Super

Super Leeds, super Leeds United

Originally posted by The Hacienda must be (re)Built Super Leeds, super Leeds United

Now this is BANG out of ORDER.......:D Git......

Bolton 2 - 3 Loonypool

To any Man U fans reading this:

You can't have You can't have You can't have your money back You can't have your money back :finger:

You can shove your new defender up your arse :o You can shove your new defender up your arse You can shove your new defender :sleep2: Shove your new defender Shove your new defender up your arse - sideways!!!

You are gonna You are gonna You are gonna win fuck all You are gonna win fuck all

Originally posted by Sarah Cracknell's Love Toy Rocket...what gives??? The Red Devils lose and you up and move??? I'm waiting for the Liverpool-Bolton matchup...we gets it live here in Dallas....beers in the refrigerator...

How live exactly? You appear to have posted that 5 minutes into the second half.

Still the right result was obtained in the long run. We appear to have become one of the most entertaining teams in the Premiership. I'm not sure I can cope. Bring back the solid defending I say. Anyone agree Hamann appears to be the best midfielder around at the minute? Welt class.

I think we deserve a wee bit of credit for the entertainment provided. I think there are big similarities between Owen and horseface at Man Utd. Both appear to be playing well and look quite sharp everywhere apart from in front of goal(just a penalty a piece). I think Owen will get the nod against Valencia in the same way I can't imagine Utd starting a big game with Forlan in place of Horseface. Though it would appear we have the better back up players at present. Baros has been on fire for the reserves and also for the Czech national side. I noticed Phil Neville and Nicky Butt started in centre midfield yesterday and Butt was injured. Crikey that's the bare bones.

Originally posted by Hank Wiseass©
I think we deserve a wee bit of credit for the entertainment provided. I think there are big similarities between Owen and horseface at Man Utd. Both appear to be playing well and look quite sharp everywhere apart from in front of goal(just a penalty a piece). I think Owen will get the nod against Valencia in the same way I can't imagine Utd starting a big game with Forlan in place of Horseface. Though it would appear we have the better back up players at present. Baros has been on fire for the reserves and also for the Czech national side. I noticed Phil Neville and Nicky Butt started in centre midfield yesterday and Butt was injured. Crikey that's the bare bones.

You gotta admit though that when YOU are winning letting in goals is not HIGHLIGHTED.You certainly are on a roller coaster at the moment but clinging to the ARSE tails.With LEEDS and CHELSEA firing again it is a good time to take advantage and there is a greater chance NOW for any of these to win the league than for years.The trouble is as UTD are in decline at the moment ARSENAL , and what looks like their BEST ever squad are really playing it BIG TIME.As they get injuries they just fetch in another GREAT player or three.Football does tend to go in these cycles but it would be a BRAVE man to wager LOADS of dosh against ARSENAL retaining the LEAGUE.Still a long way to go yet and it will be interesting to see if ARSENAL can do anything in the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.Liverpool did better last season and will probably improve now they have more FIREPOWER. Cheers Rocket keeping a secret Mick :D:D:D:D

Earlier this year Arsene Wenger said that the balance of power in English football has moved from Man U to Arsenal (or words to that effect). He was probably right then because Arsenal won the Double quite easily even though their new signings did little or nothing, their old guard missed quite a lot of games and they lost one of their best players to injury near the end of the season. The start of the new season has provided even more evidence: Arsenal are in awesome form even though Adams has retired, Pires and Ljungberg are injured and Vieira claims to be exhausted and are making the rest of the Premiership (with the possible exception of Fulham) look ordinary. I read someone predict that this season's Champions League final at Old Trafford will be between Real Madrid and Arsenal: they could be right and I hope they are because it could be a classic.

If Man U fall by the wayside this season they've got no one to blame but themselves. Ferguson has spent a fortune on three players (Van Nistelrooy, Ali G - sorry Veron - and Rio Ferdinand) and brought in others (Barthez, Blanc and Forlan - Steve McLaren may have been pissed off when United bought him but I bet he is pissing himself now) but only one of them (Van Nistelrooy) looks like being value for money. Ferguson sold Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke leaving himself with only three recognised strikers (well, two and Forlan, South America's equivalent of Jason Lee) and he didn't buy another (such as Robbie Keane, Di Canio or Hasselbaink) before the transfer window closed. Roy Keane has blown his top, some star players have lost the plot and a catalogue of schoolboy errors have made other teams believe that they are beatable. If Man U do badly this season Ferguson may try to blame referees, the ground staff at Old Trafford or the number of games his many internationals have to play but if he does the bleating from the sheep in the stands at Old Trafford may become deafening.

