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Are Leeds United About To Hit The Heights Or Plummet To Disaster?

by James Brown
11 June 2014 8 Comments

It’s a summer of change at the struggling Yorkshire giants but is that a good or bad thing?

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Leeds in better times…

Image via @SubbuteoArt

Are Leeds United About To Hit The Heights Or Plummet To Disaster? 

People don’t like change. Not real change. They might think they do, but more often than not, they don’t. They might eventually accept change, accommodate it, get used to it and grow to like the new state they are in, but the onset of real change is often terrifying. Lack of knowledge, understanding or perspective generates fear and people instinctively push against it.

That’s where Leeds United fans find themselves now. Thrashing around in the bright glare of change, unsure whether to accept it and see where it takes them, or uncomfortable with the rate of change and worried that darkness will descend.

I was recently asked how I felt about Leeds United and had to admit I have never felt like this before about the club: I don’t know what’s going to happen.

Will it be great? Will it be a disaster? Will it be Southampton or will it be Portsmouth?

Trying to find a comparison I found myself thinking about the mountain paths I’ve walked up in India. They lead somewhere fantastic, but all the time you’re just a couple of wrong steps away from a plummeting disaster.

It’s very hard when you have something as emotional as a football supporter to separate the fact from the fiction, the lies and the propaganda from the good intent. Every time you read something you have to know that whoever has sewn the seed for that story has done so with a deliberate intent. To reassure or to unsettle, to inform or to cloud.

My intention here? To try and separate how I feel about something from understanding what is actually going on. And also to put into words a hope that it will be all right.

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Historical expectation combined with the utter chaos of the last few years of Leeds United has led to a hypersensitivity amongst the fans and press about what is or isn’t happening. Social media means we’re always on, sitting there, permanently staring at the life-support machine as it bleeps away. Only this life support machine also has it’s own permanent news and rumour feed.

People have agendas, sides, prejudices and suspicion. Our new owner Mr Cellino doesn’t come quietly, he likes the rock and roll life in Miami, he talks like a supporting character out of Scarface, he’s bullish, loud, forthright, and has a past dipped in frequent controversy.

When he was first associated with the club, an Italian football expert I know told me: “He’s no worse than Bates or Ridsdale, the fans of Cagliari love him.” The first comment isn’t exactly inspiring, the second might be questionable. But he is certainly a lot more likeable than Bates and Ridsdale.

He has at times been both bold and cack-handed – although that’s pretty common when you have to make changes to move something on significantly.

However I think so much of the suspicion and the fear emanates from the fact that we don’t know him. If it were a British business or sports figure implementing the changes that he’s bringing to the club, it might be easier to recognise his intent.

To me he seems to be performing the key surgery needed to stop the club from rotting away. In the short term he needs Leeds United to stop spending money. Simple as that. Prisoner Cell Block Haigh had a vision of filling Elland Road for every home game just by giving mince pies away. It didn’t happen, and the business lost more money under GFH than it had been doing under Bates.

With restricted revenues because of mortgaged tickets the only way to bring it into line is to reduce the outgoings savagely. It’s not a nice thing to do, but losing a million pounds a month isn’t a nice thing to be doing either.

If it were a British business or sports figure implementing the changes that Cellino’s bringing to the club, it might be easier to recognise his intent.

In the short term people who love and support and rely on the club will lose their income, which is harsh. People rightly point out that these people on short-term contracts and low wages go whilst the high earners who under-perform on the pitch sit pretty. I’ve heard someone address that for the first time recently, and it came from Benny Carbone with some long-term common sense in his assessment of the Academy.

If you look around at clubs with smaller incomes they have to rely on growing their own players, but we’ve always seemed to think somehow we are better than that. Or we need a quicker solution. People are raving about Southampton’s recent youth policy but if you go back over the last twenty years and count the number of international footballers who have come out of our youth system you have to wonder why we haven’t put more effort on fast-tracking youth into the first team: Byram, Lees, Delph, Lennon, Milner, Smith, McPhail, Harte, Kelly, Kewell, Woodgate are all international tournament players. So many of the great eras of successful English football teams have been built around youth team graduates.

