Onwards and Upwards – Hope for 2008/2009
To say the Wembley defeat was one of the lowest points of my life as a Leeds supporter is an understatement. I cannot recall feeling more devastated at a Leeds defeat, where we lost a game of (potentially) such enormous significance in our history. Rangers in the 1992 European Cup campaign, amongs others, is still a particularly painful memory.
But as with all things, time heals and we must move onwards and upwards.
I do not want to provide a lengthy post-mortem for the Doncaster game which has long since passed as a contest. I do think it worth mentioning that in my view the manager's selection was based too much on sentiment. In my last post before the final I suggested that keeping the same team which beat Carlisle over two legs came with the danger that, of the performances in two-legs, we would repeat the under-performance at Leeds rather than the heroics at Carlisle. And, sadly, so it proved.
But this is not something to dwell on; McAllister's judgment was a difficult one to make and I don't think should be seen as inept. Additionally, McAllister deserves enormous credit for our transformation from the stuttering Dennis Wise side of January/February - rapidly running out of the luck that had served it so well during the first third of the season - to the side that finished the season strongly; playing good football and winning consistently and, ultimately this bodes well from a momentunm perspective leading into the new season.
And it is to the new season that we now look forward. At the time of writing there is no indication that any of the “big” players in the squad want to leave which is extremely encouraging and, let's be honest, a bit of a novelty during recent times. There appears to be a determination amongst the squad to show that Leeds are good enough to win the division. Perhaps at long last Leeds United is now an attractive place for footballers to come. It is though a sad indictment of the modern game that a club of Leeds’ stature isn’t enough of itself to bring in players – which I have no doubt it would be in the purest footballing terms; we must be in the right financial position first and foremost. As much as I would like to lament the motivations underlying the modern game this is the reality of football today and we must play our hand accordingly. Hopefully the finances will continue to improve along with the league position, creating a snowball effect of continual improvement and development, in effect making Leeds a “fashionable” club, attractive to players of rival and technically superior sides offering a chance to be a part of something special.
There have been some new signings of course. Andy Robinson should be applauded for taking the step and risk of joining us from League One champions Swansea. YouTube makes us all scouts these days but there are some good highlights packages to watch and he looks a quality signing, something backed up by the reports from the Barnet game. Enoch Showunmi was courted earlier in the season, decided he didn’t want to join us and then changed his mind in the summer. I don’t know a lot about him but one gets the impression from the message boards that his performances in the pre-season games so far have been a bit, well, “Kandol”. One Tresor was bad enough, but two…
Robert Snodgrass has joined us from the wing at Livingston. Apart from having a name derived from 1940s comics he has a good reputation and is ambitious. He could be just the sort of player we need. I just hope he has some pace, something we have been sadly lacking. Additionally we have the current trialists, Canadian Marcus Haber and the Argentinian Luchiano Becchio who seem to be performing positively but the jury is still out.
The average age of our squad has dropped like a stone since relegation to League One, which of course is a good thing. Despite this I cannot help but feel that the time is right for our resurgence to be led by one central figure. Collins and Strachan were the last two players - a little bit older and experienced, thought to be over the hill by their clubs - who were prepared to cut their cloth, drop a division and spearhead an almighty Leeds United revival. If there were ever a time when we were ripe for this sort of influential figure, that time is now.
As always though, this is Leeds United which means that any notion of a straightforward and rosy future can go out of the window and be replaced by nervousness, pessimism and another tortuous season of doing it the hard way! At the moment I am leaning towards a continuation of the problem which fazed us last season – failure in the face of expectation. In the modern history of the club the level of expectation of success has never been as high. Nor has the realisation of that expectation been more significant or indeed necessary. Failure to achieve promotion this year is, quite frankly, unthinkable. The damage it would do to the club would be akin, in terms of the time it would take us to recover, to the damage caused by the Ridsdale excess.
I would say that the gap between us and the top four of the Premier League is about fifteen years as a result of five years outside the Premier League. With that ratio every year languishing in League One puts us another three years away from where we believe, ultimately, Leeds United should be. Thankfully, I still feel like a visitor in the Football League, not a permanent resident. However this cannot be for long and therefore success is imperative before we become institutionalised at this level.
The players therefore have to be able to handle the weight of expectation. We are to this division what Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal are to the Premier League. The main event, the big attraction, the guaranteed sell-out. This year we have no adversity, no “hard done by” stories, a clean slate. So the mental attitude has to be different. It has to be the attitude of winners, so the heads don’t drop if we go a goal behind in a game. And we will go a goal behind in a game from time to time. The players have to be able to dig deep, to deal with being the big scalp, the team that everyone raises their game to. If the players fail to deal with that expectation this season, we may well be here for some considerable time to come.