Here are a few predictions: Man U won't qualify for next season's Champions League (they will finish outside the top four in the Premiership and won't win the Champions League) but Leeds United will (probably not as champions but maybe as runners-up). When Man U play at Elland Road next season if Rio Ferdinand plays instead of booing him the Leeds fans will chant "What a waste of money!" and piss themselves laughing. By then Martin O'Neill will be the new Manchester United manager, possibly with Roy Keane moving to Celtic to become player-manager as compensation if O'Neill signs a new Celtic contract first. Does that seem far-fetched? It may but what odds would you have got on Bolton winning at Old Trafford two seasons in a row?

Originally posted by ShugZV Excellent stuff Fingery pooh's! But O'Neil will definitely sign a new contract, and there's a strong possibility of the lad Keano ending up with us, he's gonna get so much hassle when he comes back, he might decide on joining a better league and the pressure that comes with being a Celtic player....cos we WILL be in the Champions League next year

But Martin O'Neill hasn't signed a new contract yet, has he? However, even if he does sign a new contract Man U could offer to buy the contract out, they could induce him to break the contract (it wouldn't be the first time, would it?) or he could insist that there is a get out clause in the new contract. Remember, Rio Ferdinand had something like four and a half years left on his contract and he supposedly had a get out clause preventing him moving to another Premiership club but he still fucked off to join the Red scum, although he may be regretting it now - if he is tough shit! However, I hope you're right about Martin O'Neill staying at Celtic. I doubt it but I hope you're right.

Shug, you're right again. MON seems to be one of the few people in football who believes that if you sign a contract you should honour it. If he does leave Celtic it won't be until the end of the season mainly because he intends to honour his contract but there are other reasons. If he joined any other club before the end of his contract money that he would want to spend on players would have to be spent compensating Celtic. If he joined Man U mid-way through a bad season he would be under pressure to turn it round in months but if he joined after a bad season he would have a year to turn the club round. However, I'd like to see MON stay at Celtic, partly because I'd like to see Celtic in the knockout stages of the Champions etc., League but mainly because if he does come south he'll go to Man U and not Leeds.

I have to confess that I wanted MON to replace David O'Leary at Leeds. However, given that MON wasn't available I think Terry Venables was probably the best available option. In the last decade Leeds have alternated between good managers (Howard Wilkinson who was very good but lost the plot and David O'Leary who was pretty good but lost the players) and bad managers (George Graham) so hopefully the appointment of El Tel will break that habit. However, I don't think the problems at Leeds will be solved until we get a new chairman.

Like Howard Wilkinson, Peter Ridsdale started well but has lost the plot: he has slagged off our best player who is now in the last year of his contract, sold our second best player to them to make a profit and sold one of our best strikers at a loss (Rio has a great World Cup and his transfer fee goes up but Robbie Keane has a great World Cup and his transfer fee goes down - explain that Peter). Players we could have sold are still here because the clubs who had wanted to buy them pulled out because they knew we wanted cash to pay off our debts but weren't willing to pay the transfer fees we asked for because they thought we'd reduce them to get a quick sale. And what happened to the plan to build a new 50,000 seater stadium sponsored by a major company? I've read that the plan's in the bin, cancelled due to a lack of interest from potential sponsors. I didn't buy the rag the story was in because it's not a wholly reliable source of information but that story rang true. I think appointing El Tel was the right decision but if it is it's the first thing the board has got right in a while. I think we should say "Thank you and goodbye" to Mr Ridsdale, "Hello" to a new chairman and "Sign here and fill in the rest yourself please" to Lee Bowyer.

Originally posted by Johnny Giles and for the Leeds bits....Generally agree regarding your observations on our Managers but don't you think that Judas George deserves some credit for steadying a sinking ship? we were in a bit of a mess when Wilko left. That 0-4 reverse at home to ManU still hurts a bit. And playing beanpole Deane on the right wing to supply amunition for tiny Rod Wallace?!. George got us facing in the right direction but clearly didn't have DOL's foresight with the youngsters or the nuts/inclination to play more creatively.

