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Leeds United: Time for Ken Bates and Co to listen up
BONE OF CONTENTION: Supporters are angry that Leeds United have spent several million pounds re-developing the East Stand.
The majority of Leeds United fans have, I’m assured, had enough of chairman Ken Bates’ regime.
I know this because I spent hours on the phone last week being told as much by caller after concerned caller.
While such a straw poll can, and no doubt will, be dismissed by the heirarchy at Elland Road as unrepresentative, or the rantings of a vocal, but misguided, minority, the despair everyone I spoke to felt about their club was tangible.
And this, remember, is with Leeds currently sitting just two points outside the npower Championship’s play-off places! The Whites may be without a manager but they are not facing a relegation battle and a return to the bad old days of League One.
Worryingly for the club’s owner, though, the punters have started voting with their feet. The attendance for Simon Grayson’s last home game in charge against Birmingham was just 19,628 – United’s lowest gate for two years – and part of a trend which has seen the average home attendance drop by almost 4,000 this season.
Grayson, who boasted a win record of almost 50 per cent, paid for the recent form and the 4-1 defeat by the Blues with his job and while many supporters who contacted the YEP felt he had probably taken the club as far as he could, all were more concerned at what they saw as a lack of direction and ambition epitomised by the sale of skipper Jonny Howson to Norwich City.
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The fans accept United don’t have millions to spend – no-one wants a return to the Peter Ridsdale boom and bust era – and most agreed that selling an injured player whose contract ran out this summer made economic sense, but there were wider issues to tackle.
They question why Mr Bates is investing several million pounds – money the club didn’t find to buy back its own training ground when it had the chance – to add executive boxes to a ground the club doesn’t own when the team is clearly in need of greater investment and permanent signings.
They want to know if all the money from Howson’s sale was reinvested in the squad via the three loan signings made last month or whether the money has been stockpiled, alongside any other money raised, for use by the new permanent manager this summer.
They want to know why they are paying top-flight prices for second-rate fare, and why the club cannot tie down and keep promising local talent, like Howson, which continues to emerge through the academy.
They accept the need for the phrase “revenue streams” to have entered their consciousness but question why then they have to leave their seats early to stand a chance of getting a half-time pie, even at football stadium prices, and why there are such huge queues in the stands when people are waiting to spend money.
They want transparency over who owns everything from Elland Road to the club’s Thorp Arch training base.
But, primarily, they want their club back or, at worst, the chance to feel part of it again.
The Leeds United Supporters Trust, which has seen a surge in membership, is emerging as a credible vehicle for fans to voice their concerns and is hoping to lead a “campaign for change” at Elland Road.
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LUST, which has highly-respected former United and England goalkeeper Nigel Martyn as its president, is kicking off its campaign with a peaceful protest march from City Square, starting at 1.15pm tomorrow, to Elland Road ahead of the home game with Brighton.
A chance, then, for disenfranchised fans to demonstrate their opposition, and the strength of it, to the current regime once and for all. But LUST, whose membership stands at 2,500, making it one of the biggest supporters trusts in England, insists it is more about working towards a better united future for the football club.
“In the first instance, we want the club’s board to start listening to the concerns of ordinary fans. We don’t believe that they’re doing so at the moment,” said chairman Gary Cooper. “You can see from the crowds that people are walking away and our members tell us they feel increasingly aggrieved and disenchanted.
“Beyond that we want to see more investment on the pitch, to give us a team with a better future and a better chance of getting promoted.
“The Trust isn’t advocating overspending or getting into debt, our vision statement made that clear, but we do feel that the club’s income over the years, and the profit they’ve made, allowed for more to be spent.”
Divide and rule is the oldest tactic in the book but many of the Whites’ faithful have, they insist, had enough of the man they refer to as “Uncle Ken” deriding their opposition and labelling them as morons for raising what they feel are very real and genuine concerns.
Will Mr Bates, who won’t be at the Seagulls fixture, take any notice of tomorrow’s rally?
He’ll insist not, no doubt, and if gates continue to fall he will be able to blame the stay-away supporters for the loss of revenue which will, presumably, lead to the summer sales of the likes of remaining crown jewels Robert Snodgrass and Ross McCormack.
A club in crisis? Possibly. A club riddled by division? Definitely.
A club in need of change? Certainly. A club in need of a hotel and museum? Absolutely not.
The Premier League is what the dwindling band of fans want, and a team worthy of their support. A premier inn can wait.
