GFH on the brink of ripping Leeds apart
Thursday 30th January 2014 14:29
Leeds FanZoner Steve Turner feels massively let down by current owners GFH as the club's takeover saga plunges from depth to despair.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to put an amazing club back where it belongs"
said one of GFH's main men, Hisham Alrayes, on the day that they completed a deal for Leeds United - back when the future was bright, and the word 'Cellino' sounded more like a type of pizza than a potential owner.
There were doubts over GFH's intentions from the start, they are an investment bank after all, but as they calmly put right all the wrongs of the previous regime we actually started to believe that we were finally in good hands.
But that's not how things go for Leeds, any 'good' at the club seems to be met with an unjustifiable amount of bad in return. If karma exists, Leeds will one day rule the footballing world.
It's hard to pin point where it all went wrong for GFH. Was it when they reduced season ticket prices? When they brought in Brian McDermott and told him he had three years to get promotion? Or could it, just perhaps, be the time that they forgot every promise they'd ever made, threw out their morals and disgracefully gave up on their entire plan. GFH sold us a dream that was never going to be realised.
But why sell so soon? It was clear from the start that GFH would be looking to make a profit from Leeds, they didn't hide that fact, but promotion to the Premier League would bring far higher financial reward than selling up to the highest bidder halfway through a season that's as good as fallen apart. Somewhere along the lines something has gone horribly wrong, GFH wouldn't give up on the windfall that leaving the Championship would bring unless they literally couldn't afford to stay at the club. To put it another way, they aren't selling us off because they feel like we deserve better.
The way that GFH have treated McDermott lately is an utter disgrace, and it speaks volumes of the man that he refuses to walk away from a situation this volatile. Nobody could blame him if he decided to leave with his head held high, but then in their manager Leeds have the type of defiance that it has so sorely lacked in recent years. 'Keep fighting' is a term held close to many hearts at Elland Road, and even though right now McDermott is in a fight that he seems destined to lose he refuses to give up.
GFH have failed Leeds. As we feared all along, their long term plan was never in the interests of the club, they're here for profit and nothing more. Assuming that they'll be out of the club soon I'd like to offer my thanks to them.
Thank you for reducing ticket prices so that more of us could afford to turn up to see our depleted and down beaten team try to give us something to be proud of. Thank you for removing our previous tyrant owner so that there's room for a new one. Thank you for letting us all buy into a non-existent dream which was cleverly disguised as a nightmare. Finally, thank you for bringing in the one manager from recent times capable of giving us the settled, positive future that we'd hoped for, and then treating him like dirt.
When GFH took over, Salem Patel said "We are keen on waking this sleeping giant"
Unfortunately, rather than being awoken, it appears we've just been sleepwalking our way into another bad dream.
Patel also said -
"We intend to show the fans - some of the most passionate in the game - just how we can 'March On Together' to give Leeds United the success it so richly deserves"
Thanks again GFH. Thank you for nothing.
'March On Together' we will, the same way we always do, and seemingly have done for the last year - without you.