JG, you cannot be serious !!!! Judas Bastard (George rather Rio this time) served up the most mind numbingly boring football i have ever had this misfortune to pay £35 to watch

Johnny, you are absolutely right to point out the great things that Peter Ridsdale has done for Leeds United's fans, especially when two of them were murdered. Ten years ago Leeds could have become the country's leading club but Howard Wilkinson and Leslie Silver pissed the chance away and let the Great Satan forge ahead and even let the likes of Blackburn, Newcastle and Arsenal overtake us. George Graham may have stopped the slide and started the recovery but he fucked off sharpish and Peter Ridsdale and David O'Leary did much more to pick the club back up and bring it back up to the end of the league where it really belongs. However, the reason why I have my doubts about Peter is that in recent years he seems to have lost the plot.

Whilst Peter's handling of the aftermath of the infamous night out in Leeds was questionable (with the most obvious question being why was DOL allowed to publish a book giving his side of the story whilst he was manager of the club) my main problem with him is how he has handled the club's failure to qualify for the Champions League. For starters he shouldn't have made plans based on the assumption that Leeds would qualify because the Premiership is a very hard league to play in. All Leeds fans want the club to qualify for the CL and hopefully do so by winning the league but realistically there are at least five other clubs that could qualify for the CL and three of them could win the league. I could understand him making plans based on the assumption that Leeds would qualify for the UEFA Cup because if you don't qualify for it through the league you can qualify via the FA Cup, League Cup or Intertoto Cup or even the Fair Play league (which is how Ipswich got in this season). When he made plans assuming Leeds would qualify for the CL Peter was letting his heart rule his head.

Since Leeds haven't qualified for the Champions League two years running that has left a hole in the finances (which, by the way, would have been smaller if we hadn't spent the best part of £10 million on Seth Johnson). Whilst I understand that Leeds United are a PLC and therefore have to publish accounts showing their financial position Peter Ridsdale went beyond that: he explained what his plans were (to speculate to accumulate), why things hadn't gone to plan (that Leeds needed to get in the CL to pay back what they had speculated) and, most importantly, what he intended to do about it (sell players during the summer).

When you are playing a game even if your opponent can see that you are in a difficult position you don't tell them how you intend to get out of it: you keep calm, keep your face straight and keep your gameplan a secret. Telling everyone that we had to sell players during the summer encouraged Man U, Spurs and Liverpool to make insultingly low bids for Rio, Robbie Keane and Lee Bowyer (although in the case of Rio we got a good price in the end) and I suspect dashed any plans to sell Dacourt (who isn't a Vieira, Hamann, Gerrard or Roy Keane) and Viduka (who is potentially a world class striker but simply isn't consistent enough) because clubs that were previously rumoured to be planning reasonable bids thought they could get them at bargain basement prices. The sale of Rio Ferdinand may have enabled Peter to balance the books this year and hopefully we won't miss him (although I think Dominic Matteo will fill the gap better than Woodgate) but if Peter had played his cards closer to his chest we could have balanced the books without selling Rio and told him and Man U that he had a contract with us and that we intended to hold him to it.

As well as giving out too much information about the cash crisis at the club Peter mishandled the aftermath of the infamous night out, has spent a lot of time, effort and money on his plans for a new stadium not much bigger than Elland Road (if we're going to build a new stadium for Premiership and Champions League football it should hold at least 60,000 people, not around 50,000) but doesn't seem to have got very far and has been distracted by other things such as a plan for a new football club-based motor racing competition which was supposed to rival Formula 1, banning swearing at Elland Road and getting that talentless fuckwit James Brown to suck his cock on a monthly basis in Leeds Leeds Leeds magazine (which I wouldn't buy even if I was dying for a shit and knew that if I went for one there would be no bog roll - I'd buy When Saturday Comes to read whilst having a shit and a newspaper that wasn't full of shit when it was printed to wipe my arse on). Peter Ridsdale is a good man and he has done some great things but in the last two years he has made too many mistakes which have served to undo the good work he has done. Maybe there isn't a potential replacement who could do better or a Jack Walker-like figure who will spend their own money on players and new facilities but I think we should look for one.

