Leeds fans...

...What's Neil Killkenny like? Apparantly my lot are signing him. Any good?

yeah can be.
good at running the midfield and distributing from in front of back four.
a bit prone to going in and out of form hence larry picks him then drops him then picks him...

decent signing

Over the last few seasons, Leeds have enjoyed their most productive spells with him in the team.

When he went to play for Australia in January this year, Leeds' form slumped ... in fact, you can trace their drop in form that ultimately cost them a playoff place (having been in 2nd round Christmas) to his absence from the team.

Rather strange, given the fact that his tackling ability is zilch - and he normally plays it safe and simple, but he has the vision and ability to play a killer ball.

Bradley Johnson will be easy enough to replace; Neil Kilkenny not so easy ... .

Cheers chaps...sounds ok, and tbh, just the kind of player we've been missing since Hartley left.

Signed today ... for three years.

Quiet happy with that signing tbh Ian. We've been looking for a midfielder who can lay off a pass and play it nice and simple.

I took a look on the Leeds forums to see what they thought...Wow...what a delusional lot they are. Are all Leeds fans living a land of make believe, or just the one's on their forums? No offence to Leeds fans on here...but your fans really do think they are something Special and a 'Big' Club. Delusional me thinks... Why do they think they are so special in the Championship? They might have a large following, but the Club has been run like an Amateur outfit for years, and the football played has been mediocre at best... I just don't get it...

that is another reason why present company excepted they are universally despised and vilified as idiots...
By the way I get plenty of stick for being a Burnley fan when I'm away on business and such so i do understand that in the same way that not all Clarets live in caves eating babies not all Leeds fans are complete knobheads...

That's quiet interesting Ralph... I alway's presumed it was because of the 'dirty Leeds' tag of the 70's...But on speaking to a few fans of different Clubs recently, the topic of Leeds fans in general arose, and it became apparant that most fans don't like Leeds because of their fans and not the team/Club itself.

What do our Leeds fans on here, think of their fellow Leeds fans...any views?

And still we wait...TBH lets face it, Leeds should be a " Big Club " they were in the past and they have a large and loyal support, thats probably why they are a bit delusional. Of course they would only get worse if / when they are promoted.

I think we all know its unfair to tar all with the same brush. Not all Hammers fans are chavs, spivs or skinheads for example. You are always going to get " mouth breathers " following every club. Maybe Leeds just have more of them than most ?

I avoid football Forums as they tend to be all the same. As does 606 on Saturdays.

Leeds fans have high expectations, but then they also have a fairly impressive trophy cabinet that encourages those expectations ... .

Howard Wilkinson's stint at the club whetted the appetite and encouraged Leeds fans to believe that The Revie Days would not be the only successful period in the club's history. Expectations were raised again under O'Leary.

However, there's no doubt that their football has been poor enough for a good few years now. And I'm trying to brace myself for a massive reality check this season. We did well last season on our return to the Championship, but having lost half a team already, and recruited no-one of note, the current mediocre outfit may do well to nail down a spot in mid-table.

Surely the fans of any team that has known a period of sustained success find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the wheel has turned? Or is it your experience that Leeds fans are ultra slow to wake up to this reality?

Burnley/Leeds antagonism goes back to the period 1965-1976 when we played each other regularly leading to some epic clashes..a 5-1 win for our team of kids at Turf Moor against invincible Leeds...Leeds hitting 6 at Elland Road when Eddie Gray made our team look like drunks...Burnley again beating invincible Leeds at Elland Road 4-1 in 1974 and this was THE game for causing trouble...

Burnley/Leeds directors at war due to an anti-semitism row...Burnley players threatened in the tunnel before the game with broken legs by Hunter and Reaney ...Frank Casper kicked out of the following weeks Cup semi Final..all well documented fact by the way..

Leeds fans now like to recount their fabulous history...

3 Titles..we've won 2
couple of 2nd Divisons..so have we
couldn't win Divison 3....we won it
never played in 4..fair enough but we have won it

1 FA Cup..so have we
1 league Cup..got me there we've never won it

aside from a good Euro Record (fair enough there boys) massive Leeds haven't won much more than tiny Burnley..the city of Leeds is around 7 times larger than Burnley and Pendle and ten times bigger than Burnley itself !

what really gets my goat is how all these hanger on types across sheepland follow Leeds when it suits them instead of watching their home town club..now there are two reasons for this..again this comment isn't aimed at anyone on this forum I hasten to add

1 They think Leeds might win a shiney shiney or two one day and Halifax/Bradford/Huddersfield/Doncaster/Hull probably never will
2 They revel in the hooligan element

I think it maybe a reality check for Leeds fans this year...whether the majority will take any notice will be another thing. The impression one gets from many Leeds fans, is that they seem to think they have a devine right to be back in the Prem and that they are a bigger Club than any other in the Championship.