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Comments
There are 191 comments to this article
Page 1 of 13
original koppite
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 11:51 PMLiam ...as I have told you in previous posts I don't have a view and hell will freeze over before I trawl through a set of accounts to prove the unprovable. Can you not understand that the company belongs to him and he can do what he wants with it but that never concerned me when for thirty odd years I followed the club throughout Europe. We didn't care about such things because it didn't concern us. We were fans and supporters and though every defeat hurt as much as it does today you shouldn't be in sport if you can't take defeat because every time someone wins someone loses. You have to take the rough with the smooth and when you've had plenty of rough the smooth tastes all the better..
OzTyke
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 10:56 PMWhy all of a sudden, when we sell Howson for 2 million according to Peter Lorimer, are we told that it was only peanuts up front and minus agent fees, add-ons and bungs, we'll be lucky to cover the 500K we had to pay entirely in a lump sum for Danny Pugh? Why in the programme notes, the player Bates knocked back was going to cost us 1.5 million over 3 years? How come our costs are quoted as the fee PLUS wages over the term of the contract, yet our income from player sales are quoted as an initial down-payment? We sold Howson for 2 mill, and got Delph for 5 weeks. Time to leave us alone please Kennyboy, it's not funny (for us) any more.
fullerton
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 09:53 AMPersib: No that is not wrong but may I ask this question. Is it wrong for people to want to be able to afford to support their team?
buckstonewhites16
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 08:59 AMThe marchers should be ashamed of themselves - I want Bates out as much as the next man but when my wife and kids have to go in another entrance because the rest of my family had been screamed and sworn at because they were going in the main East Stand entrance then enough is enough! Behaving like this is just what Bates wants - to prove you are morons! Marching does nothing - don't renew season tickets - don't buy anything at the ground (which I bet you did yesterday after burning all those calories on your walk)! DON'T SCREAM AND SHOUT AT OTHER LEEDS FANS BECAUSE THEY SIT IN ANOTHER AREA - MUPPETS!
Liam123
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 08:29 AMOriginal koppite - I just read your last comment, well the comment where you quoted another comment in its entirety without actually saying anything yourself. Well you are running out of excuses now. You will still be happy with another season written off, LUFC going nowhere, and your boss still raking it in. As you say he deserves that £2m in rents flow ER tax free, you never did reply to that comment did you?
Liam123
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 08:24 AMSo we lost a game at home we should have won. 18 games for the real new boss to get us into the playoffs, is now 17. Original koppite and leodis, all is still rosey in your eyes. Redfearns honeymoon is over, he isn't the saviour anymore, exactly as I said when the first loss comes people will ask where graysons replacement is. It just came a lot sooner than expected. Peter lorimer, looking at his article the other day, he made a lot of examples but missed the one out that he had some power over, John carver, looks like redfearn is going the same way.
whitevanman1
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 01:19 AMAnyone come across this? http:www.independent.co.uksportfootballnews-and-commentoutside-the-box-grayson-favour-from-his-son-as-batesbaiting-marches-on-6788094.html
apollo111
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 12:25 AMSorry to say I was not too disppointed as it scuppers the old crook's plans to install Redfearn on the cheap, better to find out now that he isnt the man rather than wait till end of season - now ol Crusty the Clown has to act on recruiting a top class manager all be it from far away in his air conditioned cave in Monte Carlo. There is absolutely no way Redfearn can now be given the job permanently. Would be better off having the Venky's at Elland Road, at least they come to the games once in a while. The 80 year old is worth £150 million - how much will be enough for him? You can't take it to the grave with you Batesy! Don't make that ol git any richer than he already is, stay away from ER!
whitevanman1
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 10:20 PM180 mugsorfanatics Others were actually £5m mate. I wonder how much YR sucks out of the club, and whose pockets it ends up in?
