Interesting article

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NottinghamWhite
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Interesting article

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Another Northern Soul
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Telegraph Sport Football

Why Leeds United are marching on together again

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Leeds United have found a togetherness this season that has been absent for years
Leeds United have found a togetherness this season that has been absent for years Credit: Getty Images

Rob Bagchi

20 January 2017 • 11:54am

On Jan 20 1964 and the same day 26 years later, Leeds United were top of Division Two and finished both seasons, their last two successful promotion campaigns back into the top flight, in the same place after six months of occasionally jittery front-running. Today they are third in the Championship behind one well-run and one well-financed club, neither of which Leeds have been for decades. After years of distress, decay and discord, of perilous hand-to-mouth subsistence and the bleeding of the club’s assets - ground, training complex, staff, players, always players – to foot both running costs and extraordinary expenditure on gratuitous or avoidable litigation, Leeds have at last acquired an air of genuine stability.

And to understand why we can be grateful to two Liverpool heroes. The first, Kenny Dalglish, was the man who piqued Andrea Radrizzani’s interest in Leeds United last March. During lunch Dalglish spoke warmly of a club whose potential had been starved but not quashed and the fierce ardour of their fans. Radrizzani, a global investment and sports rights entrepreneur, began to analyse Leeds and 10 months on now owns half of it.

Because tact is essential to maintain equilibrium with his equal partner, Massimo Cellino, we know neither the specifics nor extent of his clear-headed influence as a brake on his compatriot’s impulsiveness and volatility. But if we contrast Cellino’s restraint and novel inconspicuousness since negotiations began last summer with the unrelenting turbulence that preceded them, it is plain that the club is acting less impetuously and more soberly than before.
Andrea Radrizzani has bought a 50 per cent stake in Leeds this month
Andrea Radrizzani has bought a 50 per cent stake in Leeds this month

It would be tedious to go through the saga of the past 25 years, from the moment the chairman, Leslie Silver, who had helped rebuild the club so judiciously that they won the title in 1992, recognised that sustaining Leeds’ rise and funding the transformation of Elland Road into an all-seater stadium could not be his burden alone.

Consequently a purchaser and a return on investment were sought and since 1996 the story can be told in shorthand by a series of symbols that negate the need for the well-worn specifics: ultimately worthless share certificates, Lucas Radebe’s armband, George Graham’s overcoat, an ‘O’Leary’s Babies’ romper suit, a hubristic manager’s diary, rented goldfish, the deeds to Elland Road and Thorpe Arch, Gerald Krasner’s glasses cord, Ken Bates’ beef wellington, his glossary of abusive epithets for supporters and ‘Ken’s pens’, Simon Grayson’s supposed ‘War Chest’, transcripts of GFH’s dopey WhatsApp conversations, surveillance equipment and Cellino’s whisky, beer and fags.
GFH's David Haigh and Salem Patel talked the talk repeatedly but never walked the walk during 14 months in charge
GFH's David Haigh and Salem Patel talked the talk repeatedly but never walked the walk during 14 months in charge Credit: Action Images / Craig Brough

Since the summer of 2002, when the sale of Rio Ferdinand first exposed the scale of the ruinous financial wager Peter Ridsdale and his board had made, Leeds United has been more a Wes Craven version of the old Fry and Laurie Peter and John sketches than a proper football club. Off-field machinations have overwhelmed on-field ambitions because investment and long-term planning were replaced by perpetual crisis management caused by inadequate cash-flow and debt.

Leeds have lurched hectically from one owner to the next with some interludes of pluck in 2006, defiance in 2007-08, optimism from 2009-11 and self-respect in 2014-15. Throughout, while the club’s fortunes have been hostage to the whims of sulphurous or capricious men, the saving grace has been the fans. They, particularly the large, boisterous away support, have carried the torch, mounting the resistance, celebrating their sense of exceptionalism and wholeheartedly stoking the spirit of the club.
The 'shoes off' protest against Ken Bates' ownership in 2007
The 'shoes off' protest against Ken Bates' ownership in 2007 Credit: Getty Images

There have been civil wars where some have aligned themselves with various regimes and kindled feuds on social mediaby demanding common gratitude for the latest messiah and their preposterous retinue. There has been a stench of something horribly servile throughout from that fawning minority who preached essentially that everyone should know their place and let the owners get on and do as they please. They transferred their loyalty from the institution to the individual and cried ‘traitor’ at young players who were sold while forever fluffing the people who sold them.

Yet a 15-year decline honeycombed with strife could now be at an end and this is where the other Liverpool manager comes in. “At a football club there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters,” Bill Shankly once said. “Directors don’t come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.”
Bates out
Credit: Lee Smith/Action Images

Those fans old enough to remember the Revie era will always honour the role of the chairman, Harry Reynolds, but he, like Silver, did not demand the limelight as a just reward. When, more recently, the three-way bond has been there – with David O’Leary and his Champions League semi-finalists, Grayson and his League One runners-up and Neil Redfearn and his promising tyros - Ridsdale, Bates and Cellino were always muscling into the shot, forever reminding us of their presence. It may have been recognition they wanted, profile or thanks - but they ruined the dynamic with their habitual intrusiveness. It is not and never will be about them. That is why the notion of a quaternity that included an owner would have been nonsense to Shankly.