When Carbone announced that the youth team was full of talented youngsters who love the club and that the model would be to have five first team players from the youth team and others brought in it was the most important thing anyone has said at LUFC for years.

Whether you rate Tom Lees or Dom Poleon as good enough for LUFC or not, the reality is that from a combined business and sporting perspective they are a better option than Noel Hunt and Lee Peltier.

The Italian football writer I know went on to tell me that the model at Cellino’s last club is to develop young talent and sell it on. My hope dropped when I heard that but look where we’ve been in last five years? If we still had the team Simon Grayson lead out of League 1 we would probably have been long-since promoted to the Premiership alongside former third tier sides Southampton and Norwich.

Cutting costs and investing in youth can be good things – especially if those costs are on luxury squad players like Neil Warnock specialised in. Shaking systems up and making key people question what they put in is important for the simple reason that over the last ten years whatever has been tried hasn’t worked.

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We’ve had some great seasons, fantastic performances and players we’ve loved to watch but the reality right now is Leeds United feels like it is almost running on empty, the squad is overstuffed with deadwood that is stifling the youth, and we haven’t improved managerially since Gus Poyet left Wise. And most importantly we aren’t where we want to be which is winning silverware, competing for Europe, smashing goals in, and winning points against the best teams in England.

It’s disappointing to hear club legends are being let go from official hospitality jobs but any smart sponsor could quickly hire these guys for their own boxes or client entertaining experiences. You would like to think that if the club gets back on its feet commercially there will be opportunities for them to earn a living at Elland Road again.

The biggest question mark sits over who will be the new coach. Coach, and not a manager. A key factor here is that football is corrupt. Lots of managers expect a cut of transfer fees - and in one recent case for us, appearance fees too. If you were spending millions on a business would you not want to control the expenditure on talent?

There have been Premier League sackings over the last few years that have shocked football fans because on the pitch the teams have been doing well but behind the scenes huge chunks of money has gone missing from transfer deals. This seems to be something that sharper, richer international businessmen want to cut out.

Admittedly the idea of a non-football coach picking the team horrifies people but haven’t we all said we could do better ourselves? Haven’t we all seen performances that were terrible or inspired and then wondered why the same players are or aren’t playing next game? Cellino has kept his former club, which was a tiny set-up, in the top Italian league for the best part of 20 years. He’s a not a bloke who just cashed in his haulage firm and decided he wants a new toy.

The coach/manager is the key man in any sports business and the speed at which he goes through them isn’t inspiring, but a recent study of managerial longevity in the Premier League concluded that Chelsea were operating a successful policy by having a high turnover of managers. Then again they do have billions.

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Like all clubs, Cellino’s time at Leeds will rise or fall by what happens on the pitch, but one thing he is quite clear about is that he knows what he is doing. He wants to handle the business affairs. He doesn’t want any dodgy players coming in because the manager shares the same agent with the player. He wants young players who are developed in a fantastic training facility to know they are expected to make the grade of the first team and that they will be given a chance to do so. He wants the business to stop losing money. He wants to do all this and shape it into a club that can achieve promotion. If he didn’t appear to be an Italian rock and roll nutter in shades and an electric guitar we would welcome all of these intentions.

We will soon find out if he is good at appointing a coach, good at selecting players and I’m sure he will discover things about English football that are different to Italy. Whatever happens I get the impression he will change things quickly if it isn’t working. One thing for sure is he gives the impression he wants the glory that goes with success and you can’t get that if you sit still or head downwards.

In two years time, I hope we will be sitting at the top of a mountain thinking: “F*** that was hard but what a view,” and not lying at the bottom of it, wondering what hit us.

