom and their present run must be very depressing for all concerned.

Rowan Vine, Steve Howard, Carlos Edwards and Kevin Nicholls were the nucleus of the side that played well last season, but now they've all gone it highlights the dangers of letting your best players go.

Look at the goals against figure. It is joint-worst in the division with Barnsley and it is clear where their problems are, but there is no easy quick fix.

Opportunities in the loan market are not as available as before as Premiership clubs want to keep their squads together more these days so you're left with scoring more goals - which is easier said than done!

Did you know? Rowan Vine (14) and Carlos Edwards (six) are still the club's leading two scorers despite leaving Kenilworth Road more than two months ago.

QPR

Position: 22nd

Record: P37; W9; D10; L18; F42; A58; Pts 37

Form: LDDLDD

Still to play: Leicester (a); West Brom (h); Preston (h); Coventry (a); Luton (h); Sunderland (a); Cardiff (h); Wolves (a); Stoke (h).

Manager John Gregory has addressed the fact they were leaking goals and Danny Cullip and goalkeeper Lee Camp have looked good since coming in.

Conceding a late goal at Derby to draw is a blow, but they cannot afford to look at it like that.

They still got a point away to a very good side, gave a good account of themselves and they must have gone into it thinking that if they got anything they would be pleased. It could yet be a turning point.

However, on the flipside is that run-in. Just look at the clubs they've yet to play, and their game in hand is against Preston. Five matches are at home, but it is the hardest of the lot and you have to fear for them.

Did you know? QPR have lost only one of their last seven games at home.

SOUTHEND

Position: 21st

Record: P38; W9; D11; L18; F39; A58; Pts 38

Form: LLLDWW

Still to play: Leeds (h); Hull (a); Colchester (h); Preston (a); Barnsley (h); Plymouth (a); Luton (h); Southampton (a).

Beating Burnley on Tuesday was a big result for them as they climbed out of the relegation places, but it is the next game against Leeds that is the key match.

Win and they make it three victories in a row as well as opening up a six-point gap on Leeds, which can give them the confidence to go on and avoid relegation.

It is one of three games against fellow relegation candidates at home, Roots Hall is never an easy place to go and picking up wins at home is the target for Steve Tilson's squad.

I can see them pulling out of trouble and the thing I like about them is that they have got players who can turn games - Freddy Eastwood and Jamal Campbell-Ryce on the right-wing can do bits of individual magic.

Did you know? Southend were in the relegation zone from 31 October until 13 March.

BARNSLEY

Position: 20th

Record: P38; W12; D5; L21; F44; A65; Pts 41

Form: LWWLLW

Still to play: Coventry (a); Derby (h); Ipswich (a); Birmingham (h); Southend (a); Crystal Palace (h); Leicester (h); West Brom (a).

They came from behind to beat Plymouth which is a big thing as they don't draw too many - only five all season - so they either get beat or win which is strange, and can be dangerous.

When you're a team that doesn't draw the mentality can be 'we've conceded and it looks like we're going to lose another game', but if you keep going to the end you can nick points here and there that can be vital.

They have a number of games against teams in mid-table, but managers and boards will be demanding a strong finish and there are no gimmes in the Championship.

They've done well until now, those new Hungarian players look fresh and eager and they've got to believe they can stay up, but if they finish in the bottom three nobody would be surprised.

Did you know? The win at Plymouth was the first time since November they have picked up three points having conceded a goal.

HULL

Position: 19th

Record: P38; W11; D8; L19; F41; A56; Pts 41

Form: LWLLWW

Still to play: Sunderland (a); Southend (h); Norwich (h); Wolves (a), Colchester (h); Stoke (a); Cardiff (a); Plymouth (h).

Manager Phil Brown has steadied the ship after a poor start.

Back-to-back wins will have done their confidence the world of good, especially picking up three points at Luton as away form has been their Achilles heel this season.

Matches at this stage of the season are readily called 'must-win' games, but they are nothing of the sort for the likes of Ray Parlour.

