The Leeds Thread

[IainMorton]

WTF?

[repeat_offender]

12 hours ago, IainMorton said:

WTF?

His Dad posts on another message board, he said that they thought it was a bad sprain and the angle of camera / footwear made it look worse.

It looks in pretty bad nick to me.

[Diamond8]

Ipswich in talks to increase the allocation on the last day to 7000.

[WALMOT]

Why Premier League needs Leeds United

Henry Winter, chief football writer

The Premier League needs Leeds United. It needs the mystique of Marcelo Bielsa, a manager so beloved by Leeds fans that two of them are in a recording studio working on Bucket Man as a musical tribute to his match-day seat of choice. It needs Bielsa’s intense, imaginative football. It particularly needs the passion of the Leeds faithful.

There are some great travelling supports in the Premier League, such as Manchester United and Newcastle United, among others, and Leeds would be a welcome addition on the road as well as with the atmosphere that they generate at Elland Road. After Leeds played away to Preston North End on April 9, the police officer in charge of the away section at Deepdale praised the 5,516 visiting fans for being “as loud as ever and no issues, no arrests”.

Leeds fans would represent an antidote to some of the ills besetting the Premier League. They are the opposite of the glory-hunters swooning because of a club’s prominence. Leeds fans might consider a half-and-half scarf if stitching together Leeds United and the Kaizer Chiefs, Lucas Radebe’s old team. They are the antithesis of what Roy Keane famously termed the “prawn-sandwich brigade”. If somebody mentioned opening a tunnel club at Elland Road, the ready wits on their terraces would suggest that it was probably an escape route after 15 years’ incarceration in the EFL.

Supporting Leeds is a passion passed on from generation to generation. When they played Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, there were children too young to remember the Premiership years leaning excitedly over the yellow and blue railings almost two hours before kick-off at Elland Road, high-fiving Bielsa and his players as they marched from the bus.

Three hours later, a fan called Matt Richardson celebrated Jack Harrison’s winner so enthusiastically that he broke his ankle. A friend of his took a picture of Richardson in his seat afterwards, smiling, his left foot at a painful angle, continuing to watching Leeds before the medics arrived. As he was helped into a wheelchair, Richardson kept an eye on the game while doing a thumbs up to his mates, who took great delight when he was strapped in by shouting: “Seatbelt on”.

Richardson later tweeted from hospital that “this is what supporting Leeds United does to me” . . . “but idc [I don’t care] because Leeds won”. Victory took Leeds to 82 points, four behind the leaders Norwich City and three ahead of Sheffield United with four games to play in the compelling race for the two automatic promotion positions.

Leeds know they still have major work to complete. They also know how much they want it. If Leeds do go up, the city will acquire even more of a buzz, there will be more students switching there, and there will be smiles among broadcasters, knowing that noise is guaranteed at Elland Road.

After Leeds were relegated from the Premiership after a 4-1 thumping by Bolton Wanderers on May 2, 2004, their then caretaker-manager Eddie Gray remarked defiantly: “It will not be the end of the club.” No chance. Not with thousands of Leeds fans singing louder and louder in trying to lift vanquished players, including one of their own, Alan Smith, who was in tears. And this is why Leeds United survived. The fans. And that is why 13 days later, as they bade farewell to the Premiership with defeat at Stamford Bridge, the Leeds fans sang We’ll Meet Again.

Pablo Hernández, the 34-year-old winger, has been among the success stories under Bielsa.

Barring some day-trips in the cup to elite venues, Leeds have been in exile for a decade and a half, away from all the riches and international exposure of the Premier League, and yet if anything support has grown. Millions were stunned when the actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, went on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote Series 8 and talked excitedly “about a guy who magically transforms the north into this beautiful paradise . . . and his name is Bielsa”.

Coster-Waldau instructed the studio audience to shout: “In Bielsa we trust.” So a Dane is a Leeds fan. Why not? Leeds have a global appeal. Adversity has not alienated many. For many, there is enhanced pride at sticking by a distressed asset. All Leeds, Aren’t We? Coster-Waldau is. Hundreds of thousands are.

When the club tweeted a picture of Elland Road before kick-off on Saturday, Radebe quickly replied in an emotional salute to this “field of dreams” he graced for 11 years. It is great men and players such as Radebe and Gray, loyal Leeds servants, that stir even more love for this club, and an even deeper longing for them to return to on high.