By the way, you can count me as a Leeds United fan in the search for the best supported club on NOOL. However, whilst I have outed myself as a Leeds fan I'm not one of those Leeds fans who dresses, sounds and behaves like a Leeds fan thinks they should. I've come out of the closet as a Leeds fan but I don't walk around shouting about it.

and now not so SUPER:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:p

Mick, I admit that Leeds weren't super against Blackburn Rovers or Metalurg Zaporizhya or Sunderland or Birmingham City (although I didn't start this "Super" thread). However, Leeds United did beat Manchester United 1-0 (and Newcastle United 2-0 away) so they have obviously had their super moments this season.

Leeds United are far more likely to be super when they are the underdogs than when they are the favourites. That's because the current crop of Leeds United players like being top footballers but many of them (mainly those playing in defence and midfield) don't often feel the need to prove that they are top footballers because there aren't many other players at the club challenging them for their places and the club can't afford to buy players who would challenge them for their places.

At the start of the season Terry Venables had to decide which goalkeeper and which strikers would play but the defence and the midfield pretty much picked themselves because, according to Terry Venables in an interview published today, "there's no cover at all" in those departments, never mind competition for places. As Terry pointed out in the same interview, the squad he inherited was "imbalanced" with too many strikers (one of which he has sold) and too few defenders (one of which he has sold) and midfielders.

So for the foreseeable future Leeds United will only play super football when enough of the sometimes-super players that are playing feel like playing super football. That's why Leeds United probably won't win any silverware but may qualify for the Champions League (which is the competition which the sometimes-super players like most because it is the best shop window for top footballers).

Originally posted by Fingers Mick, I admit that Leeds weren't super against Blackburn Rovers or Metalurg Zaporizhya or Sunderland or Birmingham City (although I didn't start this "Super" thread). However, Leeds United did beat Manchester United 1-0 (and Newcastle United 2-0 away) so they have obviously had their super moments this season.Leeds United are far more likely to be super when they are the underdogs than when they are the favourites. That's because the current crop of Leeds United players like being top footballers but many of them (mainly those playing in defence and midfield) don't often feel the need to prove that they are top footballers because there aren't many other players at the club challenging them for their places and the club can't afford to buy players who would challenge them for their places.At the start of the season Terry Venables had to decide which goalkeeper and which strikers would play but the defence and the midfield pretty much picked themselves because, according to Terry Venables in an interview published today, "there's no cover at all" in those departments, never mind competition for places. As Terry pointed out in the same interview, the squad he inherited was "imbalanced" with too many strikers (one of which he has sold) and too few defenders (one of which he has sold) and midfielders.So for the foreseeable future Leeds United will only play super football when enough of the sometimes-super players that are playing feel like playing super football. That's why Leeds United probably won't win any silverware but may qualify for the Champions League (which is the competition which the sometimes-super players like most because it is the best shop window for top footballers).

FINGERS i agree that more and more PLAYERS are choosing when to give it all and when not.They get so much money now that this will continue.I also think that the LEEDS squad is now the best it has been for a very long time and now the court case etc has been sorted the team can concentrate on the task in hand.United(MANCHESTER) also seem to be suffering from some of the BIG TIME players not exactly giving it all unlees in EUROPE.This is a good time to be a footballer in the PREMIERSHIP.Please note that my comments are not meant to offend any of you who support ANY other team.Of course everyone's team is the BEST in their eyes...win or lose.In MANU'S case losing and drawing more than ever before.No longer do they cause much threat but ARSENAL do.Another great win for them and at the moment they are tremendous.:D

Mick, you're absolutely right that some players seem to be collecting their Premiership pay cheques week after week without putting in Premiership performances week after week. Whilst some players at the biggest clubs in the league seem to have this attitude (and we know of one player who has accused some of his team-mates) I think the worst examples of this attitude are found amongst some of the players at clubs that have been relegated from the Premiership.

How many times have clubs been relegated and before the new season has started (or in some cases before the relegation season has ended) a significant number of players at those clubs have been looking for lucrative moves to Premiership clubs? If those players were Premiership-class players why was the team they were playing for relegated? Was it bad luck, was it the fault of their team-mates or was it because those players are not as good as they like to think they are? If the team you played for was relegated you should stay with that club and help win promotion, not just for yourself and your own career (because if you are part of a team that wins promotion that says something good about you) but for the fans who follow the club through thick and thin and pay your wages regardless of how well you play. What do people say about sinking ships and rats?