For him, a European final or an FA Cup final is a 'must-win' game - he has been there, seen it and done it and his experience, along with the likes of Dean Windass and Nick Barmby, will be vital in keeping their run of form going.

Did you know? This is the highest Hull have been in the table all season. All the other six clubs in the mire have at least enjoyed a more exalted status in the division at sometime or other during the campaign.

BURNLEY

Position: 18th

Record: P36; W10; D11; L15; F36; A39; Pts 41

Form: DLLDDL

Still to play: Preston (a); Luton (h); Plymouth (h); Birmingham (a); Cardiff (h); Leeds (a); Norwich (h); West Brom (h), Sunderland (a); Coventry (h).

Steve Cotterill has obviously got a board of directors who think he's the man for the job. I went eight games without a win and got the sack this season, but he's on 17 and counting!

With the standard of players they've got it is surprising they are down there and it just goes to show that results dictate confidence, and if the confidence is not there runs like this can happen to anybody.

The one thing you can say is that they are due a win, and with Andy Gray now fit alongside Ade Akinbiyi you'd expect the goals to come to boost that goals for column.

A bit of luck somewhere could earn three points which will immediately lift the mood, and if they win their two games in hand they will be flying up the table.

Did you know? Burnley, who were top after the first day of the season, have scored just eight goals in those 17 games they have failed to win.

bbc sport

[ThaiPauly]

Just to make matters worse for you guys Sky sports are running a poll at the moment on which team are certs for the drop.

Here are the current predictions

Leeds 65%

Luton 13%

Hull 3%

Southend 8%

QPR 6%

Barnsley 3%

Burnley 3%

I do hope for your sake they are wrong

[bendix]

They're not wrong.

Leeds have squandered too many games and it's getting too late in the season to do much about it. 5-7 games ago, i thought they could do it but it's now out of our hands and reliant very much on other teams doing worse than us. I don't see that happening.

I'm resigned to the inevitable. And, unless we win at Southend this weekend, the drop will happen by Easter.

[taxexile]

ever since the days of don revie i believe leeds have been suffering from some fiendish curse placed upon them by a team or teams ( chelsea and man.u. spring to mind) jealous of their superhuman skills and powers as displayed during the revie years.

since then , and even then they have been an "also ran" team , never quite achieving those legendary "doubles" and "trebles" that make teams truly great.

a curse that has blighted them with unlucky bounces , the hatred of the press , mid week replays in the south of england , hits to the woodwork , temporarily blinded referees , gay linesmen , gary sprake , peter reid , peter ridsdale and terry venables.

for the long suffering supporters it now looks certain that next season will see the drop to the , call it what you will , it is still the third division , and will be playing away games at blackpool , tranmere , doncaster and rotheram.

who can forget the chants booming around the terraces in the good old days ,

We don't give a wiggle

and we don't give a wank

WE ARE THE GELDERD AGGRO

!

Oh the lads you should have seen their faces

Going down to Elland Road to see Don Revies aces

All the lads and lasses there with all their smiling faces

Going down to Elland Road to see Don Revies Aces

David Ellary He's a ######, he's a ######!

David Ellary He's a ######, he's a ######!

There's Only one Carlton Palmer,

Only one Carlton Palmer,

With a packet of sweets and a cheeky smile,

Carlton's a pedophile!

Posh Spice is a slapper,

She wears a big fat jewel,

And when she's shagging Beckham,

She thinks of Harry Kewell!

Sign on! sign on!

with a pen in your hand,

and you'll never find a job,

you'll never find a job,

Sign on, sign on...

You can stick George Graham up yer arse!

you can stick George Graham up yer arse!

you can stick George Graham - Stick George Graham,

Stick George Graham up yer arse! Sideways!

pure poetry.

[ThaiPauly]

Well if its any consolation Tax...you wont be playing Rotherham...they are doomed.

But you will more than likely be playing SWINDON

[redrus]

Sign on! sign on!

with a pen in your hand,

and you'll never find a job,

you'll never find a job,

Sign on, sign on...

Particular old favourite of mine that...!

redrus

[taxexile]

well , another two points lost , a last minute goal i think it was that got leeds the draw.

looking very bad , and on this form i cant even see them doing that well in the 3rd div.

what is bates up to ??

