quote:
Originally posted by Enrique
Jo, karl. Han har gjort det. Det var i et intervju med Bates. Dagen før Barnet kampen.
Og hadde jeg funnet linken til det hele skulle jeg ha lagt den ut. Nå har han ikke vist trynet sitt på en skjerm og kommet med glosene på tape. Så det kan godt være elendig journalistikk, men dette virket for meg å være en seriøs engelsk avis (ikke The Sun). Om enn så får det bare være ord mot ord. Så kan du få vinne denne diskusjonen også om du ønsker det. []
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SportingLife.Com siterer Ken Bates fra kampprogrammet på lørdag:
"Sacking Blackwell A Tough Call - Bates
Sat 23 Sep, 4:09 PM
Leeds chairman Ken Bates has defended the timing of his decision to sack manager Kevin Blackwell.
Blackwell had his contract terminated earlier this week following three successive league defeats which have seen Leeds slump to second bottom in the Championship.
Former Sheffield United coach Blackwell, brought to Elland Road by Peter Reid before the Yorkshire club's calamitous relegation from the Premiership, had spent two-and-half years as boss after Eddie Gray was sacked in June 2004.
"In the course of a 40-year career in football administration I've had to dispense with the services of a lot of managers and believe me, it doesn't get any easier," Bates said in his programme notes ahead of Leeds' home match with Birmingham.
"Kevin is a thoroughly nice guy, but it was time for him to go.
"To those fans who said he should have been sacked after (the play-off final) Cardiff, I would say you don't make fundamental decisions after one bad game.
"Kevin did as good a job as he could and we should always be grateful for that, but it is time to move on and to those who say he was not given funds to improve the team I would point out that the money spent on players since my arrival has totalled £7.144million, with a net expenditure of £2.487million."
Ken Bates har de siste ukene hatt en uvanlig lav profil i mediene i forhold til managerspørsmålet. Jeg tror han har telt pund. Sett på hva han har råd til. Så har han kommet fram til at han i hvert fall ikke har råd til å se Leeds United spille i The Coca-Cola Championship også i 2007/2008-sesongen. Jeg tviler sterkt på at en så erfaren fotballadministrator har sagt noe i media i det siste som kan holdes mot ham i sparkinga av manageren.