Do you know why fans of other clubs laugh at us when we talk about ever seeing the Premiership again?
It's because for them, promotion is an ambition, but for us it's a delusion.
So many people go on about how they want to see Leeds United "back where they belong". But what if this is where we belong?
What if fighting for scraps in the bottom half of the Championship is the absolute best we can hope for?
We always demand "wholesale changes" and "x number of players needed" but then we make those changes and sign those players and we end up with the exact same rubbish that causes us to make those demands in the first place!
And it's clearly the club that's the problem. Look at the players who apparently weren't good enough for us:
Kasper Schmeichel - plays regular Premier League football with Leicester
Andros Townsend - England international
Barry Bannan - played in the FA Cup final last season with Aston Villa
Alex Bruce - won promotion with Hull
Jake Livermore - see previous
Adam Clayton - currently helping Middlesbrough to promotion
This club seems to drain players' talent, leaving this empty void.
And what happens if Cellino sells up? He clearly doesn't want to sell to anyone who gives a schitt about us so when he does go, he'll just leave us with another broke fraudster who will bleed the club dry and ditch the carcass for another vulture to pick clean.
If Leeds United were serious about promotion, we wouldn't be making ridiculous demands like I mentioned before. We wouldn't be hearing "masters of our own downfall" after every game. We wouldn't have "not good enough" plastered all over the club's Twitter feed. We wouldn't be watching the bottom club in the division running rings around us at home.
Let's just face it, we've peaked. Now we just have to find a way to be ok with it.
Why don't we just give up?
posted on 21/11/15
That's all well and good but what exactly have the Baggies achieved?
Apart from the Championship title in 2008, you haven't had a major honour since the 1968 FA Cup.
In the years since then, Leeds United have won 3 First Division titles, the FA Cup, the League Cup, 2 Inter-Cities Fairs Cups (now known as the Europa League), and made it to the final of both the European Cup (UEFA Champions League) and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and it has been stated that in both cases the reason Leeds didn't win is because the referee was bribed.
So y'know, pick and choose whatever statistics you want.
posted on 21/11/15
West Brom are a yo yo club, and im not having a dig, your most notable achievement was the great escape, no offence
posted on 21/11/15
And a report published last week showed that Leeds's overall win percentage is the 31st best in Europe, not bad considering theirs 20 teams in our top division alone, yet alone the la liga, bundesliga and for a poor championship side. As for West Brom's ranking, I barely have enough numbers on my keyboard
posted on 21/11/15
It is obviously much better achieving the 'Great Escape' and historically being an established Top Level football club as the facts clearly show, than being a definite Second Tier club like LUFC.
Fact, gentlemen, fact but I suppose those who don't wish to see are blind.
posted on 21/11/15
It must really suck knowing that your established top flight club has less silverware than a pitiful second tier club like our's.
posted on 22/11/15
Baggieman, please ignore those fans of ours who take constructive criticism as a personal attack on Leeds Utd. You're absolutely right – we're a 2nd tier club and that's where we belong. If we're going anywhere soon, it's going to be to the division below. I'm amazed and flattered that so many top players and pundits still refer to us as belonging in Premier League. Those opinions are largely based on our past achievements, but we can't live just on memories of the glory years. So Baggieman, all the best to you and your team and may you not have to endure being run by a bunch of incompetents, as we have been and still are.
posted on 23/11/15
Well said Loralorimer and your comments are spot on. It has long been the case that many of your fans consider Leeds to be the equivilent of the Man Utd's and Chelsea's of this world and the sooner they accept they are not in that class, the better they will be thought of as a club.
That said, you have had a rough deal with owners as well as managers and deserve a break which, with any luck will happen in the not too distant future.
posted on 23/11/15
baggieman.....do you think chelsea would be a top club without having the cash injection they got from abramovich once he took over ?....also if you have a look at chelsea's past if it weren't for the late matthew harding they would have been a nothing club....same with man city if they hadn't had the cash from dubai, there is no way on this earth they would be a 'top four' club......we have been royally shafted by owners that we have had especially over the cockroaches period & now mr beautiful cigarette....if we had someone with a bit of ambition instead of imo wanting to line their own pockets we would've been back in the premier league ages ago.....
posted on 23/11/15
Leeds are obviously a big club, you can pick your stats to say otherwise but there are just as many, if not more, to counteract those.
But at the moment we expect too much. We are not a Premier League club. We cannot attract a squad of 23 young, hungry premier league footballers. What we have at the moment is a decent squad that has the ability to be made much better.
There is clearly a lack of confidence and belief among the players. If we had more realistic expectations than "everything that isn't promotion is failure" then maybe that would free up our players to play better.
Losing to Rotherham isn't the end of the world. Yes, we were bad. So were they. Had it not been for a lapse in poor defending we would have taken at least a point and there were points where we should definitely have scored.
In summary, the current squad struggles for consistency because we expect too much of young players like Cook or Mowatt. We put unnecessary pressure on Wootton and Bellusci for constantly making their footballing ability a joke.
At the end of the day we have a squad that I believe could, with the fans full support, achieve a respectable finish in this division and, with investment in the right players, could go on to push the better teams.
posted on 23/11/15
A team with our away record should at least have the same record at home or better which would put us 6th or 7th, major problem for some players playing at ER.