Sunday 28 October 2012

Time Running Out For Warnock At Leeds

Bugger April, January is the cruelest month if you are a football manager running a club that has recently been purchased by new owners. Warnock had the full backing of Fernandes at QPR until the January window opened, and suddenly the axe was sharpened at a rate of knots.

Old Big Gob is caught between a rock and a hard place. He wants the take over to happen because then money MIGHT be available to invest in new players; but the earlier the new owners come in, the more likely it is that he will be replaced in January. If Leeds are sitting in mid table by the time the window opens - and Leeds are currently in eleventh and going backwards - the new owners will almost certainly get trigger happy.

The fans are already getting impatient. Sample the comments left on the YEP website and you find the finger of blame pointing less at Master Bates and more at Midshipman Warnock. So one flat cap writes: "Look, let's call the beast by its proper name eh? We were absolutely shiite today, bloody awful and we didn't deserve a single thing from the game today. We are fast looking as though we've run out of gas. Last 4 games we've been awful. I'm starting to wonder if Neil's lost his interest"; (sic)

whilst a whippet owner adds:  "Oh dear! What a sad excuse. Admittedly, Warnock has had little, or no, money to spend but he's rebuilt the team and, so far, it's no better than Grayson's outfits. He's reckoned to be a motivator of players but, over the past four games, they appear to have lacked any form of motivation whatsoever. He also, increasingly, appears to be tactically inept"; (sic)

and a Yorkshire Pudding opines: "I'm sorry Neil but how have you improved the squad? Are we stronger in any department? If GFH have invested £2m and you have income from the sale of Snodgrass and Clayton, why do we seem no better than last season? These sales and buys were your decisions. Goalkeeper was not a problem but this seems to be where you have spent most of your money. You have the bonus of Byram but have let Poleon go out on loan when we are desperate for a striker. Austin and EHD seem improvements on last year's squad but the rest of your buys seems little better that what they have replaced. You will leave us at the end of the season with an aging squad. I am no fan of Grayson but is Warnock an improvement. Perhaps we need to start planning now for next season?" (sic)

These fans, despite their spelling issues, are right of course. Warnock has refashioned the squad in his own image and the squad is utterly and completely mediocre. It's true that Bates has been tight with the purse strings, but have Hull City spent big this summer or Miserablebrough or Palace? Bates has backed Warnock in the same way most Championship chairmen have backed their managers, telling him to build his squad out of the flotsam and jetsam jettisoned by the bigger clubs in the game - clubs like Norwich, QPR, Doncaster and Portsmouth in the case of Leeds seemingly.

All summer I warned that if you pick up players from teams that struggled last season in the Championship then the end result would be, at best, a mediocre team. But Leeds fans insisted differently, claiming the likes of Green and Varney would suddenly become world beaters once they pulled on the famous all white kit. Well it is time to think again. This team is what it is, a collection of journeymen who are journeying nowhere in particular, ambling along the country lanes of mid table obscurity.

And meanwhile, the club is rudderless. Bates just wants his money. Warnock wants even more players but can't even meet wage demands, never mind transfer fees. And GFH /GFC are trusting to the will of Allah whilst employing solicitors to check out every dot on every i and every cross on every t before committing their hypothetical money.

It's all a recipe for disaster. The optimists insist that a few wins will see Leeds back in the mix, but they have yet to break into the top six and two points from the last nine, against very average sides, do not suggest that Warnock's team are benefiting from "gelling". In fact the reverse is happening. The early burst of adrenaline has passed and now these average joes are marking time in the Championship, picking up a wage for what they do second best, winning the odd game, drawing the odd game, losing the odd game. Which explains the position in the table.

But that league position is hardly likely to satisfy owners who claim their business model is based on milking the Premiership cow. Warnock must be sweating buckets, with last January fresh in his memory. How he must wish that Forest had come knocking in the summer, with new owners in place willing to show the colour of their money when the transfer window was actually open!

52 comments:

KevinCebu said...

Wanker.

Anonymous said...

What was the West Ham score? Oh that's right no body actually cares, not even you who reckons to be a supporter!! Oh and the language you use regarding racial (regional) stereotyping in my book makes you no better than the mug who slapped the Wednesday keeper!! Antagonistic fool!!!

Anonymous said...

Have hull spent more than us this summer errrr yeah think you will find they have 2.5 million on one player keep up arse wipe!

Anonymous said...

i see you are back to your usual standard of writing here,trying to wind people up.its a good job you are a nobody and your opinion means f**k all!

is it cos west ham lost to wigan? pahahaha

Anonymous said...

