Leeds United 2013-14 Season – A Final Twist
Right in the Gary Kellys 7/3/14
As the Football League do their best to prevent the sale of Leeds United to Massimo Cellino – right or wrong, the eye has been firmly taken off football by a lot of Leeds fans. A number of fellow supporters have deemed the season over in fact…
The problems? Well.. being hamstrung in terms of ownership – and then funding, that put paid to a solid January transfer window.. Then there's the performances. Leeds travel sickness, commenced under Warnock, was never truly treated. Nor indeed were many of the squad imbalances, lack of pace, creativity, an unreliable defence.
Let’s not get started on the lack of clarity around Mcdermott's role. And yet.. Leeds lie eight points of the play offs with a game in hand on the 6th placed team. How is not quite miraculous, earlier season form helped the points tally, but as per last season, not many of the teams above Leeds is really showing much consistency either.
A silver bullet to most of Leeds problems remains – promotion. And if Leeds can get that sixth place by hook or crook – anything can happen.
Two England U21s have signed for Leeds, and while some have questioned where indeed the money’s come from (its heavily rumoured to be from Cellino) to pay their wages, and indeed why we’ve bothered from some of our more negative supporters their arrival is very positive indeed.
It comes hot on the heels of the departures of Messrs Varney and Green (both on decent wages) to Blackburn and Ipswich respectively. So football's demise was it seems `greatly exaggerated’
McDermott has made decisions on cutting the wage bill, acted on it – and freed up money for better players to come in – much in the same way that he chopped Morison earlier this season. The signings too are not borne out of Gianluca Festas generally Italianissimo approach to football they're both solid young English prospects – both with a track record in the championship of success.
Wickham was prolific at Wednesday 8 goals in 11, and Butland is wasted in the reserves at Stoke (a testament to the general profligacy of the bloated Premier League) Only there can our England no 3 goalkeeper not get a game.
Leeds will profit from their involvement, and we may well see Stewart and Kebe settle more. The involvement of Hunt has shown how limited we are in terms of options up front n recent weeks, Wickham will add physical presence at 6’ 3” and an eye for goal – arguably we now possess a frontline comparable to any of the top 3 sides.
Our defence continues to concern me – especially at right back. Sam Byram is not yet fully fit and Peltier asks more questions than he answers – it’s rumoured Dean Moxey of Palace may well arrive on loan today (taken from the Devon Press) who can operate at right and left back, so it might be that Cellino’s impatience to get going is not going to be held back too much more by the Football leagues procrastination.
What a silver bullet it would be to inflate turnover by an additional £30m a season? To have bought back the ground.. Can we dare to dream again?
Reporter - Matthew Brown-Bolton
As the Football League do their best to prevent the sale of Leeds United to Massimo Cellino – right or wrong, the eye has been firmly taken off football by a lot of Leeds fans. A number of fellow supporters have deemed the season over in fact…
The problems? Well.. being hamstrung in terms of ownership – and then funding, that put paid to a solid January transfer window.. Then there's the performances. Leeds travel sickness, commenced under Warnock, was never truly treated. Nor indeed were many of the squad imbalances, lack of pace, creativity, an unreliable defence.
Let’s not get started on the lack of clarity around Mcdermott's role. And yet.. Leeds lie eight points of the play offs with a game in hand on the 6th placed team. How is not quite miraculous, earlier season form helped the points tally, but as per last season, not many of the teams above Leeds is really showing much consistency either.
A silver bullet to most of Leeds problems remains – promotion. And if Leeds can get that sixth place by hook or crook – anything can happen.
Two England U21s have signed for Leeds, and while some have questioned where indeed the money’s come from (its heavily rumoured to be from Cellino) to pay their wages, and indeed why we’ve bothered from some of our more negative supporters their arrival is very positive indeed.
It comes hot on the heels of the departures of Messrs Varney and Green (both on decent wages) to Blackburn and Ipswich respectively. So football's demise was it seems `greatly exaggerated’
McDermott has made decisions on cutting the wage bill, acted on it – and freed up money for better players to come in – much in the same way that he chopped Morison earlier this season. The signings too are not borne out of Gianluca Festas generally Italianissimo approach to football they're both solid young English prospects – both with a track record in the championship of success.
Wickham was prolific at Wednesday 8 goals in 11, and Butland is wasted in the reserves at Stoke (a testament to the general profligacy of the bloated Premier League) Only there can our England no 3 goalkeeper not get a game.
Leeds will profit from their involvement, and we may well see Stewart and Kebe settle more. The involvement of Hunt has shown how limited we are in terms of options up front n recent weeks, Wickham will add physical presence at 6’ 3” and an eye for goal – arguably we now possess a frontline comparable to any of the top 3 sides.
Our defence continues to concern me – especially at right back. Sam Byram is not yet fully fit and Peltier asks more questions than he answers – it’s rumoured Dean Moxey of Palace may well arrive on loan today (taken from the Devon Press) who can operate at right and left back, so it might be that Cellino’s impatience to get going is not going to be held back too much more by the Football leagues procrastination.
What a silver bullet it would be to inflate turnover by an additional £30m a season? To have bought back the ground.. Can we dare to dream again?
Reporter - Matthew Brown-Bolton