Leeds also asked where people were watching the game against Wednesday, and were inundated with locations around the world, reflecting holidaying families on half-term but also the extensive Leeds diaspora: Dublin, Vienna, North Carolina and Coney Island, and Vancouver, Oslo, Cologne and Pietermaritzburg as well as Trondheim, Inverness, Bordeaux and Georgia.

Leeds have suffered much in their 100 years, so many well-known tales: cup-final shocks, managerial defections, inexplicable refereeing decisions, administrations, points deductions, supporters slain, players on trial, overspending, goldfish worth their weight in gold, the sale of Elland Road, strange owners, knocked out of the cup by a postman, play-off heartache, a season without a shirt sponsor, embarrassing tours and a redesigned badge that so angered fans they organised an online petition of protest.

Over the past 15 years in particular, the Leeds story has been part circus, total chaos with only the supporters staying firm. Theirs is an everlasting love, through thick and thin, almost gruel-like thin. Supporters kept turning up to be counted.

When they then dropped into League One, they were the best-attended club in the EFL and would have been 13th in the Premier League. Whatever their status, Leeds’s support has always been full-on Premier League. On reaching, against all odds, the 2008 League One play-off final against Doncaster Rovers, many Leeds fans flocked to the Doncaster ticket office when their 36,000 allocation was snapped up in hours. After 23 minutes at Wembley, the multitude in the Leeds section launched into Marching on Together, soon joined by hundreds of their number in the Doncaster section.

These are fans who kept the faith, even when they kept selling talent such as Luciano Becchio, Robert Snodgrass, Bradley Johnson and Jonny Howson and that was just to Norwich City. Sam Byram, Ross McCormack and Lewis Cook also went.

Players went, the support remained. More locations poured into Leeds’s official timeline on Saturday: La Manga, Florida, Toronto and Tenerife, and Ko Samui, Kathmandu, Orlando and Sydney, and Madrid, Gibraltar, Alabama and LA. Leeds was certainly on Georgia’s mind. Matthew Fitzpatrick’s Keighley-born caddy Billy Foster wore his Leeds shirt under his overalls in Augusta, a Masters-stroke.

In Bielsa he trusts. After 25 managers, including caretakers, in 85 years, Leeds have raced through 18 managers in their mad, maddening past 15 years (with Neil Redfearn in charge four times) but have now found a saviour in Bielsa.

That is why they were watching in Bilbao and Buenos Aires, places where Bielsa is particularly revered. The meticulous Argentinian has made Leeds believe again, brought the atmosphere back, spent little, given youngsters a chance, got them playing from the back, made light of injuries, and always adhered to his style, even when results dipped. Even when 2-1 up against Nottingham Forest with ten men and 20 minutes left, Bielsa kept his team attacking. They lost 4-2 but didn’t sacrifice their principles. It is a purist ethos that has endeared Bielsa to such stellar managers as Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino.

On it went, more missives from Leeds fans tuning in from Dallas, Seattle, Shanghai and Singapore, and Tipperary, Budapest, Sao Paulo and Oklahoma, and Kuwait, Mar del Plata, Brooklyn and Tennessee.

Those travelling to Elland Road from Plymouth and Pudsey and all stops inbetween swelled their average attendance to the 11th highest in England (33,868). Others informed Leeds that they were watching “on my phone whilst out for a family meal”, “between my fingers”, “from behind the sofa” and “in A&E with access to a defibrillator”.

What promotion would mean, if they hold on, is loyalty rewarded for those who keep turning up at Elland Road, and for those who moved away but tune in from afar, never, ever losing their love of Leeds United.

[WALMOT]

Songwriter Les Reed has died at the age of 83, his family has confirmed.

He was well known for co-writing Tom Jones hits Delilah and It's Not Unusual, as well as Engelbert Humperdinck's The Last Waltz.

Reed also served as a pianist in The John Barry Seven and conducted his own orchestra for more than 10 years.

"We are all so immensely proud of everything Les achieved in his incredible lifetime," his family said in a statement issued to BBC News.

"We know that his name will be remembered for what he did for music and that he will always live through his songs and compositions for the rest of time."

"So sorry to hear the news of the passing of my friend and colleague Les Reed." said Sir Tom Jones.

"Les was a gifted songwriter and arranger who was instrumental in penning many a hit, including two important songs for me... Les was a lovely man, a legend in the world of songwriting whose legacy will live through his music."

