Dudley wrote:Without wanting to sound like a twat or someone's dad (for I am both), and I know there's a massive amount of hindsight involved, time healing old wounds etc, but... it's not all bad. City's time in the third tier and stuttering return to ahem Premiership glory (Barton's penalty against Villa, anyone?) was much more entertaining and rewarding as a fan than our time in the top flight since.

Yep. I actually have looked at City's time in Division Three as a happy example. I was living in Cheshire at the time, had a lot of friends who were blues, they all seemed quite jolly. I went to a couple of games at Maine Road, and all the playoff matches, and it was a heckuva good time.

Difference is (and excuse the still-heavy depression, I've very little perspective yet), City were able to keep 30,000 crowds all the way along, and there seemed to be a unity, the club closed ranks - "like the fans of the invisible man" - and got out of it at the first attempt.

That won't happen at Leeds. Like I said, the worst part of yesterday was watching Leeds fans scrapping amongst themselves. There have been incidents earlier in the season - the rumour that Alan Smith might be coming back on loan was responsible for fistfights on the Kop, and the whole atmosphere is angerness and bitterness and resentment. The game after we'd been relegated from the Premiership was quite jolly, in it's own way, but yesterday everyone just seemed to be pissed off with everyone else.

I think that problem is caused by having Bates, Wise and Poyet in charge. Whatever their credentials for the job - and Wise and Poyet did okay at Swindon - it's poison for the club just because there is no way the support will ever be united behind them.

The season ticket pricing was already announced for next season - relegation means they stay the same. If we'd stayed up, they'd have gone up. Yesterday's ticket was £36 pound. Would I like to watch Leeds in League One? Yeah, I would. Will I pay £36 a game to do so? Will I fuck. It'll be empty next season. If the team doesn't start winning, the gates'll just keep going down. Leeds has always been a rugby city and both the Rhinos and the Tykes are doing great at the moment - nobody will want to bother with a poor Leeds side in League One.

And that side is likely to be very thin. Everyone is for sale, as far as I can tell. We'll start next season with the players from this that nobody else wants, plus the youth squad. We got good money for Kilgallon in January and hardly any of it went on players, and I see that continuing. The youth coming through might be a good thing, Howson got a few games this season so should be ready, but I'm not a fan of the idea of "sticking the kids in, they'll play for the shirt". They'll no more play for the shirt than any other player. Just because they're teenagers means they're more likely to be caught with alcopops outside the Co-op, it doesn't mean they are somehow committed to LUFC.

I'm going on about this a lot. I still feel incredibly agitated and pissed off. I thought it'd be simpler than this, but yesterday was just fucking... fucking.

tommydski wrote:So....baseball?

Heh, I laughed at that. Weren't we promised an arena and an Ice Hockey team in 1996? I want Leeds Lightning!

Sam Allardyce has just resigned as Bolton manager.
Anyone see that coming?

BBC says he's been linked with Man City.

*edit* and Arsenal have scored against Fulham. So far so good for the Hammers.

I have a sneaking suspicion the the Hammers will stay up. They were extremely lucky not to be docked points for the whole Tevez/Mascherano transfer saga. Tevez has been dy-no-mite for the last 7-8 games. So good.

I hope Wigan get relegated, because they don't play nice football and I don't like Paul Jewell's face.

In other news:

Celtic 1-3 Hearts

Good result.

On the news this mornign it was suggested that Leed Utd will be going into receivership later in the week.

Leeds fans, I feel for you. One fucking thing after another.

An FA spokesman said that 'a points penalty' (for going insolvent) would be 'unusual'.

Fingers crossed. Next season's going to be tough enough without a 10 point deficit.

night_tools wrote:On the news this mornign it was suggested that Leed Utd will be going into receivership later in the week.

Leeds fans, I feel for you. One fucking thing after another.

An FA spokesman said that 'a points penalty' (for going insolvent) would be 'unusual'.

Fingers crossed. Next season's going to be tough enough without a 10 point deficit.

Not quite. The FA have said a points penalty for the pitch invasion would be unusual. That'll most likely be a fine.

Going into administration is an automatic ten-point deduction. Rotherham started this season ten points down because of this. The question at Leeds now is, when would the deduction apply?

There's some speculation about whether this is a canny move by Bates. If we go into admin this week, while we're not yet mathematically relegated, it could be that the ten points is deducted from this season, and we start next season at zero like everyone else.

I'm not sure if this is dependant on Leeds coming out of administration this season as well as going into it. Our former director (and now Hull City chairman) Adam Pearson valued the club at £5m at the weekend, and I wouldn't put it past Bates to find another 'new' overseas company that he happens to own to buy us from himself. Or no, sorry, 'Ultimate Force Ltd.' Or 'Romans Heavies Holding', who owned Leeds for a while last season and were in no way a reference to Abramovich from bitter Ken. Or maybe he could find out who own the fucking stadium - since nobody seems to know - and sell the rest of it to them. Sure, there's not much to buy except a pile of contracts for shite players and a sponsorship deal with a skip hire company but someone might be interested.

Meanwhile, Peter Ridsdale (executive chairman of Cardiff) congratulated Adam Pearson (chairman of Hull City) on their victory on Saturday which sent Leeds down with a glass of champagne, and then somehow contrived to make sure the press knew about it. Ridsdale then took the opportunity to go on the B fucking B fucking C and again express bewilderment that people still think any of this is his fault.

daniel robert chapman wrote:

night_tools wrote:On the news this mornign it was suggested that Leed Utd will be going into receivership later in the week.

Leeds fans, I feel for you. One fucking thing after another.

An FA spokesman said that 'a points penalty' (for going insolvent) would be 'unusual'.

Fingers crossed. Next season's going to be tough enough without a 10 point deficit.

Not quite. The FA have said a points penalty for the pitch invasion would be unusual. That'll most likely be a fine.

Whoops sorry. Hadn't had my cup of tea when I heard that.

Nice 0 - 0 Auxerre

And Troyes won against Sedan. Nothing's done yet. 4 games left.

14 Nancy 43 (-10)
15 PSG 41 (-1)
16 Valenciennes 39 (-10)
17 Nice 38 (-4)
------------------
18 Troyes 35 (-16)
19 Sedan 31 (-12)
20 Nantes 30 (-19)

night_tools wrote:Whoops sorry. Hadn't had my cup of tea when I heard that.

Quite alright, my friend. I was still short of coffee when I heard 'administration'. If I had a cat, I'd have kicked it. And then felt even worse.

Right now, Michael 'soft-legs' Owen is playing for Newcastle United at Reading. He's had a goal disallowed for offside, and according to the radio, he's playing well.

daniel robert chapman wrote:Right now, Michael 'soft-legs' Owen is playing for Newcastle United at Reading. He's had a goal disallowed for offside, and according to the radio, he's playing well.

Owen very nearly scored after the first minute, but just failed to get on the end of Emre's cross. He's been on the wrong end of two close offside decisions, but his movement is something we've sorely lacked for such a long time. But for not having played for over 10 months he's not looking so bad. The rest of the side need to lay off sending in all these crosses, as obviously Owen's not got the height for headers. That and the defensive hole must still be plugged. Bramble and Harper already have a few gaffes between them, so it's business as usual, I suppose.

There was a bit of a sideline tussle between the Reading mascot, Kingsley Royal, and referee Mike Riley which resulted in the mascot being shown a yellow card! Has there ever been an instance where the club mascot, or for that matter, any non-playing or coaching personnel, being sent off?