[keddy]

well , another two points lost , a last minute goal i think it was that got leeds the draw.

looking very bad , and on this form i cant even see them doing that well in the 3rd div.

what is bates up to ??

How do you think your gates will be if you go down Forest, Man City continued to get good crowds. Will Bates slash the ticket prices to shore things up. Division 1 is no Champion's league but it might be an interesting adventure, down there; loads of new grounds to go to, standing, cheaper prices, more authentic fans. Chin up

[warriors]

Maybe I will start a new Thread next season called Will we enjoy the 3rdivision as much as we enjoyed the 2nd?

Many answers to that question.

Time again will tell.

Oh the black days at E. ROAD.

Don. R would be rolling over in his grave now me thinks and thinking what the hel_l.

[bendix]

A very good weekend when, for once, all the results went our way. The Leeds result was huge, and the players and managers' delight at the Healy goal was a really good sign. For the first time in years, the team looked passionate and looked like they cared. I don't care if Leeds players are crap - I DO care that they are interested, committed and proud of the white shirt. Suddenly - maybe too late - they seem to care.

Will we stay up? Six games to go and I think they need ten points. We also need some other games to go our way but after getting 8 points from last four games we are suddenly the form team and are starting to look hard to beat. Also, our goal difference is now no worse than a few others, which is encouraging. QPR have a tough run in and Preston can do us a huge favour tomorrow by beating them.

Am I optimistic? Not about staying up. I think we are still in dire trouble.

But I am optimistic about the future now more than at any time for the last year.

[bendix]

Leeds have been in trouble a couple of times for fielding more than the permitted five on-loan players in their squad at the same time. We were fined a couple of months ago for it, and just last weekend, Preston claimed (falsely) that we'd done it again.

And now it gets worse. This news just in:

Football League to scrutinise Leeds United player quotas again.

By Ellen Drode (PA) 4 April 2007

Hot on the heels of last weekend’s controversy surrounding the number of loan players in Leeds United’s squad for their match against Preston North End, The Football League today announced that, following an anonymous tip-off, they intend to investigate claims that under ex-manager Kevin Blackwell Leeds fielded teams containing more than their allowed quota of crap players. Under League rules Championship teams are permitted to have a maximum of five crap players on the field at any one time. Quoting a specific example a FL spokesman revealed that in their 3-0 home defeat against Sunderland, Leeds had six crap players on the field simultaneously, namely Tony Warner, Stephen Crainey, Paul Butler, Sean Gregan, Ian Westlake and Steve Stone.

A spokesman for Leeds United claimed that the FL had it all wrong. “Grego was an unused sub that day for starters, and the rules allow for exemptions for players who weren’t crap before they join a club, such as Stono. Also players who stop being crap later in the season are excluded, although we’re struggling to find a player to fit the bill for that one. We have documentary evidence that we didn’t know that Craino was crap when we bought him, as his contract merely stated that he was a bit rubbish, which isn’t the same thing. We were also led to believe by the FL that there is no limit to the number of crap Scottish players a team can have on the field of play.

In a similar move UEFA have announced an investigation into the eligibility of some of the Manchester United players in the team that won the 1999 Champions’ League Semi-Final against Juventus. Rules that became effective at the start of that season limited the number of complete <deleted> that a team could have in its squad to 5, and the Man Utd squad that night included Peter Schmeichel, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes. Responding to the allegations manager Alec Ferguson laughed at the suggestion that Roy Keane is a complete <deleted>, saying that everybody within football knew that he was, in fact, an utter, utter jerk.

Ends.

[eddie11]

[twentythreemc]

Keep the Faith

I was at the PNE Game Last Friday and we looked like a totally different team, along with commitment we actually played some decent football and the crowd of 18433 was absolutely magnificent it's an often used cliche that the crowd was the extra man but never have I seen anything like it since Stuttgart at Elland Road.

Today's another big game against Plymouth and we are third from bottom now with Southend and Hull getting beat yesterday the signs are good.

Marching On Together

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