When speaking to fans from other Clubs, most seem clued up to the reality's of Life in this League, and their seems a mutual respect for one another, on how difficult it is. From my own experience, i've not had that from Leeds fans outside of this forum that i've met...they seem to have their heads in the Clouds.

I'm sure they will buy some decent players before the season starts, but i feel for their players, as the expectations and pressure to achieve seem immense.

No easy games this season...looking forward to it.

Same here. Its gonna be very interesting. What HW says about Leeds tho makes a lot of sense. As do Ralphs points. Burnley is smaller than Derry FFS ! According to Wikepedia anyway. I wonder how many we would get if we were an EPL club...

Burnley on its own is smaller than ALMOST every other town that ever had a League club..

Here is an interesting debate in the light of comments posted above:

http://articles.squarefootball.net/squarefootball/2011/06/who-is-the-biggest-club-in-the-championship.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Squarefootball+%28Squarefootball%29

as far as i am concerned leeds will probably do well but i certainly dont expect them to go up.
we have no divine right and grayson and bates have to work very hard now to get the right balanced team.

if they can score as freely as they did last season and halve the amount of goals they let in then they will go up but its a big if.

i am confident leeds will be top six but beyond that i would not put my house on it

There is no doubt that Leeds have a big following and a good history...Which imho makes them a big Club.

However...When reading comments from Leeds fans on other football forums, and speaking to one's i've met, what singles them out from other fans in this Division, is the unwaverable belief that they will be Promotion contenders this year.

This is why i think many of them are delusional. I saw nothing last year from them, that we haven't seen from other teams who have come up from League 1 and done well. There is always one.

When you look at teams like Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Ipswich, Notts Forest and Reading...all teams that have been in this League a while now, and still they can't find the formula to get Promoted. You realise it's a very,very tough league to get out of.

This will be Leeds 2nd season up... Probably the hardest for any team after surviving the first. To keep the momentum going from last Season, after selling players and hoping to bring in new... I can't see how any Leeds fan can in their right mind think they will do well, when they don't know who will be playing for them next season, and what their opposition will be fielding.

Am i guessing it's purely based on doing quiet well last season? Surely it doesn't work like that?

Based on watching this league for the last 4 seasons, and how it seems to work, I can see at least 11 Teams finishing ahead of Leeds. That's assuming they don't go out and spend Millions on class players and that they all gell at once from day 1.

Happy to be proved wrong, and at least our resident Leeds fans have their heads screwed on somewhat.

spudski wrote:

Based on watching this league for the last 4 seasons, and how it seems to work, I can see at least 11 Teams finishing ahead of Leeds. That's assuming they don't go out and spend Millions on class players and that they all gell at once from day 1.

Don't worry ... I share those observations.

While we were languishing in League One, I seem to remember Bristol City being contenders for promotion. I expected them to do well last season, and yet it didn't happen.

And what happened to Middlesbrough last time round? ... spent big, and delivered little.

Our squad at the moment is very shallow and not stocked with much quality. Bates won't spend or compete on the wages front (I've mixed feelings on that one). As things stand, with the loss of a couple of central midfielders, we're more porous than last season when we shipped 70 goals.

I'm still relatively happy with our strike force + attacking midfielders ....... but there's nobody worth anything behind them .

Goals against column could make for some horrific reading ... and in the latter part of the season we lurched through relegation form ... so here's holding on, white-knuckle style, for a bumpy ride in what is undoubtedly a stronger Championship!

trust in grayson - he knows what he is doing and i think he is a good manager.
most of what he says makes sense

subbuteo forever 207 wrote:

trust in grayson - he knows what he is doing and i think he is a good manager.
most of what he says makes sense

It's very difficult these days to predict how a team will perform in a new season, mainly because of the greater movement of players. I remember the last time we were in the Championship, Watford were favourites for relegation and ended up promoted to the Premier. They brought in several new players in the close season, Marlon King being one and everything clicked. Do I detect a little bit of doubt now about Grayson amongst Leeds fans. A couple of years ago he was being talked about as possibly better than Revie.

For the record I follow leeds because my family are from there.
Leeds scored 80 goals last season so they must have played well from time to time

Enough on this - we will only know next may

Cheers

Despite the finish Leeds had a great season, can only hope that we do as well as they did.