Reed was also well-known to Leeds United fans as the co-writer of Leeds! Leeds! Leeds! - originally the B-Side to the club's 1972 FA Cup final single.

The song became better known as Marching on Together and has been sung by fans on the terraces ever since.

Reed is survived by his daughter Donna and grandsons, Alex and Dom.

"A master of British songwriting has left us. Here's to the great Les Reed, a beautiful, gentle man who gave us giants like There's a Kind of Hush, Delilah and the Last Waltz," Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp wrote on Twitter.

He was "one of the most naturally gifted composer/arrangers I've ever known," said songwriter Mike Batt. "There will never be another one like him."

Lyricist Sir Tim Rice added: "He was composer of countless hits that will live on for years, decades, to come.

"All his music biz chums will miss him enormously and will never forget his songs, talent and generosity of spirit."

RIP Les.

Am sure MOT will be sung even louder on Friday.

[Diamond8]

Why Premier League needs Leeds United

Henry Winter, chief football writer

The Premier League needs Leeds United. It needs the mystique of Marcelo Bielsa, a manager so beloved by Leeds fans that two of them are in a recording studio working on Bucket Man as a musical tribute to his match-day seat of choice. It needs Bielsa’s intense, imaginative football. It particularly needs the passion of the Leeds faithful.

There are some great travelling supports in the Premier League, such as Manchester United and Newcastle United, among others, and Leeds would be a welcome addition on the road as well as with the atmosphere that they generate at Elland Road. After Leeds played away to Preston North End on April 9, the police officer in charge of the away section at Deepdale praised the 5,516 visiting fans for being “as loud as ever and no issues, no arrests”.

Leeds fans would represent an antidote to some of the ills besetting the Premier League. They are the opposite of the glory-hunters swooning because of a club’s prominence. Leeds fans might consider a half-and-half scarf if stitching together Leeds United and the Kaizer Chiefs, Lucas Radebe’s old team. They are the antithesis of what Roy Keane famously termed the “prawn-sandwich brigade”. If somebody mentioned opening a tunnel club at Elland Road, the ready wits on their terraces would suggest that it was probably an escape route after 15 years’ incarceration in the EFL.

Supporting Leeds is a passion passed on from generation to generation. When they played Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, there were children too young to remember the Premiership years leaning excitedly over the yellow and blue railings almost two hours before kick-off at Elland Road, high-fiving Bielsa and his players as they marched from the bus.

Three hours later, a fan called Matt Richardson celebrated Jack Harrison’s winner so enthusiastically that he broke his ankle. A friend of his took a picture of Richardson in his seat afterwards, smiling, his left foot at a painful angle, continuing to watching Leeds before the medics arrived. As he was helped into a wheelchair, Richardson kept an eye on the game while doing a thumbs up to his mates, who took great delight when he was strapped in by shouting: “Seatbelt on”.

Richardson later tweeted from hospital that “this is what supporting Leeds United does to me” . . . “but idc [i don’t care] because Leeds won”. Victory took Leeds to 82 points, four behind the leaders Norwich City and three ahead of Sheffield United with four games to play in the compelling race for the two automatic promotion positions.

Leeds know they still have major work to complete. They also know how much they want it. If Leeds do go up, the city will acquire even more of a buzz, there will be more students switching there, and there will be smiles among broadcasters, knowing that noise is guaranteed at Elland Road.

After Leeds were relegated from the Premiership after a 4-1 thumping by Bolton Wanderers on May 2, 2004, their then caretaker-manager Eddie Gray remarked defiantly: “It will not be the end of the club.” No chance. Not with thousands of Leeds fans singing louder and louder in trying to lift vanquished players, including one of their own, Alan Smith, who was in tears. And this is why Leeds United survived. The fans. And that is why 13 days later, as they bade farewell to the Premiership with defeat at Stamford Bridge, the Leeds fans sang We’ll Meet Again.

Pablo Hernández, the 34-year-old winger, has been among the success stories under Bielsa.

Barring some day-trips in the cup to elite venues, Leeds have been in exile for a decade and a half, away from all the riches and international exposure of the Premier League, and yet if anything support has grown. Millions were stunned when the actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, went on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote Series 8 and talked excitedly “about a guy who magically transforms the north into this beautiful paradise . . . and his name is Bielsa”.

