Leeds Fans Jumping The Take Over Gun

The excitement is understandable. After so many years in the doldrums on the Bad Ship Bates, there's bound to be unbridled joy at the prospect of a take over, especially when the magic words "Middle Eastern Investor" is thrown into the mix. Suddenly, inevitably, thoughts turn to Manchester City and the Etihad, with flat capped whippet owners dreaming of tabling £50m bids for the best talent around.

The cockiness knows no limits. We are Leeds. Let's all have a disco. Everybody hates us and we don't care. It's hard to sustain even a tiny flicker of sympathy or affection when you read the revolting arrogance being posted all over the web. But we know all about that at West Ham. We came over all West End when the merchant bankers from Iceland bought the club but look how that ended up!

The trouble for Leeds is that, Middle Eastern investors or not, they are in the Championship. Even if they have £50m to invest in a player, a £50m player aint going to join Leeds in the Championship, so immediately they are chasing scraps and cast offs.

And as we discovered when suddenly flush with cash, when selling clubs know you have money to burn, they double the price and add some. And given you are buying second rate anyway, the inflated fee carries no guarantee of success. Look at Dyer, Ljungberg, Quashie, Boa-Morte, Davenport and Faubert!

Want a more recent parallel that's a little closer to home? Look at Warnock's "capture" of Wright-Phillips, Anton, Dyer and Barton!

There seems to be an assumption that Leeds will now be unstoppable, that the Premiership is on the horizon, that Europe is only a couple of seasons away.

Well the owners of QPR are worth a bob or two between them, and they only narrowly missed the drop last season. Look at what Liverpool have spent to achieve mediocrity. West Ham were the big money bully boys of the Championship last season but needed the playoffs to get up.

Of course the take over, assuming it happens, is positive news but Leeds fans should rein back expectations. If the Forest takeover happens too - and that looks more advanced than the Leeds buy out - then there will be two Championship clubs chasing the same limited pool of players, further inflating prices and wages as they compete with each other.

And as we discovered last season, when you are the big fish in a small pond, everybody wants to beat you. Look at how Leeds raised their game when they came to Upton Park and hosted West Ham. Biggest gate of the season at Elland Road? They came to watch the might of West Ham United, the club of Moore, Hurst, Peters and Brooking! It was so much easier for the likes of Southampton and Reading as they were treated as just another team and the atmosphere, in consequence was less intense.

Then there is the danger of a divided dressing room. We experienced that under Turds, with the big money signings on massively inflated salaries, feeding resentment amongst the crude mechanicals living off of salary scraps, with contracts negotiated in advance of the merchant bankers' arrival.

And finally there is that weight of expectation. Our home form last season was dreadful because the opposition set up to frustrate and fifteen minutes in, the home crowd were voicing frustration. As each minute ticked past, so the frustration of the crowd increased, feeding the desperation of the players. You could see our players wilting under the pressure and the opposition growing in confidence minute by minute.

So Leeds fans should calm down and show a degree of humility. The more cocky they become, the more likely they are to end up with a bloody nose. Yes smile but gloating is going too far because the rest of the division, no the rest of foootball, will love it, really love it if Leeds stumble and if the take over gun shoots them in the foot!