whitevanman1
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 10:18 PM173 allanb78 Sorry about that. The problem is that, under bates, the number of lies emitting from ER leaves most of us in no doubt that something is wrong at the club. He had no contact with the true owners (until the politicains went after him) then he bought the club overnight. He took us into admin with debts of £15m, in admin the debts were £35m. Delph was sold to enable us to buy back TA, until the lousy council asked (at the 11th hour) who they would be lending £6m to. The cheek of it, the taxpayers of Leeds would have been chuffed if the council simply handed over £6m with no surety. Would you lend bates any money? We don't own the ground, yet bates plans to spend in excess of £80m renovating it. Why? Yet we are expected to take all bates bile at face value, after all he saved the club. Sorry, Kwasner and co did that. Bates openly admits that, they were just knackered as to what to do then so bates, sorry some offshore entity, bought it for a song. Kwasner states they got their money back, nothing more. We are financially stable. True, but without all the player sales we wouldn't be. bates retained control because the main creditor was only willing to do business with bates, writing off £18m owed in the process. How many financial institutions do you know who are willing to do that? Unless bates owns said financial institution of course, it is based in BVI where he has history (murky history too). There are so many it's hard to know where to begin. As for transfers, who knows the figures? bates uses so many smoke and mirrors it's not truly possible to estimate.Every player sale plenty of them at ER) he states the money is available for the squad. If so, why so many free transfers, why some 67 loanees, why can't we tie our better players down to decent contracts, if you can explain any of the above, rationally, I am willing to be converted. Original subnorm, have you run out of windows to lick yet?
mugsorfanatics
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 08:25 PM"just put that down as other Shaun, the morons won't understand what it's for"
mugsorfanatics
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 08:24 PMOriginal Koppite - Are you happy with the FACT that in the last set of accounts there was 3 million pounds marked as OTHER. What was that for? Certainly no answers forthcoming from LUFC.
mugsorfanatics
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 08:08 PMOriginal Koppite. £12.3m on playing budget? Are you sure about that FACT you present, or did it include all fees, agents fees, loan fees, wages and all other staff at Elland Road? And this figure has the schmeichel, gradel, howson fees added to it - so how big was it to start with? Or are we bring taken for a ride? Like when Ken compares us to Barnsley does be compare like for like? Our wage bill prob includes YR staff as they somehow managed profit last time round instead of the usual 600700k loss. You think with such an astonishing turn round in fortune Ken wouldn't tell us how he did it and how brilliant he is? Despite official listening figures showing there's the proverbial 2 men and a dog listening. How much does Harvey take of that wage bill? I believe Kens solicitor Mark Taylor has done very well out of LUFC in previous years - did this show on the wage bill?. Read between the lines a bit, read up on Bates previous business dealings, check figures when Ken states them. Remember this is the man who claims that as a selling club we lost 6% of the due to fluctuating currency rates - wasn't the sale price in £s, if not why not? 18 games important to get a new man in? Or is it? They don't seem in a rush. So which player did Ken turn SG down for? Today it was a midfielder total cost 1.6m. 10 days ago it was a CH total cost 600k. Somebody's telling porkies or just making things up as they go along. There's lots of questions, very few answers, and lots of bluff. We just want the truth and to concentrate on the football - cant really do that as we see millions spent on unnecessary stuff and comparitively little on the FOOTBALL side of things. We've banned all outside media? Why is that?
StevieDee
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 06:47 PMOriginal Koppite: The voice of reason and representative of the silent majority!
original koppite
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 06:41 PMLiam...This is the opposite view which you might want to critique........................................................................................................leedsls27 Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 06:46 PM @65: I can't be bothered to critique your whole contribution although you do seem to spend a lot of time stating that you haven't got time to mention something then spend a lot of time mentioning it as well as spending an equal amount of time mentioning things in great detail that you say you weren't going to mention in the first place, but, hay ho. A couple of things though, £90 million on a hotel? Where does that come from? I spend far more time than is probably healthy reading as much stuff as I can about all things Leeds and even when the plans were released regarding the phased re development of ER, including prospective planning applications, consents, budgets etc., I never saw anything that specified £90 million for a hotel? £90 million? The Leeds Arena is only going to cost £80 million to completion so how the hell is a hotel going to cost £90 million? It wouldn't be a hotel in beeston, at £90 million Beeston would be the hotel. Secondly, you state that we had a £27 million turnover in the last financial year, it's now a public fact that Grayson spent in the region of £12.3 million on the playing budget, that's an investment return of 45.6 percent on turnover which is 9.4 percent inside the Financial Fair Play limit being imposed next season, can you see where this is going? As you rightly say our turnover dwarves that of most of the other teams in the Championship but, by direct comparison, so does our wage bill although, admittedly, we do have another 9.4 percent of turnover up our sleeves to play with which equates to an additional £2.54 million a year to spend on the squad if we take it to the max allowed. You, I'm afraid, are typical of the cr@p being spouted by LUST and the ABB, scant regard for fact but loads of figures that don't stack up iced over with a lot of groundless rhetoric to stir up the troops hand in hand with absolutely no idea, not the first clue, what your objectives are, or would be, beyond removing Bates. Embarrassing. Fancy organising a march anyone?
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