Coster-Waldau instructed the studio audience to shout: “In Bielsa we trust.” So a Dane is a Leeds fan. Why not? Leeds have a global appeal. Adversity has not alienated many. For many, there is enhanced pride at sticking by a distressed asset. All Leeds, Aren’t We? Coster-Waldau is. Hundreds of thousands are.

When the club tweeted a picture of Elland Road before kick-off on Saturday, Radebe quickly replied in an emotional salute to this “field of dreams” he graced for 11 years. It is great men and players such as Radebe and Gray, loyal Leeds servants, that stir even more love for this club, and an even deeper longing for them to return to on high.

Leeds also asked where people were watching the game against Wednesday, and were inundated with locations around the world, reflecting holidaying families on half-term but also the extensive Leeds diaspora: Dublin, Vienna, North Carolina and Coney Island, and Vancouver, Oslo, Cologne and Pietermaritzburg as well as Trondheim, Inverness, Bordeaux and Georgia.

Leeds have suffered much in their 100 years, so many well-known tales: cup-final shocks, managerial defections, inexplicable refereeing decisions, administrations, points deductions, supporters slain, players on trial, overspending, goldfish worth their weight in gold, the sale of Elland Road, strange owners, knocked out of the cup by a postman, play-off heartache, a season without a shirt sponsor, embarrassing tours and a redesigned badge that so angered fans they organised an online petition of protest.

Over the past 15 years in particular, the Leeds story has been part circus, total chaos with only the supporters staying firm. Theirs is an everlasting love, through thick and thin, almost gruel-like thin. Supporters kept turning up to be counted.

When they then dropped into League One, they were the best-attended club in the EFL and would have been 13th in the Premier League. Whatever their status, Leeds’s support has always been full-on Premier League. On reaching, against all odds, the 2008 League One play-off final against Doncaster Rovers, many Leeds fans flocked to the Doncaster ticket office when their 36,000 allocation was snapped up in hours. After 23 minutes at Wembley, the multitude in the Leeds section launched into Marching on Together, soon joined by hundreds of their number in the Doncaster section.

These are fans who kept the faith, even when they kept selling talent such as Luciano Becchio, Robert Snodgrass, Bradley Johnson and Jonny Howson and that was just to Norwich City. Sam Byram, Ross McCormack and Lewis Cook also went.

Players went, the support remained. More locations poured into Leeds’s official timeline on Saturday: La Manga, Florida, Toronto and Tenerife, and Ko Samui, Kathmandu, Orlando and Sydney, and Madrid, Gibraltar, Alabama and LA. Leeds was certainly on Georgia’s mind. Matthew Fitzpatrick’s Keighley-born caddy Billy Foster wore his Leeds shirt under his overalls in Augusta, a Masters-stroke.

In Bielsa he trusts. After 25 managers, including caretakers, in 85 years, Leeds have raced through 18 managers in their mad, maddening past 15 years (with Neil Redfearn in charge four times) but have now found a saviour in Bielsa.

That is why they were watching in Bilbao and Buenos Aires, places where Bielsa is particularly revered. The meticulous Argentinian has made Leeds believe again, brought the atmosphere back, spent little, given youngsters a chance, got them playing from the back, made light of injuries, and always adhered to his style, even when results dipped. Even when 2-1 up against Nottingham Forest with ten men and 20 minutes left, Bielsa kept his team attacking. They lost 4-2 but didn’t sacrifice their principles. It is a purist ethos that has endeared Bielsa to such stellar managers as Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino.

On it went, more missives from Leeds fans tuning in from Dallas, Seattle, Shanghai and Singapore, and Tipperary, Budapest, Sao Paulo and Oklahoma, and Kuwait, Mar del Plata, Brooklyn and Tennessee.

Those travelling to Elland Road from Plymouth and Pudsey and all stops inbetween swelled their average attendance to the 11th highest in England (33,868). Others informed Leeds that they were watching “on my phone whilst out for a family meal”, “between my fingers”, “from behind the sofa” and “in A&E with access to a defibrillator”.

What promotion would mean, if they hold on, is loyalty rewarded for those who keep turning up at Elland Road, and for those who moved away but tune in from afar, never, ever losing their love of Leeds United.

This article gave my goosebumps, it's as if everyone is trying to wake to giant.

