Et glimrende innlegg fra Leeds supporter på HITC. Etter min mening da...
The owner has been badly advised on footballing matters. Firstly, there is not an academy in England that has produced as many top quality Premier league players over the last twenty five years as Leeds United. Almost without exception those were genuine youngsters, here from the age of ten. Given that success I would question the wisdom of restructuring and embarking on a policy of considerable expense to buy and pay considerable wages to players that are in the u23’s. With the exception of centre halves and goalkeepers, most players do not develop past the age of twenty.
From a financial business perspective I would question the wisdom of buying these u23s. We have bought them when our income stream is low relative to Premier league income status - this hinders and restricts what should be spent on first team players that can win promotion. The expense relative to income is great, where the same plan with a Premier league income would be relatively small - even then it would still be the wrong policy for us in my opinion though I would accept a legitimate ambition and not be as critical.
Last week, the Leeds owner said we are spending seven million pounds on wages more than a year ago. If that is true, the employment of Orta astounds me. The players sold last summer amounted to a figure in the region of twenty five million - I would suggest a better plan than Orta’s: We could have bought five proven quality players in this league at an average purchase price of five million and paid them wages of an average of almost thirty thousand a week AT ABSOLUTELY NO NET COST compared to the purchases and wages we are currently paying.
Finally, I have to say that in my opinion, not only is Orta’s record at Leeds open to criticism but his record at Middlesbrough, when scrutinised, presents serious questions of wisdom that the Leeds owner should consider himself.
I maintain that, if the ambition at Leeds is promotion, then we are further away from that than a year ago. This set up and plan will always make a scape goat of a coach and insulate firstly the owner and secondly Orta from criticism. Meantime the club will continue to go backwards and not achieve promotion.
On a positive note I have to say I consider Paul Heckingbottom to be among the very best appointment we could have made under this set up but if his hands are tied it will be problematic. The position Orta holds does not have to be a problem but Orta holding that position is.