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzz

crusader knight said...

you are really putting the boot in here,but i totally agree with what you are saying

Unknown said...

If the worst were to happen, and Dr Weevil were to be right for once (who can predict which way new owners will jump, after all?) - then we must simply hope that Big Fat Sam hasn't managed to get himself sacked by the Spammers in the meantime. I'd hate for him to be available at a time when Leeds were in the market for a new manager - the last thing we'd need is to be linked with a move for Fergie's Poodle. He's OK at the Bolton/Wet Spam level, but I don't think he has what it takes to be successful with the bigger clubs where expectations are higher than he can cope with.

It's far more likely though that the hapless Doctor W. is as wrong as he usually is, and isn't expecting to be taken seriously. It'll just have been another lame attack on his bete noir Warnock. It must be frustrating and deeply unfulfilling to have such hatred for someone who doesn't even know you exist. Dr. Weevil, it seems, is doomed forever to waste his sweetness on desert air.

Anonymous said...

As a Leeds fan....I do wonder why a W ham fan would spend so long commenting on a bigger club with whom W ham have a bit of history. Still, a very amusing article with some home truths (ouch), Very amusing but back to the jellied eels my friend!

Anonymous said...

marching on together,were gonna see you win

thanks for the continued support hf x x

Anonymous said...

your boyfriend noble was poor today hf! cos hes shit

Anonymous said...

Wigan how embarrassing

Anonymous said...

Your English is quite poor don't you have spell check

Anonymous said...

You keep knocking Yorkshire people for some reason
Why don't they make the m25 a moat and well be all happy

Anonymous said...

When you moving in to the new stadium
Losing against Wigan you'll be using the local park
What a joke you have become over the last few months

Hammersfan said...

LOL What have I been wrong about so far Mr Handsome Atkinson? Where are Leeds in the table and what did I predict? I notice that Forest are now in the top 6 as I predicted and so are Blackburn, Leicester and Cardiff. Wolves are there too and Blackpool are close enough to respond to an Ollie charge.

Are the Leeds players mediocre as I said?

Has the take over happened yet?

Any evidence that GFH / GFC are going to pump megabucks into Leeds?

Think I've been pretty accurate so far, don't you? What have I got wrong exactly?

Anonymous said...

Now we know why you hate Leeds you were looked after as a child by jimmy

Hammersfan said...

Do you not know what sic means 11.20? Your grammar is poor by the way, you needed a comma.

Anonymous said...

I can tell you what you've been wrong about. You've linked Redknapp with every club in England that is going through a bad spell. You deliberately incite supporters of other clubs so you and the only friend you have(headmaster) can get a perverted pleasure from the responses. The worst though is the blatant racism. You will also find that if you keep stating the bleeding obvious on your posts there is little chance of you being wrong. As a writer/thinker you're not even 6th form standard. Totally puerile. Your wife and kids must be so proud of you,or are they scum also?

Anonymous said...

dont make out you know about football...

all of your predictions were obvious to your average 5 year old.


What's your problem?
Leeds dont care about your lot!
Why bother about us? , Warnock has done amazing to get us mid table, take over might be an improvement, thats about it, nothing to report.

I dont see any Leeds fans writing "Knifes out for big Sam" - we don't care !!!!

We don't care enough to spend ages researching what the West Ham fans are saying, and then writing a pointless article about it...

Says a lot more about YOU than it does about us !!

Anonymous said...

um where has HF gone?

This guy seems to be the T*** who was here a while back

The other guy seemed ok.

Bad cop returns...
not a pretty sight

Stevieboy said...

Maybe you should just come to Elland Road and get it out of your system mate! You are really coming across as a Leeds supporter but afraid to admit it!
Feel free to ignore this comment and only comment on the ones you are comfortable in replying to - I wouldnt want you to feel pressured lol!

Anonymous said...

yeah you may well be correct but at least we dont shit our pants when we play millwall.

Anonymous said...

11.20 ignore the pleb! The way he has used sic is wrong, getting on his high horse, should be in square brackets! PLEB! go and write some southern nonsense about west ham and give your weird obsession up with the mighty whites!

Anonymous said...

You predicted Forest would be in the top 6 did you? You and everyone else,here's another obvious prediction for you psycho man,Man City to annihilate west ham next week. We'll see who else has mediocre players then. Put your head between your knees and kiss your arse goodbye or get the headmaster to do it for you. Can't wait for next week. Come on Tevez.

Anonymous said...

Haven't even read the article but chuckled when I read the title. For someone who follows everything Leeds United you know absolutely nothing about football, dont you!!?

