Mighty Leeds Weblog

What Marcelo Bielsa achieved at Leeds United was ‘remarkable’ but his time had to come to an end when it did, according to club legend Ian Harte. By Graham Smyth The left-back, now an agent, represented the Whites 288 times in a nine-season spell that played out exclusively in the Premier League. Having followed closely the club’s return to the top flight under Bielsa, Harte is confident new head coach Jesse Marsch will get the necessary results to maintain the club’s Premier League status. The Argentine’s introduction at Elland Road was pivotal in the ownership’s attempts to restore Leeds to where they were during Harte’s playing days. “I just think that since [former owner Massimo] Cellino, [Andrea] Radrizzani has come in and the structure within the club that’s been established is amazing – the training facilities, the money invested into the stadium, the playing squad,” said Harte, speaking to Freebets.com.“Between himself, Angus Kinnear and Victor [Orta, director of foot...

P aul Merson has been presiding over Leeds United’s Premier League return of late. By Lee Sobot The former midfielder is, of course, a mainstay of Jeff Stelling’s Soccer Saturday panel on Sky Sports News. But two decades ago Merson was still battling it out with Leeds, the frame of the goal twice denying the midfielder as United left Aston Villa with a 2-1 success in January 2001. Twenty one years on, Villa will provide United’s next opponents this month for the third fixture between the two sides since their recent top-flight returns. But the two clubs had 12 consecutive seasons of battles between 1993 and 2004, and Merson’s frustration came in one of United’s final triumphs at Villa Park before going down. Leeds had finished the previous season in third place and were on their way to the Champions League semi-finals the following term, the clash at Villa coming one month after a 1-0 triumph at Lazio. But David O’Leary’s side then lost four of their next seven league gam...

Former Elland Road defender Ian Harte launched an astonishing attack on Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino ahead of last night’s game at Dean Court. Writing in Bournemouth’s matchday programme, Harte hit out at Cellino’s decision to appoint David Hockaday as head coach, criticised the spate of redundancies at Elland Road during the summer and accused the Italian of failing to invest in United’s squad. Harte, who spent more than a decade on the books at Leeds before leaving in 2004, said: “Leeds United is a massive club with an amazing fan-base and it just needs to sort itself out and get back to the Premier League. Unfortunately they are a million miles away at the moment. “When Mr Cellino brought in David Hockaday I just felt sorry for him. Coming from somewhere like Forest Green, if you are asked to manage Leeds United, who would ever say no? “However, it felt like he was just a puppet on a string and it was clear who was pulling those strings. “I think now they need to get a pr...