It cannot be a coincidence that the quieter Cellino has been, the better Leeds have fared, but there are several things he deserves credit for which do not pardon all the wanton interference of the past but do mitigate them. The most important was his removal of GFH, whose stewardship of the club for 14 months from December 2012 was clueless and vainglorious, and second is his appointment of Garry Monk last summer to become his seventh full-time manager in 24 months. He settled on the Monk after being turned down by Bristol Rovers’ Darrell Clarke and the fear was that he would go the way of his predecessors as soon as Cellino was spooked by couple of poor results.
The quieter Massimo Cellino has been, the better Leeds have been
The quieter Massimo Cellino has been, the better Leeds have been Credit: Paul Cooper for The Telegraph

He had twice before appointed managers with a distinct style and a long-term strategy - Darko Milanic and Uwe Rosler - and bailed out after functional, tedious performances were matched by a paucity of victories. There were firm rumours during Monk’s second game that the owner’s trigger finger was beginning to itch and the usual suspects on Twitter, the ones who call Cellino ‘The President’ and befriend his children on Instagram, began to heap abuse on the manager. Something stopped him. Radrizzani, who is firmly behind Monk, was already negotiating his investment deal at the time and, it is understood, advocated that the manager should stay in place.
Garry Monk
Garry Monk has been given time for his influence to make an impact Credit: Paul Cooper for The Telegraph

Leeds lost four of their first six Championship matches, a situation that generally unnerves Cellino at the start of the season. In 2014-15 he sacked Dave Hockaday after four league games, the next year Rosler after 11. But this year Leeds stuck with Monk, gave him time for his young players to understand how he wanted them to play and bed in the four loan signings - Kyle Bartley, Pablo Hernández, Hadi Sacko and Pontus Jansson - each of whom has played a vital role. Bartley, the centre-back from Swansea, is a tough but elegant captain who puts his body on the line, Sacko a slick, unpredictable winger who excites with his dribbling and Hernández a Spanish playmaker with more skill and vision than Leeds have seen in the No10 role for a generation.
Monk and his assistant Pep Clotet
Monk and his assistant Pep Clotet have blended the products of Leeds' youth system with rehabilitated once-floundering signings and their own choices Credit: ProSports/REX/Shutterstock

But it is Jansson, the Sweden centre-half, who has been central to Leeds’ rise. It’s very rare for a player to come along and embody the way a club’s fans feel about it, to look like the kind of player they would themselves hope to be. Billy Bremner was one, of course, David Batty, Luciano Becchio at times and now Jansson. He has improved Leeds immeasurably and it is extraordinary what a galvanising effect his competence, confidence, commitment and volubility have made to the side. Most of all he has brought a sense of enjoyment back and is venerated for his willingness to get stuck in, some thunderous swearing and tremendous heading power. Give the people a cause and someone to personify it and you’re halfway there.
Pontus Jansson has been a transformative signing for Leeds
Pontus Jansson has been a transformative signing for Leeds Credit: Stephenson/JMP/REX/Shutterstock

Other signings have been important, too, particularly Luke Ayling, the right-back, who shares a house with his former Arsenal academy team-mate, Bartley. Liam Bridcutt and Eunan O’Kane have brought authority and maturity to midfield and Kemar Roofe has both the tireless drive and flair that makes defending against him a physical and mental ordeal. But Monk has also improved his inheritance, bringing on the unflappable Ronaldo Vieira, transforming Souleymane Doukara into a bullying presence, burnishing Charlie Taylor and making Chris Wood punch his weight in the box.

When the tide began to turn with three successive victories in September, no serious supporter was demanding promotion: all they wanted was some respite from the gloom. On-field coherence, momentum and a degree of entertainment would have sufficed. But it has been much better than that and the way they tore Derby to shreds in the first half of last week’s 1-0 victory has fuelled belief. Twelve of their 35 goals have come in the last 10 minutes of games and the sense of team spirit and positiveness is palpable. Contrast this with 12 months ago when Steve Evans was talking about himself in the third person and Giuseppe Bellusci was expending more energy justifying himself on Twitter than he used to defend Leeds’s goal.
Chris Wood scores Leeds' winner against Derby last week, his 14th Championship goal of the season
Chris Wood scores Leeds' winner against Derby last week, his 14th Championship goal of the season Credit: PA

On Saturday evening they take on Barnsley, another of their 16 games rescheduled to be shown live on television by the middle of March, with morale soaring. Monk, a man of serious purpose, has built a team that does everything the supporter wants to see: in the words of Bremner, it puts “side before self every time”.

Back in 1988, The Hanging Sheep, Leeds’ much-missed fanzine and the one that seemed to capture the essential character of following the club perfectly, wrote: “It’s often said that no club have a divine right to be in the First Division; well, we bloody have.” Whether they get back this year or later is beside the point. By rebuilding that bond between manager, players and fans, the atmosphere at Elland Road is electric and there is a belief that something special and sustainable is happening there.
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ChilwellWhite
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Re: Interesting article

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This made me laugh out loud :lol:

The Hanging Sheep the much missed fanzine and the one that seemed to capture the essential character of following the club perfectly, wrote: “It’s often said that no club have a divine right to be in the First Division; well, we bloody have
All jokes aside a cracking read thanks for posting :thumbup:
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Mr Russell
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Re: Interesting article

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Enjoyed that :thumbup:
Owners come and go but Leeds United will be there forever, for the fans - keep Marching on Together.
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Re: Interesting article

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Yeah
Great read that!
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Re: Interesting article

Post by White Knight »

The change and progress is really being noted widely now. It's great to be getting some positive press at last.
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Re: Interesting article

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Thank you. Enjoyed it.
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PockWhite
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Re: Interesting article

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Great read that, many thanks for posting it Phil. :thumbup: :clap:
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