Luton fansen stod og sang..."you not famous any more"...men vi er da virkelig LEEDS UNITED...Likte dette innlegget...
Think about it for a moment. Some 42 players have pulled on the shirt for Leeds this season. That is almost enough for four separate teams. There has been a constant stream of loaned journeymen, the latest being yesterday's debutant, Lubomir Michalik, the Slovak who joined from Bolton. It is hardly the blueprint for success. Leeds haven't won successive league games all season.
The financial problems are, according to Bates, coming to an end. He has stated that by the end of this season, the club will be debt-free and no longer paying off ex-employees. It beggars belief that they are still funding salaries for players such as Robbie Fowler and Danny Mills. Up until last year they were still paying three ex-managers in David O'Leary, Terry Venables and Peter Reid.
How far back do we need to go to trace the moment the club's descent became inexorable? Is it when Peter Ridsdale got so out of his depth following the dream? Is it when the debts were reformed into bonds that required the fire sale of a promising team? Is it when Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were implicated in a protracted court case? Is it when Gerald Krasner's consortium did their bit for the debts by selling the stadium and the Thorp Arch training ground? Or is it when Bates took over and started doing things in his own inimitable style?
Surveying the wreckage of this ailing club, it pays to look at the bigger picture and remind yourself not just that it is six years since they were in the semi-finals of the Champions League with a team of internationals. But also, Leeds have won the English title more recently than Liverpool. Leeds were the team to last conquer the game in this country with an English manager in Howard Wilkinson.
In the cutting words of the travelling Luton fans squeezed into one corner: 'You're not famous any more.' Actually that's not strictly true. The club are still famous. But the team are barely recognisable from the heights of yesteryear.