James Brown appears on The Warm Up on talkSPORT from 11am-2pm every Saturday and Sunday throughout the World Cup. Follow him on Twitter @jamesjamesbrown

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@SporcoLeeds 5:19 pm, 11-Jun-2014

In a parallel universe, a great northern city is creaming itself in desperation to welcome the new owner of it's fallen giant of a football club. He is a maverick Italian, with an interesting and unconventional reputation, borne into a successful family business which he grew to be the number one supplier to The Jolly Green Giant. He loves fast cars, yachts, private jets, Colombian marching powder and most of all, bitches, all shapes, all colours, all sizes of bitches, bought and otherwise. He is a snappy if unspectacular dresser, opting for crisp white vests under open necked shirts, smart suits and shiny shoes, nice raincoats in single colours, avoiding the sartorial excesses of his countrymen. The fans have suffered years of neglect from a collection of gypsies, tramps, theives, no marks, liars, cheats and vagabonds. Tales of excess, cluelessness, largesse and greed are writ large in the annals of how not to run a football club. The deal was difficult to complete, our hero had to deal with the incompetent incumbent owners who were umbillically attached to the previous regime which not only featured the baddest man of all but also had tentacles into the governing body who would make the decision on his fitness. So, our goombah has a job to and battles to be won, first the takeover. To make the deal happen he had to break the icy grip of the potless chancers from the Middle Eastern "Bank" who had been bleeding the business since the day they took over without putting in a single penny of the investment they promised, passing shares around like a whore at a party, guilty of mismanagement on a scale that left the company on life support. There was also the corpulent matter of a bumbling, bearded misanthrope and his trusty yet useless sidekick who had miraculously managed to get the top job at head office despite a reputation of miserable failure and administrations. There was only one way to make it happen, pay top price and blow every other bidder out of the water, our terrone offered top dollar and ring fenced the acquisition, he also agreed to take care of the debt mountain built by the camel jockeys. Part of the debt took care of the bad man and cut him off once and for all. He was offered help and support by a local consortium who were prepared to sacrifice a surgically enhanced daughter to seal the deal, they were swiftly rejected, our man had his own plan. He won the battle to buy but there was the war with the authorities to be fought, that was easy, he had to buy a bigger lawyer who could not only prove his worthiness but exploit the wrongdoings of the judgement panel and the pipsqueak in power. Buying the biggest lawyers and using the "information" collected by a crack team of private investigators and dirt diggers took care of that. So, our calzone descended on his new kingdom. He had fallen in love with the club, the city and the people, after a busy business day he would cavort around the bars, clubs and restaurants, pressing the flesh, always having time for people, particularly the bitches. His congregation welcomed him into their hearts and bosoms and loved him back He sorted out the mess and thrust the historic football club on a rapid upward trajectory, a saviour, a visionary and a gent. They all lived happily ever after. Disclaimer "All characters appearing in this work are fictitious, any resemblance to actual events, to persons living or dead, is purely coincidental."

Tare 5:33 pm, 11-Jun-2014

I have no intention to write grad here but put something in to perspective. This club is and will be one of a kind whether the readers like it or not. Every ego-maniac football club relies to its past and if there is one well that is a fact. If you really look for ManC in UCL games when there was this analyze of European heritage well there was none. Like great William Faulkner said "the past is never forgotten it is not even past". Tare

Johnny L 6:00 pm, 11-Jun-2014

Do they really have a choice whether to accept whatever is going to happen or not? Unless you walk away from the club (not an option really is it?) you have no choice. There are very few of us could go buy the club off Cellino. How do we feel? Personally, I think Cellino is the first owner we've had in a long while who wants success more than he wants to bleed every last shilling out of the club. It's very much wait and see. While I don't expect him to throw money around I'm not convinced he'll operate the same at Leeds as he did at Cagliari. I think he wants success and he has an ego. Cagliari had a finite number of fans no matter how successful they may have become due largely to playing on an island. Leeds has the potential to pull in big crowds and be profitable, if run well, at the first sniff of success. I hope it's neither Portsmouth or Southampton. Portsmouth for obvious reasons but poor Southampton started to build something and they've been great to watch this season but here come the big money clubs stealing away talent, both players and manager. Be interesting to watch them next season. I don't agree that we'd be in the top flight with the team Grayson oversaw, defensively inept. I half jokingly at the time said they should keep Simon for the midfield and attack but get someone in to drill the back line. The implication, which I'm surprised if true, is that the former players hospitality sketch was running at a loss. How Lorimer has escaped the cull is anyone's guess. Much rather have a natter with Reaney, Jones, Hunter than the glass collector. Predictions? I wouldn't dare.