Anonymous said...

And yet the whites still go MARCHING ON TOGETHER
TIT

Anonymous said...

Are you still scared to return to the UK 'Hammersfan'? I see they got Gary Glitter this morning, he's a West Ham fan.

Anonymous said...

HF, 11.34. You need a colon, not a comma, after "by the way". Or, a full-stop would also have done.

Anonymous said...

Im so up my arse my tongue tickles my tonsils.

Anonymous said...

Got some valid points , but hey what a tossa

Anonymous said...

Joe (average or not) should surely be spelt with a capital letter.

If one is to be critical of the grammar and spelling of others then one should surely be more careful!

Running one's derision through a spell checker is is clearly inadequate and consistently hoists you up by your own petard - as do West Ham's results!

Anonymous said...

dick

Anonymous said...

Hammersfan the fat, scruffy nonce.

Anonymous said...

Find it funny leeds fans are so easy to wind up.thats what he wants.Just don't read it.I as a Leeds fan find it amusing and he must love reading every response with a cheeky schoolboy smile.

Anonymous said...

That's because you have wrote stuff after its happened !! You said take over wouldn't happen !!!! Big Sam will get the sack before warnock who the f-ck are wigan you will be fighting for survival end of season

Anonymous said...

And you need a slap

Anonymous said...

God this guy just does not know what he is talking about.

lsdn2e said...

Good read & yes the Warnock Myth machine is falling apart. The mongs who populate cinema elland road these days woll be searching for the mext straw to clutch.

Bates Out then the club & fans can start the crawl back to beimg a decent championship team.

Anonymous said...

Your just a soft cockney bastard

Anonymous said...

your boss is a northern lad you were again beaten by a northern team... your a tit lad..

Anonymous said...

Gawd. More painfully desperate stuff!

Awful, awful quality of writing as usual. This man has the literary craftsmanship of a sausage.

It's always amusing to see the author of this blog assuming some sort intellectual high-ground over the people that reply en masse!

If you write a load of garbage, I'm not sure why you'd expect the majority of responses to be anything other than mindless.

Your posts smack of desperation for attention, regardless of whether it is favourable or not.

Surely you don't subscribe to the notion that anyone comes here for a good read!?




Anonymous said...

Lsdn, "mongs"? Classy. Thats the standard of insult at west ham is it. I bet hf will come on and justify your use of that phrase aswell. Pond life the lot of you. Racists to a man and now you use words like "mong". The sooner you get relegated the better.

Anonymous said...

5 days to go and counting,until Man City give you a tanking.

Anonymous said...

"This team is what it is, a collection of journeymen who are journeying nowhere in particular, ambling along the country lanes of mid table obscurity" (sic). Are you talking about Wetspam after their most recent display?

Anonymous said...

Some funny bits there mate. Some of these Leeds fans need to get over themselves and see the funny side instead of biting all the time. Plus you are bang on regarding their situation atm. But don't tell them that. The sand above their heads and around their necks is reassuring enough for them. We were woeful yesterday, but there are at least 3 worse teams than us in the Prem so we can continue to build and move on. Can Leeds say that there are 18 worse teams than them in the Championship? COYI

Hammersfan said...

1001, we would take mid table obscurity in the Prem thanks very much. The issue is that your lot are in the Championship!

Anonymous said...

THIS CRAZY COLIN REMAIN ME GARGAMEL.

Anonymous said...

So you're predicting the takeover will be in place by January?

That's contrary to all your other predictions on when it will happen.

Warnock, has a far safer job than Allardyce. He has already received assurances from the prospective buyers.

Finally Your top 6 predictions ( or actually top '5' certainties you named to be exact ) will be monitored throughout the year. It's hilarious how you shut up about them when so you only had 2/5 in this group up to last week.

Anton #LUFC said...

Interesting? Bet Steve Davis is shitting himself. Ha!

Anonymous said...

what a sad man you are hf!!

the headmaster said...

Exquisite piece as ever, HF. Quite how my appreciation of your art is deemed by the nice Mr Anonymous as perverse baffles me. There was me thinking that to pleasure in the obvious frustration of these angst ridden supporters of the once mighty Leeds United might be viewed as nothing more than banter. Hey-ho. MOT. Come to think of it, mine's due soonish.

Anonymous said...

Headmaster/headgiver.So aswell as having a personality disorder like hf you're a thicko too. Did the brain damage occur when your head banged repeatedly of the headboard when hf was giving you a pounding? 3 days to go until city come to town. You are total scum.