So as the reality hits, and we realise that next year we’ll not see certain faces at Anfield, faces we took for granted looking from the Kop looking to the tunnel (even if some of us didn’t really want them there) how do you really feel about losing not just Ged, and maybe other members of the coaching staff to pastures new, but Leeds to the lower divisions?
I’m a 70’s supporter, and that means a childhood spent hating Leeds, Nottingham Forest, and yes Man Utd. I couldn’t be really arsed with the Mancs though, Utd were no real threat to us, unlike Don Revie’s boys in white – the most inappropriate colour for his bunch of boxers to wear.
Norman Hunter – Tommy Smith without the skill, Hotshot Lorimer, Billy the boxing Bremner – taking on our Kevin in fisticuffs… Joe I-look-like-the-Krakken-from-Highlander-Jordan and so on ...
To the young un’s amongst us these names may mean nowt. But to us of them days they were the Keane, the Tony Adams, the Scholes of today. Not to be respected necessarily, but to be aware of. Or wary of. They played hard and dirty. So I grew up hating them. Then suddenly Revie was off to Arabia via the England job and Leeds went downhill as we became Europe's dominant team.
They went all the way downhill (with some minor up slopes) to today where I find at the end of a bizarre season, I almost miss them. Leeds, to me were one of the big clubs in England; I always looked for their fixtures against us. And though I have no love for them at all, they have gone in a sad sad way. It’s a mixture of laughter and pity.
To see a foe vanquished not through effort but through financial stupidity, makes me really sad. And angry at the way footy has gone today.
We've got a Russian buying up players like the kid with the Anderlecht sticker in Panini – buying whole collections cos he can. In contrast Leeds have seemed to have 32 managers unsure who their owner is from one hour to the next and have had 32p to spend. Actually can we have that back?
We've got a manager down the M62 still in his job despite the fact he:
a) utterly ignored the FA all season
b) and the press
c) got his best player banned for most of the season through dimness
d) lost millions on tranfers
In contrast at Chelsea Ranieri is sacked because, or despite the fact, he came 2nd in the League and only reached the semis of the Champions League. Football's gone mad.
I’m glad they’ve gone cos they’re Leeds, Dirty Leeds, but I’m also sad they’ve gone. Because with them goes a bit of my childhood and another piece of how it used to be.
People said last season was a watershed season but it’s this one coming up. This is the start of the new way in life. Liverpool sacking a manager, Man Utd on the way down, Ferguson impotent with rage. Wenger imperious at the helm. Chelsea a sideshow at the circus, Newcastle a spent force and no Leeds.
But wait … what’s this? Norwich in the top division?
How the wheel turns.
© hinesy 2004