[WALMOT]

Every craze or obsession needs a theme song - music so synonymous with that obsession and always ringing somewhere in the minds of those who live for it.

Marching On Together is that for Leeds United, writes LeedsLive publisher Matt Millington.

It's chorus is tattooed to the inside of the brain of every Leeds United fan, in the part which never forgets.

It is stitched into the strip of every player who takes to the field at Elland Road, and sung by thousands in the anxious moments before every single Leeds United game.

Les Reed, co-creator of Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!, later retitled Marching On Together, is therefore so influential in the Leeds United that followed the song's release in 1972.

His words are ingrained in this club, and in every high and every low experienced over the past five decades.

My first game was in the 2000s, and like every other fan I remember seeing Elland Road for the first time. And when you hear that song for the first time too, sung by over 30,000 fans, you get it. Instantly.

We're in this together, no matter the score, no matter the result.

'We've been through it all together' is one line which means so much more in 2019 than it did in 1972, as if Les Reed somehow knew how much we'd need those words in the years that were to come - the belief that we will make it through everything, together.

The acclaimed song writer penned hits such as Tom Jones' 'Delilah' and 'It's Not Unusual'. Over 50 years later and these pop classics might get a few people up on the kareoke once in a blue moon. Yet Marching On Together gets an entire stadium of fans on their feet. For that, this piece of work in Reed's extensive catalogue of chart successes means so so much more. At least for us it does anyway.

While Leeds United and supporters gear up for the most important weekend of football in arguably 20 years at Leeds, both the club and it's fan base took a moment away from football talk to pay tribute to Les Reed.

Some described the legacy he'd left for our club, others called for fans to sing it even louder in a packed Elland Road on Friday.

No matter the outcome of these crucial weeks ahead, there is one thing that will always remain the same. Like it has from 1972 until now, and from now onwards.

Thank you Les for encapsulating the Leeds United that we were and the Leeds United we were to become. Marching on together, side before self every time.

[MONKMAN]

They've only gone and fucked it.

[jamamafegan]

Just seen the scores. f**k sakes Leeds.

[Christophe]

Can we have some clean sheets for Leeds United please, they have spectacularly shat the bed today!

[Crawford Bridge]

It's going to be some laugh when Villa/West Brom gub them at Wembley.

[Rab B Nesbit]

On 16/04/2019 at 18:45, Diamond8 said:

This article gave my goosebumps, it's as if everyone is trying to wake to giant.

 

[repeat_offender]

11 hours ago, Crawford Bridge said:

It's going to be some laugh when Villa/West Brom gub them at Wembley.

Most of us are fully aware our record in the playoffs is piss poor, if that's how it turns out it'll be just a case of live to fight another day.

[Rab B Nesbit]

5 minutes ago, repeat_offender said:

Most of us are fully aware our record in the playoffs is piss poor, if that's how it turns out it'll be just a case of live to fight another day.

 

[Crawford Bridge]

11 minutes ago, repeat_offender said:

Most of us are fully aware our record in the playoffs is piss poor, if that's how it turns out it'll be just a case of live to fight another day.

You'll be sobbing into your flat cap.

[repeat_offender]

I've seen Leeds fail in the playoffs plenty of times, stretching back to Charlton in 87 and losing the replay in extra time.  Since then there's been Watford, Doncaster and Millwall.

If it comes to the playoffs I'll expect the worse and happily accept anything more positive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[repeat_offender]

1 hour ago, Rab B Nesbit said:

 

We've been through this a few times before Rab, Leeds is my team.

You are either angling or have a short memory, we've been over my attendance record a couple of times on this thread both times you failed to take  up the charity bet offered to you.

[Bishop Briggs]

Is James Milner going back to Leeds in the summer? - https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1116560/Leeds-United-Liverpool-transfer-news-James-Milner-contract-new-kit-promotion-next-season. He was pissed off about being omitted from the new kit launch.

[repeat_offender]

2 hours ago, Crawford Bridge said:

You'll be sobbing into your flat cap.

You need to get up to speed, anybody who's spent a decent amount of time watching games in this league knows Millwall fans are the flat cap merchants these days.

 

[Crawford Bridge]

49 minutes ago, repeat_offender said:

You need to get up to speed, anybody who's spent a decent amount of time watching games in this league knows Millwall fans are the flat cap merchants these days.

 

Peaky wankers?

You'll be kicking your whippets then.