Marching on Together
But as with all things, time heals and we must move onwards and upwards.
I do not want to provide a lengthy post-mortem for the Doncaster game which has long since passed as a contest. I do think it worth mentioning that in my view the manager's selection was based too much on sentiment. In my last post before the final I suggested that keeping the same team which beat Carlisle over two legs came with the danger that, of the performances in two-legs, we would repeat the under-performance at Leeds rather than the heroics at Carlisle. And, sadly, so it proved.
But this is not something to dwell on; McAllister's judgment was a difficult one to make and I don't think should be seen as inept. Additionally, McAllister deserves enormous credit for our transformation from the stuttering Dennis Wise side of January/February - rapidly running out of the luck that had served it so well during the first third of the season - to the side that finished the season strongly; playing good football and winning consistently and, ultimately this bodes well from a momentunm perspective leading into the new season.
And it is to the new season that we now look forward. At the time of writing there is no indication that any of the “big” players in the squad want to leave which is extremely encouraging and, let's be honest, a bit of a novelty during recent times. There appears to be a determination amongst the squad to show that Leeds are good enough to win the division. Perhaps at long last Leeds United is now an attractive place for footballers to come. It is though a sad indictment of the modern game that a club of Leeds’ stature isn’t enough of itself to bring in players – which I have no doubt it would be in the purest footballing terms; we must be in the right financial position first and foremost. As much as I would like to lament the motivations underlying the modern game this is the reality of football today and we must play our hand accordingly. Hopefully the finances will continue to improve along with the league position, creating a snowball effect of continual improvement and development, in effect making Leeds a “fashionable” club, attractive to players of rival and technically superior sides offering a chance to be a part of something special.
There have been some new signings of course. Andy Robinson should be applauded for taking the step and risk of joining us from League One champions Swansea. YouTube makes us all scouts these days but there are some good highlights packages to watch and he looks a quality signing, something backed up by the reports from the Barnet game. Enoch Showunmi was courted earlier in the season, decided he didn’t want to join us and then changed his mind in the summer. I don’t know a lot about him but one gets the impression from the message boards that his performances in the pre-season games so far have been a bit, well, “Kandol”. One Tresor was bad enough, but two…
Robert Snodgrass has joined us from the wing at Livingston. Apart from having a name derived from 1940s comics he has a good reputation and is ambitious. He could be just the sort of player we need. I just hope he has some pace, something we have been sadly lacking. Additionally we have the current trialists, Canadian Marcus Haber and the Argentinian Luchiano Becchio who seem to be performing positively but the jury is still out.
The average age of our squad has dropped like a stone since relegation to League One, which of course is a good thing. Despite this I cannot help but feel that the time is right for our resurgence to be led by one central figure. Collins and Strachan were the last two players - a little bit older and experienced, thought to be over the hill by their clubs - who were prepared to cut their cloth, drop a division and spearhead an almighty Leeds United revival. If there were ever a time when we were ripe for this sort of influential figure, that time is now.
As always though, this is Leeds United which means that any notion of a straightforward and rosy future can go out of the window and be replaced by nervousness, pessimism and another tortuous season of doing it the hard way! At the moment I am leaning towards a continuation of the problem which fazed us last season – failure in the face of expectation. In the modern history of the club the level of expectation of success has never been as high. Nor has the realisation of that expectation been more significant or indeed necessary. Failure to achieve promotion this year is, quite frankly, unthinkable. The damage it would do to the club would be akin, in terms of the time it would take us to recover, to the damage caused by the Ridsdale excess.
I would say that the gap between us and the top four of the Premier League is about fifteen years as a result of five years outside the Premier League. With that ratio every year languishing in League One puts us another three years away from where we believe, ultimately, Leeds United should be. Thankfully, I still feel like a visitor in the Football League, not a permanent resident. However this cannot be for long and therefore success is imperative before we become institutionalised at this level.
The players therefore have to be able to handle the weight of expectation. We are to this division what Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal are to the Premier League. The main event, the big attraction, the guaranteed sell-out. This year we have no adversity, no “hard done by” stories, a clean slate. So the mental attitude has to be different. It has to be the attitude of winners, so the heads don’t drop if we go a goal behind in a game. And we will go a goal behind in a game from time to time. The players have to be able to dig deep, to deal with being the big scalp, the team that everyone raises their game to. If the players fail to deal with that expectation this season, we may well be here for some considerable time to come.
Marching on Together
Comments
Oops, time for my pills...