Aplanir 6:03 am, 12-Jun-2014

An excellently written article James, yes I see him as a business man who knows what he's doing and knows about football and as a plan on how to run Leeds successfully, everyone made a big deal about sacking our legends claiming the fans are in a enraged, strange how everyone I talk to believe it makes sense, the club is losing money 1 million a month, wow! If our legends who were so called sacked understood they cant staying at the club that's losing money like that and expect to stay. Most of what the paper say is take a swipe at Leeds and give us a kick while we're down. I know we not signed anyone yet but I keep login in to see I don't bother with the rumour and speculation on who we're going to sign especially since there been 36 player linked with Leeds so far, although some of the names that have been thrown around would be nice but I very much doubt they be coming. There just names that journalists think up to write a article ant take no creed in. Same as all the rumours surrounding Ross McCormack at the moment he says he happy at Leeds, most of the fans are worried he's going but to me it's journalists trying to sell our best player off, my thoughts are if a offer good enough then he'll go say 8-10 million good business. That's what I value him at after his heroics last season. Predictions for next season I hate to put a jinx on my team but I feel very optimistic but then again I always feel like that. I'm just happy I got football through the summer.. :) MOT Come ENGLAND!!!

ET 7:58 am, 12-Jun-2014

It's very much fingers over the eyes, for me. Can't say with any confidence that things under Cellino will be great - a manager a month? Selling the best kids? Edoardo's Twitter drivel? - but equally, there's no conceivable way it could be worse than GFH, whose sole motivation for owning Leeds United was an improved position on the Bahraini Bourse. We are certainly at a crossroads, but one thing is clear: if Cellino gets the finances fixed and hires a smart, progressive coach, he'll soon get 30,000+ Yorkshiremen onside. That in itself ought to be enough to get out of this division...

Hazmataz 8:50 am, 12-Jun-2014

Hi tare.... Good post as always The simple reply to an excellent article is this.... Massimo is here to stay. Good,bad or ugly which ever side you're on you cannot walk away from your hearts desire.... So let's back massimo and see what happens... I entrust MY club and first love into his hands.... Mot with whoever new owner new coach new players old players.... I'll be there with my son... Clapping singing and always until the last player walks off at 90 minutes... Once bitten forever LEEDS.... :-)

Dave Johnson 3:36 pm, 12-Jun-2014

That process of change you say we are in, it's been like this since January 2001, when the slide started with the FA Cup 3rd round defeat to Cardiff. We are Leeds Utd and we don't GAF, MOT ON ON ON

fiery jack 11:34 am, 13-Jun-2014

It feels like we're walking up a sheer mountain path in a meteorite storm, during a tsunami, but I get your drift. I guess my only reservation is about El Presidente's sack record, but beggars, which is what we are, can't be chooser. The stark honesty - the phonecall, the 'sons of bitches' rant , is refreshing as is the focus on youth...particularly when the likes of Taylor, Thompson and Dawson were kept out by the 'senior pros'. These kids have got skill and energy but haven't had a sniff , so hopefully we'll see more. Coach wise, its embarrassing to be taking about someone from fucking Exeter!!?? Really, is he better than Redfearn and Gibbs? but maybe El pres doesn't want a strong - willed, high profile coach? Whatevs. As Leeds fan once sang, 'if I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor'; now i'll settle for being out of debt and playing decent football. MoT ATB FJ

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